Ugh...I need your help!!! Anyone else's dog a "jumper"?

Anyone else's dog like to jump over things no matter how high or low? During the day we have been keeping Oreo contained in the kitchen because we work too long of a day to keep him crated the whole time and have no one local to let him out. We keep him contained via standard baby gates that block off the enterances to the kitchen. He discovered around 6 months old that he can jump over those when placed normally. So we raised them up and put a barrier under them (was raised about 4-5 inches). Well, now he has discovered that he can clear that too. The past 2 days we have come home to him bounding down the stairs to greet us. Food and water dishes in the kitchen untouched and wee wee pad un-peed on. He does not have accidents in the house when we find him. My guess is he spends the day sleeping on the couch. Ok, so I am at my wits end. Do I:

1) invest in taller baby gates and hope he does not jump over those.
2) crate him since he was able to hold his bladder/bowl the days he has "escaped".
3) let him roam the kitchen and living room only (close doors to the bedroom and bathroom).

????

Here are my issues w/ each of these:
#1: baby gates can be expensive and I don't want to keep on investing into these and have him keep getting out anyway. If they have tall ones w/ vertical bars instead of the criss-cross type, it may be better, assuming the gaps are small enough so that he can not poke his little head through and get stuck.

#2: I feel is cruel. We are gone for about 8.5 hours on our longest days and that is a long time to go without water or a pee break IMO. God forbid there is traffic and we don't come home on time

3) My biggest concern, although he has not done this yet, is I am affraid he will chew wires. We have them as tucked away as possible, but it's impossible to completely hide everything. I also live in an apartment. Although we have a "do not enter" policy, I'm affraid someone will enter and stupidly leave the door open and he will take off running. Although, I suppose we can put up a gate by the stairs.

So, my question is, what would be the best bet here?

To help with the decision here is a little info about him:

He's 11 months old
He weighs 12 pounds (havanese)

Help!!!!

Re: Ugh...I need your help!!! Anyone else's dog a "jumper"?

mine doesn't jump the baby gates yet and that's what we use when we are around.....but during the day we keep him in an exercise pen. we found one at petco and used an online coupon. it was relatively inexpensive. At the store it was double the price.