A couple of hours ago, my puppy (three months old) got near the baby gate used to keep him in the family room, and it fell on him. Now he won’t even go near it. This is a problem because going to the gate and whining is his signal to me that he needs to go outside. I tried standing on the other side, and putting treats through the slats, and he got a couple of feet from the gate, then ran away whining without taking the food. If it starts rattling (like when someone opens it) he starts yelping and hides. Any suggestions?
Patience. 
Keep doing what you’re doing. Lay the baby gate on the floor next to his food dish, don’t coddle him when he acts scared, since that will reinforce the fear. Have a happy conversation with the baby gate yourself. The baby gate is Our New Best Friend. Tell him he’s silly for being scared of it. Pet the scary baby gate in his presence and don’t make too big a deal of his fear.
Reward him at his comfort level - if he gets to a couple of feet away, reward him there instead of making him go right up to it.
Sounds silly, I know. Puppies can go through fear periods at about that age and will get startled by things easily.
You already taught him a very powerful lesson about the gate although it was unplanned. Those lessons are how all creatures learn how to protect themselves and it is very powerful and gets embedded deeply.
You won’t be able to undue it right away. It will take a steady stream of encouragement and many more experiences with the gate to for the puppy to learn that the gate is not, in fact, a dog crushing mechanism. I was playing with my MIL’s standard poodle when it was a puppy and I believe he will he will forgive me one day even though 11 years later he still hates me.
You simply have to provide enough positive experiences with the gate to overcome that. It could be days or years.
Not too put to fine a point on it, but why bother? The dog will still whine or exibit signs that it needs to go out. Furthermore, you should be training the dog to go when you are ready for it, not the other way around.
Anyway, if you continue to treat the dog well, the gate incident will be completely forgotten. If it is not, you have an extremely nervous animal that will just do this with some other object like the vacuum anyway.
CJ
Thanks for the answers. We started doing the things you all suggested last night. I certainly hope that it’s not a matter of years. It only took him a few days not to be afraid of dogs that bark (although they never hurt him) so maybe he’ll be a fast learner this time too. By the way, what did you do to the dog that made him hate you for so long Shagnasty?
As for why I’m bothering, 1. He’s all ready using one sign, and I don’t want any training setbacks because I couldn’t get him out in time. We all ready have a few set “going out” times, but if he needs to go in addition to those times, and he’s let me know, I see no reason not to take him out. Since he does well holding his bladder when no one is home, and we practice sitting and waiting at the door while his leash is connected and the person walks out I don’t see any harm in letting him go when he needs to. I don’t see it as any different than bell training.
Well, it sounds like he is doing awfully well for a three month old pup!
I got one of my Rottweilers from the shelter as a teenager, and she had a pretty horrific start to life from what I know of her history. She is about 6 now. She’s very squirrely and nervous - don’t know how much is congenitally “weak nerves” and how much was just a terrible upbringing. Anyhow she is pretty damaged. But very sweet.
Anyhow, she remains scared of new things. I moved from the country, where the dogs had 1/3 of an acre to play in, to the city with a small yard. I started taking the dogs for daily runs so they’d get plenty of exercise. Daphne was scared of everything in the city - a lone tricycle on the sidewalk about made her pee her pants.
It’s taken her a while to get confident about Scary Tricycles and such. Lots of walks with treats on hand. I’m sure the people around here think I’m the crazy Dog Lady (well, I am.) I would stop and have conversations with Scary Tricycles, Scary Mailboxes and Scary Rose Bushes.
“Look, Daphne, the Mailbox is our friend! Look, I can touch it and it won’t bite me! Have a treat, good dog.” Wash, rinse, repeat.
Even very nervous dogs can learn to relax if you don’t force them out of their comfort zone too fast. Your pup will be just fine.
Thanks for the encouragement. It’s nice to hear from someone who is making progress in a situation that’s worse than mine. I think the fact that he’s so young helps, since he’s not really set in his ways yet. We try to give him lots of socialization while he’s young, since he’s all ready shown himself to be a bit cautious.
Good for you for giving Daphne a better life.
Depending on what method o’ training you like… if you’re into food rewards… run and buy a copy of “Don’t Shoot The Dog” and any clicker book by Karen Pryor, get a clicker and a bunch of high-value treats… problem solved in no time.
My aussie pup was scared of two of my puppets that were hanging on the wall. I took them down, and he barked and hid… so I pulled out a clicker and some treats (and this dog is NOT food motivated!) and within 20 minutes he was dragging the puppets around, fetching his favorite toy from on top of 'em. Now, no problem.
Good luck with the pooch!
Elly, dog trainer and operant conditioning fan.
Elenfair I had typed a very similar post, including a reference to my favorite training book Don’t Shoot the Dog. But on preview I saw your post and so I guess I’ll just say ‘Ditto’.
I am a huge fan of clicker training and have had some success with it.
My eldest dog, Bean is very stubborn about what she’ll accept, and what she’s decided to fear. She’s been that way since she was a pup.
Case in point: I bought her a dog house. It was a very nice dog house, too. I intended to employ it while I was at work; I had visions of my happy dog out on a line in the yard, flopping down into her house if there was an inclimate shower.
She took one look at it and refused to go near it. She’s a big dog and I’m a small person: so I crawled into the house to show her it was a great place to be. She did not follow my example. I put treats in the house. I put treats near the house. Nothing doing. I pulled out the Big Guns, and put a hamburger in the house. She looked longingly at it, but would not budge.
The house sat in the living room for a week, as I was hoping she’d get acclimated to it. I put her food bowl in there: she fasted for two days. I put her favorite toys in there. She played with others.
Finally, I decided enough was enough. She hates getting rained on (won’t go out if it’s raining, actually) so I out the house outside, attatched the line, and went to work as I had planned. Every day I would come home and see her sitting as far away from the house as the line would permit.
That fall, we had a freak sleet storm, and that night, I was late coming home from work. When I pulled up, I saw in the glare of my headligts Bean sitting hunched, as far from the house as she could. Her fur was coated with ice, and she looked utterly miserable. (I actually had to use a hair dryer to thaw her out.)
She won. I gave the house to some friends, and kept her indoors while I was at work.
She did the same thing with a resivoir waterer. It was one of those types with a jug on top that looks just like a water cooler for people. I thought it was the neatest thing, and it would save me having to fill her bowl constantly. She wouldn’t go near it, even when I put a slice of pizza on top of it. I’d told Hubby the story of the house, but he insisted that no dog would dehydrate itself if water was available-- she’d drink from it when she got thirsty enough.
Three days later, we surrendered, afraid she would die if she went any longer without water.
Our dog was abused before we got her and is mortally terrified of bodies of water (bath time, fountains, etc) and of laundry baskets. You can take a swing at her with your fist and she’ll lean into it, tail wagging, but you pick up the dirty clothes and she whimpers and hides behind the bed.
Never gotten her over them, but never really had a need to, either.
Good luck with your pup.
** Be absolutely sure it is well anchored to the wall. A second disaster will not likely ever be undone!**
Thanks for the suggestions and well wishes. I’ll look into clicker training, and I’m definitely going to make sure that the gate is secure (someone had to have disconnected it last time).
And Lissa, Wow, that’s a whole new level of stubborness. My pupy didn’t care to use his original water dish, but that was because his ears would fall in and get wet. Problem solved by getting a smaller bowl. Three days without water. Geez. Dogs are strange.