Our 7 month old puppy jumped over our gate yesterday, we bought the tallest pet gate we could find. He was ok today but then jumped over it once today. Now what? Will this pass? What do we do when he does this?
Hi @mom2labs Unfortunately it will not pass. Jumping fences is self-reinforcing. You will need to start teaching the dog a boundary. The boundary will be an imaginary line between two flags the dog cannot cross. It is possible to do it positive reinforcements but it will take some time. Here is something to work with. https://www.petsbest.com/blog/boundary-training-no-fence/ https://www.shepped.com/boundary-training/ Until you teach boundaries you will need to keep him on a long line because you do not want the habit of fence jumping to become ingrained. The alternative is to build a higher gate or hire a carpenter to build one for you.
Like Michael says, once dogs have learnt that it is physically possible to get over a gate or fence or barrier, they are going to keep attempting it. Because they know they can do it. A lot of the barriers people use in their home are more psychological barriers than physical - dogs COULD probably clear them, but have grown up not doing so and they assume it's impossible and never try... Really, you are going to need to invest in an even taller gate. I'm assuming this is an indoor gate situation? You may need a closed door, instead(!). Or more use of a crate when you can't supervise. Is this a gate the pup has grown up with from 8 weeks? Usually they don't attempt to get over those because they've grown up knowing it's impossible. If you introduce a gate at a later age the dog will simply take it as a challenge and rise to it(!).
