[Dutchy]

Hello everybody! Got a 15 week old female pup. She is very obidient, training is going excellent and she's doing very well.

I have her spend most of the time in the kitchen to help with her bite inhibition training and to limit her access through the house while going through her teething stage. The kitchen is blocked off with a baby gate.

She is jumping onto the baby gate. At first, she was very responsive to verbal commands to get down, but she's smart enough that she figured out that the attention, even negative, is still attention and she's increasing the frequency of this behavior in the times when she has to be left alone or when leaving her as part of her bite inhibition training when she's getting to crazy.

Ignoring her or turning my back to her when she jumps as I approach has shown some success. But if I'm doing anything "interesting" like say opening a delivery box that just arrived, shes all over the gate. I've even caught her jumping in such a way that she trying to jump over the gate.

She's 30 pounds already, she is very quickly going to be able to knock the gate down. And I want to keep her in the kitchen during the remainder of her teething and then probably during her periods. I believe GSDs shouldn't get free roam of the house until they are matured.

Is there any ingenious ways out there to keep her off the gate? Tonight I tried putting some tape, sticky side out, wrapped around the top bar of the gate. It worked a little but but she went right to trying to rip it off. I don't want her ingesting packing tape so I think I'm going to remove it.

Any other ideas how I can stop this behavior because she breaks down the gate or breaks it and possibly hurts herself? I feel like there's gotta be a Macgyver style answer to this.

 

[Sabis mom]

Tinfoil. Draped over the gate so that it makes nasty noise. Do it under supervision though because I did have a Coonhound pup that tried to eat it.
I have also had success with putting it on the floor in front of the gate. And it worked to keep my Dane off the couch.

 

[dogma13]

This may or may not work for you but so far it's been effective for me over the years.I lean the wooden gates against the doorway instead of bracing them against the door jambs.If it gets knocked down it makes a horrible clatter and the puppy is startled and backs off.They learn quickly not to touch it to avoid the clatter.None of them are afraid of the gates but they choose to avoid the unpleasantness.The same principle as Sabi's foil solution.
As the puppy gets older of course and gets really pumped up about something he could muscle through it or hop over it and that's when the obedience training comes in.A wait here or stay command.

 

[Cassidy's Mom]

What about crating her when you're not there instead of gating her in the kitchen? When you are there, it seems she's jumping on it because she's separated from you and wants to be with you. So let her, when you can directly supervise.

Keeping her put away in the kitchen isn't really training her how to behave in the house. It's not going to help her learn what is hers - toys, bones, balls, that she can chew or play with, and things that are off limits. Eventually, you're going to need to address those things, so why not start now?

 

[Aly]

I've used @dogfaeries' "propped up" methods for years. Nervous visitors come in, see these 2-3' gates, look at the dogs and immediately say, "That ain't gonna work!" LOL! But it does; dogs don't like the noise and quickly learn to give the gates proper respect.

The only exception was an extremely unusual circumstance. A impaired stranger attempted to enter my house at 4 AM with his own (obviously nonfunctional) house key. The dogs immediately took notice and simply knocked the gates down on their way to confront a potential intruder. The funny part was that neither of them would walk over/near the fallen gate once the police left (with intruder) and the furor had died down.

Aly

 

[Dutchy]

Tinfoil. Draped over the gate so that it makes nasty noise. Do it under supervision though because I did have a Coonhound pup that tried to eat it.
I have also had success with putting it on the floor in front of the gate. And it worked to keep my Dane off the couch.

I considered tin foil but that would be my concern too, is her grabbing it and eating it. I'll take a broken gate and a scuffed wall over thousands of dollars of stomach surgery!

This may or may not work for you but so far it's been effective for me over the years.I lean the wooden gates against the doorway instead of bracing them against the door jambs.If it gets knocked down it makes a horrible clatter and the puppy is startled and backs off.They learn quickly not to touch it to avoid the clatter.None of them are afraid of the gates but they choose to avoid the unpleasantness.The same principle as Sabi's foil solution.
As the puppy gets older of course and gets really pumped up about something he could muscle through it or hop over it and that's when the obedience training comes in.A wait here or stay command.

I might have to try that, it makes perfect sense! I don't think it'll work with the gate I have because the pieces of the gate only hold together when they are wedges between two walls or a door frame. Plus the swing gate probably won't work without the gate pressure that's needed to latch the lock mechanism. But perhaps I could look into using something else!

What about crating her when you're not there instead of gating her in the kitchen? When you are there, it seems she's jumping on it because she's separated from you and wants to be with you. So let her, when you can directly supervise.

Keeping her put away in the kitchen isn't really training her how to behave in the house. It's not going to help her learn what is hers - toys, bones, balls, that she can chew or play with, and things that are off limits. Eventually, you're going to need to address those things, so why not start now?

Crating her a bit more might be a good option. And thanks for the other feedback! I didn't mean for it to sound like she's exclusively in the kitchen. I do almost all of my training sessions and some tug and balls sessions in other parts of the house. She just doesn't get free unsupervised roam of the house EVER. And you're absolutely right about what they need to learn is off limits. I purposely leave my tennis shoes and other items out and about to give good leave it and drop it opportunities. It has been paying dividends! It's even helped outside as well when she picks up random stuff off the ground! So definitely great advice!!!