Barrier Aggression and Frustration

We had a gate that we'd use to confine our puppy to one spot when we had to leave him. He didn't like it at all. We keep him in the basement because he's not yet housetrained but sometimes during our dinner we'd lock him up in the gate he'd hit the gate with his own body. He also kept escaping. He's such an escape artist. He'd crawl over the top or jump over but he'd somehow get out. We then leashed him to our ping pong table which is far from the gate. When we came down he had wrapped himself up in the table and had peed on the floor and tried to cover it up with some paper. In the end, we finally got him a crate which worked much better. I don't know if it was just the separation or the gate itself. He's a siberian husky and he was about 8 or 9 weeks old. He's only 12 weeks right now and i havent used the gate again so I don't know how he'll react.

I don't have any expierence with this or ideas or suggestions but I am interested - you never know when that could happen.  Good topic Anne.

 

I'm not sure if this will help or is even what you are asking about but Kobi, (5yr, Aussie, Male) will not cross any barrier I create be it a gate or a piece of string. Flashback to when he was a very young pup - I used a baby gate to keep him from going down the basement stairs, mainly because that was where our cat would go to escape his annoying puppy play. The gate was one that you had to extend and lock in place to secure it. As we were constantly going up and down the stairs ourselves, the gate was more often than not simply extended and placed unsecured. On more than one occasion the gate fell - never on the dog, but the noise scared him for sure. He would avoid going anywhere near the gate. Which to be honest worked out just fine. I could move the gate to any area I wanted to restrict access to and he never challenged it. As he grew I discovered that this was not only true of the gate but any object that I would use to block an entrance. I could lay down a stool, place a cushion on the floor or even lay a skipping rope across the floor and that is still true today. He will lie next to the object but never cross over it. There is definitely no aggression towards the objects. Frustration? I guess at times, especially if I have company over and I decide to block him from the family room.

The only time I have seen real discomfort and stress with Kobi being confined or restricted was with his crate. He hated it, hated it, hated it! I eventually gave up on even using it and instead gated off the mudroom for him to sleep as a puppy.  

 

Emma has been "kennel shy" to an extreme, for several years. She is a 4 1/2 year old Parson Russell Terrier from the local shelter. She was teased, by someone I worked with, while she was in a kennel. I didn't find out about it til Emma BIT her. Years later, we're dealing with the consequences of the stupid coworker's actions.

Emma used to attack the front of any cage she was in when people walked by. She has an injured tooth, from attacking chain link fences and crates. She has gotten significantly better in the last year and a half or so, and is now safe to be in a pop up crate in a busy grooming shop, or at a dog show. I still wouldn't have anybody reach in for her (in fact, she recently flashed teeth at a vet tech when she was under sedation... for reaching in after her, LOL!), but anyone can put her into a kennel with a command.

 

I haven't done a whole lot of work on the actual barrier aggression. I've been working a lot on obedience and confidence building, with her. I've worked some on her separation anxiety. A pleasant side effect has been the gradual softening of her barrier aggression. She's also gotten much better with other dogs. With Emma, it was obviously a case of "the best defense...".