Can anybody help? I have just bought my 10 year old terrier and dog flap to allow him access to the back garden 24 hours a day but especially when I am not at home. He will go through it reluctantly when I encourage him through with a treat but just looks at it and growls and walks away with his tail between his legs when I encourage him through when the flap is closed. He does not understand that he can just push the flap open to go through it. Does anybody have any ideas of what I can do so he can use it of his own free will?

I would put him one side of it and his food the other ;)

Melody

I have tried this with treats but he is still scared of it. I will try it with his dinner tonight and see how that works. Thanks very much.

When we had our Cavalier we had problems initially, he didn't like the head long leap - of unceartinty. I built a step for him so he was at a similar level to the door on both sides and he could gently push it open and view what was on the other side before comming through. It became very necessary when our daughter started crawling because she was often in the way!

We used to prop it open to get him used to going through the oopening then closed it and called him through etc. He got the hang of it fairly quuickly

Give it time and he will get used to it !

Lucy

I think a step is a very good idea. Fortunately my dog is driven by tennis balls and food as are most other dogs. Thanks for the good ideas. I will keep you posted.
Claire

Thanks to everyone for their advice. I put a step outside and bought some very tasty sausages and he is quite happy to use the dog flap now. It has taken him nearly two weeks, but it was worth persisting. Thanks again.

Excellent news :D

Don't give him too many treats... you'll need a bigger flap! :)

Al

LOL !

Good news though !

Lucy