Help kitten afraid of using Cat Flap!

[Good2Goooooo]

Our kitten who is now 9 months old is afraid to use the cat flap.
We think it stems from our dog barking at her in the beginning when she tried to use it .
The dog used to do this at our last cat , as a game but this new kitten is to sensitive.
Please can anyone give us any advice on how we can overcome this situation?
Thanks ☺️

Maybe tape it open for a bit to get her used to going through?

Was going to say tape it open too. And sit on the other side with some Dreamies!

Thanks, we've tried that though & she still is very hesitant.
Maybe try again with a barrowful of dreamies

Thanks though xx

Definitely tape it open. Try a really high value food that they can smell - something like roast chicken or tuna that she doesn't usually get

Have you tried taking all pressure of her to use the cat flap?

Forcing an animal (including through bribery with food) to confront their fears can backfire. Once pressure is taken of them, they often investigate the scary thing at their own pace. It might help if you keep the dog away from the cat flap for the time being.

And maybe just give her curiosity time to get the better of her. Sooner or later she'll spot something squeaky or chirpy and she'll have enough motivation to do it.

Also, is the flap low enough to the ground for her to step through easily? My cats were wary of having to jump a bit so I put a box on the garden side of mine.

How could we possibly advise without seeing a picture of said kitten?! YABVU, OP.

Tie up the flap. Put a box (open both ends but cavelike so it’s large enough for her but not him) inside the kitchen in front of the flap so she can come in and hide from the dog until she knows the coast is clear. You could lean the flap on top of the box so it’s out of the way.

Keep the dog away from the kitchen for a while so there’s no barking to scare her.

Yes you’ll need to move it to get in and out the back door but she will get the hang of it soon.

Thank you so much .
I will defo try the cardboard box trick!
Thanks to everyone for their advice 👍

We taped the flap open and put a small coffee table in front of it with a throw over to form a safe little tunnel in and out. It worked a treat but the cats enjoyed Narnia so much it took a long time to get the others back to just using it normally once the table tunnel was gone!

“Narnia”. Brilliant

We got cat near it and took his paw to push the flap then he would follow through.
I did buy a step from argos to make it less deep on the outside.