[yorkietalkjilly]

She's developed some fear associate with going through that narrow part, perhaps associated with some sound she heard when going through or something she smelled that was odd. She could have seen a shiny piece of cabinet handle or appliance. Sometimes a dog will become fearful of lights and shadows, shiny things. Some are scared of shiny floors and avoid them at all cost. But it could be anything that glinted or unexpectedly reflected light. Anything can trigger a fear reaction and pattern. If you could change her things to a different part of the house for a while that allows her to change up her associations that might help. There is the theory that "resting" the dog's mind and reaction pattern from the thing that scares it and then re-introducing it step by step can help break a new fear pattern if done early on.

Otherwise, daily and repetitive walking her through the area, on the leash if necessary, and coaxing her with actual meat - fresh boiled chicken or turkey hot dog bits - just in front of her nose and giving her a reward for every few steps should start to desensitize her to the thing in there that she is fearful of.

If she balks or avoids the meat treat in front of her and doesn't advance to get it, just keep matter of factly walking her through(technique on a way to do that below) and then a big reward, treat when she's out of the room. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Break. Take her outside into the fresh air and let her decompress. Have a play session. In another hour, do it all again. Repeat X3 after the first walkthrough and break-time outside. Keep the sessions short and don't talk to her or coddle her while walking her through. Just matter of factly leash her, have the treats at the ready and hold them in front of her as you quietly coax her in there or, if she's having none of that, use this technique to walk her through: Just gently keep pulling her through at first on her harness, little by little, not in one long pull. Pull a bit and when she is forced to move her feet forward a few steps, pause. Then pull a bit until her feet move forward a few steps, pause. No talking, just smile in case she looks up at you, though you aren't looking at her at all. Keep on until you are through the narrow part and then a huge party session and treat. Repeat the three times and outside for a nice play romp and decompression. Each hour do the 4 pass-thru's and break. The breaks will teach her that even though it is scary and bad, it's only those few times and then she gets to go out and play and see a happy, joyful mommy happily rewarding her with a lot of fun outside.

Also, after she's become fairly used to many daily walking sessions through the area, start tossing a few meat treats on the floor in there from time to time when she's not around to see you do it so that she will happen on this serendipity in that scary area and hopefully making her want to go in after them on her on. Keep repeating this once you find she's been in there and eaten one or two. This will help her start to go in on her own. I would make the treats part of her dinner and also then begin to spread her kibble all out on that area of the floor for a while so that she is eating her meals all in that area, piece by piece, right off the floor. If she eats canned dog food, I would put it on bits of wax paper or something but spread it all out so that she slowly has to walk through every part of the area on her own in order to eat her dinner and start to associate the whole scary area with her food intake. Also, draping some towels or tablecloths over the cabinet so that they hang down and over things that are in there might change up the appearance and help to relieve her past bad associations with the overall look of the area, which could be part of what is scaring her.

You also might change the scent in that area, placing some pungent potpourri like eucalyptus or something strong like that on the kitchen cabinet in order to change the smell some.

Some things like that might change things in there up enough to disorient her from the things that had her discombobulated and scared and together with eating her meals throughout the scary part and the frequent walks through over and over and over, she should start to accept that part of the house again little by little.

Really let her get hungry and thirsty before doing this the first time using the meat treats. Fast her for a time and be sure she is so hungry she will actually take chances in order to get that treat - that will set her up for the most success.

Try these things if you want and just see if some or all of this won't work for Luma. Good luck.