Stairs

Does anyone have a dog who will not do the stairs in their house. We rescued a pug last summer and she will not do the stairs in our house. We thought at first it was due to past trauma but now she has been with us for almost a year and she will still not climb the stairs - up or down? We live in a cape and she gets upset if we are all upstairs and she is down but she won't climb so we have to carry her.
Any advice?

Re: Stairs

Do you have a runner or carpeted stairs? My dogs are afraid of hardwood stairs and only come up if carpeted.

Re: Stairs

The stairs are carpeted.

Re: Stairs

I rescued a German Shepard who never had to use stairs...she was 6! She went up fine, but would constantly fall going down.. it was sad, but comical. I had to train her to go down slowly.

In your case, I would 'train' her to do them..

It will take alot of patience... but put a leash on her and sit on the bottom step... and with a treat - guide her up the first step, then reward... then the next... eventually she will do it on her own w/o the treats, but at least it would be a start.

Stairs

I have a 20 month old Papillion. we adopted him in Feb. He will go up stairs, but will not go down. We thought it was because he is so small and would be top heavy going down. We just carry him down the stairs when it is an issue, but we mostly do everything on one level in our home. Most he will do is 2 steps at a time going into our backyard.

Re: Stairs

yes we rescued a Pomeranian and she won't go down the stairs. they are carpeted and not too steep.

she also is weird with the wood floors. She will walk up to our bedroom but won't go in it. When we go to pick her up, she goes all the way back to the carpet in the living room to pick her up.

I hope one day she gets over her fear.

Re: Stairs

We rescued a 3 legged dog. She didn't do the stairs for the first 5 months or so she was here. Then she would fall down them. She is good now and can often be found laying on the steps to be able to see out the window.

Re: Stairs

This is a funny subject at my house. My dog will NOT go up the stairs....yet we find him upstairs when we get home from work. We realized he is going up there on his own, yet when we are home, he cries, won't go. Also, he won't go down unless we walk with him. He obviously is going up and down when we are at work, but cries when we are home!!!!!

Stairs

I like to start them by putting them on the first step and then using a leash have them come down from the step and treat. Then start at the second step and down. Also in reverse, using the leash... the same way going up. You can also do the same by putting her on the step below the top of the landing with a leash have her climb the last step up. Do that a couple of times and then increase the amount of steps. You might have to leash walk her up and down the steps for a week or so.

Re: Stairs

My parents collie will not go down the basement stairs. Their old collie was a problem even with the first floor staircase. He would only go if there was someone walking alongside him and encouraging him to go. But this is a common problem with collies- it's something to do with their noses and the placement of their eyes making it difficult to see down the stairs. But I've never heard of something like that in a pug- unless maybe he has problems with his eyes?

My dog, a collie/golden retriever mix was scared of stairs when he was a baby. I used to carry him up and down the stairs everyday, several times a day. When he got too big to carry, I had to slowly teach him. Fortunately we had an area with a smaller staircase (3 stairs high) and started him on that. We'd put him on the leash and start walking down the stairs alongside him, usually with my DH at the foot of the stairs calling to him and encouraging him. When he finally started going down the stairs, he got a treat.

Stairs

Huxley, our Airedale, is now 19 months old and still won't do the steps inside our house. In order for him to go up our back deck steps (3 steps) it is almost as if he has to line himself up and prep himself to do it. When he has to go down he just launches himself off of them. It is so bizarre.

Stairs

Our 7 month boston will go up and down th 3-4 steps outside our house, and can go up a full flight of stairs but can't go down a full flight. It's kinda humorous

Re: Stairs

These problems don't go away on their own, you have to figure out how to help them get over their fear and work with them patiently. It's not really fair to them to acknowledge they have a phobia but to ignore it or avoid fixing it.

Our first dog was afraid of stairs, any floor besides carpeting, wouldn't jump into the car, etc. We took it slow, introducing him to one thing at a time. Calmly. We taught him to heel first, then how to climb stairs right next to us, one at a time, stopping on each step. We trimmed the hair around his paw pads to minimize slipping. We treated him with love and cheese when he succeeded, slowly weaning him off as he got it under control.

We found out that he is afraid of climbing or jumping on anything dark. To a dog, jumping up into a dark interior of a car is a much scarier proposition than we take it for. To them, it could be a black hole and they're trusting us that it's not. If they don't have that trust in you (instilled by your calm demeanor, consistent training and habit) then they're going to refuse.

Re: Stairs