Stairs??

[Fortcollinsnewfies]

Whilst it works to my advantage most of the time, its worrying me that my 7 month old Daisy cant manage stairs, She seems completely petrified and this only poses a problem when she needs to use the deck sets on the rear of the house. She jumps OK and can slowly get on the sofa but wont attempt stairs even for a reward or treat. My 4 month old Denali can run up and down stairs. Any advice (all her vet checks are up to date and hips are good)

 

[DAWNMERIE]

My Zeke does not do stairs, only two or three at the most...I fault myself in not introducing him at an early age, keep at it! High reward treats!!

 

[Brandie&Maggie]

Definitely work hard on it. Start somewhere that only has 2-3 to introduce the concept. Use really really high value treats (things she really likes but doesn't usually get).

Just keep working on it slowly but keep at it like Dawn says. It can be a really problem when they won't do it and they can't be carried anymore! I had to teach Maggie stairs when we brought her home (she was 4ish) and I'm glad I did!

 

[dumainedogs]

Obie wasn't much for stairs either. I started looking for small stairs on our walks, like sidewalk to street or a step or two up to a walkway at a house. He took to these quickly because he wanted to keep walking! Treats, progressively higher steps and then indoor ones last.

 

[Acadia]

You can also try "shaping". Where she gets a high value treat for looking at the stairs, sniffing, a toe touch-anything that has to do with stairs. Remember to "jackpot" treats, too- give one piece a few times, then several pieces one right after the other. Not a big bunch at once, but rapid succession. This all probably works best with using a clicker.

 

[cmorgan.1505]

We did not start training Thor to use our in house stairs till he was 6 months old. He would use our outdoor stairs, but was only 3 stairs at a time. When we finally started training him on the indoor stairs it was a lot and I mean A LOT of work! We finally used small pieces of string cheese and I would place a small chunk on each stair for him. I would have him right by me and would give him a lot of cheering in a very high tone of voice and finally after about two weeks of work he trusted me enough to go up the stairs. When we got him there I would go down and call him in a super excited voice and he would come to me.

Find the treat they just love and place a small piece on each stair. It will be a lot of work and you might think they will never get it, but it will work in the end. Thor would whine and be pretty scared, but he loved string cheese more than his fear. lol

 

[Fortcollinsnewfies]

We have been working on it all day - she is like a quivering wreck, we managed one stair but then nothing - will leave it a couple of days before we try again. I don't want to freak her out !! Thanks for all your suggestions

 

[Jeff in Ottawa]

We had some similar challenges with one of our guys when we got them at age five and a half. We found he was more amenable to trying stairs if he was after a little exercise. We would walk him for about 20 to 40 minutes and then try some stairs. Like others here we also used very high reward treats as well; but we found that this training right after exercise really knocked his anxiety down a notch.

 

[R Taft]

Go away from the stairs if she got to the quivering stage..start outdoors with planks and teach to go up. Plank on bricks is great way to start and go on from there. If she is really fearful, you have no hope training in that moment. you need to get it happy. maybe later throwing a treat up a couple of steps and waiting it out. or allowing the other dog to get it. make sure Daisy is hungry when you train.make it fun. And like others said find other 2-3 steps somewhere and reward everytime.......If the stress starts you have gone to far