New Greyhound Any Advice On Stairs?

[HJsM]

Ai yi yi..stairs. I have 14 up to my house and I thought we were going to be in total heck for a while there when I moved last year because my old dog, who had a weak back end to start with, did not want to participate in any form or fashion. I used "suitcase" with him at first, as others have mentioned which entailed a harness and we went VERY slow up and VERY slow down.

 

He never really did get "down" that good before he passed away earlier this year, but he finally got brave on UP and could do that on his own. I walked him down on a leash down every day for 4 months, however. At a certain point, he was doing it without any kind of harness but he still did not have confidence without me there. Having given me 9 wonderful years of companionship, it was the least I could do.

 

I think I walked everybody up or down on leash at least the first week, but fortunately the younger dogs "got it" really quick and were on their own within days.

 

Even now, I do supervise both our downs and ups, especially on rainy days (not too many of them recently, but a few!) so nobody goes too fast and slips. Traction strips can be very helpful and you can get those at the hardware stores. Anything slippery is going to be scary (and also potentially dangerous) so try to fix it so it is not.

 

Someone also suggested to me installing risers (which wasn't practical for me) but if worse comes to worse, not seeing the opening on open stairs might help.

 

I think mostly it is a matter of being patient, encouraging, treats when they make it up or down and giving it time. You may have to suitcase escort for a bit and then make them THINK you are doing that by just simply escorting them down on leash (which is what I did with my old boy) and then eventually they will be more confident.

 

Your doggie will get it.