He Got Up There And Now He Won't Come Down

[fourofem]

House has never quite mastered stairs. However, last night he snuck up while the girls and I were heading to bed. I let him stay up there with us. Now, after 3 hours, he still won't come down. He'll get down one or two steps but then panics and backs up. I can't carry him downstairs. I've tried tempting him with his breakfast, sitting beside him to encourage him but he's still up there. I know he's about to pop. What are some things I can try to coax him down? I bet he won't try sneaking up again.

[OwnedBySummer]

I found, when I was teaching Summer to do stairs, that a collar and leash worked wonders for coming down. On the leash, she knew she had to come with me. And it gives you the control to slow them down as you may find that he will accelerate as he goes.

[Batmom]

1. Take him firmly by the collar and "Let's go!"

 

2. One hand on the collar, one hand under his chest, pick up the front end and place it down one more stair, "Good boy!" and treat. This is a bit easier with a harness but you can do it with just a collar. You don't have to be *too* strong -- gravity is your friend -- but you do need to be steady on the stairs yourself.

 

Good luck!

[Guest madredhare]

We have stairs here, so I have to teach the fosters how go up and come down. I think going down is a bit more scary for them. But the leash works good. Also, if you have a second or third person that can get behind the dog so they can't turn around, that helps. You may even have to manually make the legs, one at a time, go down the stairs. Good luck.

[fourofem]

He's down....took some work but once we got past the fourth step, there was no turning back! Thanks for all the advice....I used a little bit of all of it!!!!

[Guest madredhare]

He may want to go up there all the time now!

[GeorgeofNE]

Argh! Been there, done that.

 

Encouraged George to go up the stairs at my parents' house, and he would NOT come down. They were very steep, narrow stairs and I ended up carrying him. Still not sure how I did it without killing us both! He never went anywhere near those stairs again.

[Batmom]

So how did you do it? Your experience could be of help to someone else one day.

 

House :wub: silly boy.

[fourofem]

So how did you do it? Your experience could be of help to someone else one day.

 

House :wub: silly boy.

Your advice with treats helped for the first four steps but after that, he wasn't interested. Ended up lifting his front end to get his front feet down a step or two and then moving one back foot and then the other. He had his brakes on big time but once we got about half way down, there was no turning back. Don't you know that lug made me do that to the very bottom? He could easily have jumped the last two to three steps but NOOOOO!!! It probably took about 20 minutes. I made a big deal telling him what he good, brave boy he was but he looked me as if to say "yeah...right....how about some breakfast....I'm four hours late, you know?"!!!! I believe he'll be content staying downstairs with Hitchie who will absolutely not even look at the steps. Never has and after six years, doubt ever will!

[Batmom]

You are a trooper.

 

Don't count on him not going up again, though.

 

Keep us posted on that.

 

[Guest mnblewis1]

Silly boy! I had a dog once that I had to manually move his legs for him every time for like a month. He eventually got it on his own.

[Guest FullMetalFrank]

Neon had some stair trouble at first, too. He went right up, but was too scared to come down. For us, clipping on a leash and me going down first, with my daughter behind him, was the ticket. Now he is up and down the stairs three times before I can make it once!

[kudzu]

Just thank heavens he's a Greyhound & not a breed with more substance. No doubt House has plenty of substance but something similar happened to my critter sitter with a Great Pyr who was staying at her house. She'd gone upstairs to her attic for something & left the baby gate open. Once the Pyr got up those tight, steep stairs she refused to descend again. Have you ever tried to convince a boulder to release its hold on earth & roll down a hill? Well, you'd be much more likely to succeed at that than you of convincing a large adult Pyr to do something before they are darn good & ready. She finally ended up walking across the street to the volunteer fire dept & rounding up a four strong males to help carry the dog down, two bearers, one spotter & one to stand there laughing his assets off.

 

Very glad you got House down. You are a good & determined person. I agree with Batmom. Might be time to gate off those stairs.

[Guest oscar]

This just happened to us today! What are the chances?

 

Oscar can go up stairs like a champ, but is still learning how to go down them. Sometimes he'll do it but most of the time he'll refuse. Today, for the noon walk, the elevator was broken We live on the fifth floor in a building with 12 foot ceilings. It took me 20 minutes of inching him down each step and we were both totally exhausted at the bottom! It was a rather short walk after that. Oscar is only 70 ish pounds -- I can't imagine what it would be like with a dog as big as House!