Odd

[Sambuca]

I have a very sweet, but not so smart foster, Tuffy. I've had Tuffy for 8 months so far . He has been able and willing to the stairs on his own almost from the start. He has a shoe fetish and likes to bring them upstairs and spread them around my bedroom (he never chews them). He will often do this while I'm watching tv or any other time he feels like. Occasionally he will stand at the bottom of the stairs and step on and off the bottom step a few times before starting up the stairs. I just thought it was a quirk. Well today he stood there for close to 10 minutes stepping on and off the bottom 2 steps, whining and wouldn't go up the stairs and finally gave up and lay down in the living room with me. Is there something I should be worried about? He's hilarious, but really not smart so I don't know if that matters. He's generally pretty confident. I'm not even sure if this should be here or H&M.

TIA

[silverfish]

If he used to go upstairs confidently and now does not, the first thing I'd be thinking is 'does he hurt somewhere and now finds it painful or difficult?'

 

By the way he's stepping onto the first riser or two and then going back, I'd suspect a problem in his lumbar region, but don't jump to conclusions. It could also be his hip, knee, hock or back foot. Or it might not be any of them.

 

Try gently pressing the flat of your hand on his spine, starting at the base of his neck and moving down towards his tail a handwidth at a time and see if he yelps, or looks uncomfortable at any point. Watch his face for eye-flicking, nose licking, head-ducking etc, which can all be signs of discomfort. If he braces his back against your hand, that can also mean he's trying to protect a sore spot. Or it might not.

 

But if he does any of those things, take him along to your vet for a check up.

 

If he doesn't, he still might be hurting, so observe him with this in mind and ask yourself if it could be the problem.

 

If you really don't think he's hurting, then the next guess would be that something has scared him and put him off. Could he have fallen while you were out?

[kudzu]

I think I'd get him to the vet as a precaution. My first thought was that stairs have become painful.

 

Can you think of anything that could have happened on the stairs or once upstairs that would cause him to suddenly be so cautious about stairs. You know some dogs will associate something disturbing, like maybe the smoke detector going off, another dog bumping them or you tripping yourself, with whatever they were doing at the time. I fell through a doorway once & my dog didn't want to come through that doorway for days after. And she still hesitated every now & then for months later.

[Guest BrianRke]

The previous two posters said it all. I hope everything is ok with your foster boy

[Guest KennelMom]

We've had a few dogs like that...Prajna started doing that towards the end and, in his case, I think it was something medical. We lost him to cancer and he started having seizures at the end, so we suspect some sort of brain cancer in addition to the chondro/osteo. BUT, he also had this weird front leg two-step that developed in his walking gait as well (many months before he passed). He was 13, so not a young hound. Hanna also does this, but she's blind so I chalk it up to her getting the steps "right" in her mental map.

 

We currently have Matt that came to us at 9ish and started doing that hesitation thing on the stairs like you describe a few months after he moved in with us. He's had several full vet exams and xrays and there is nothing medically wrong him that we can find. He runs and plays and gets up on the sofa...does all the things a greyhound should do...he just does this step-up, step-down "dance" on the stairs most of the time (I notice when it's raining he doesn't seem to have aaaaaany problems getting it "right" on the first try). Our old house had a second floor in addition to the deck stairs outside (all we have now is 4 deck stairs outside) and he would sometimes whine, get frustrated and just decide to go lay down. I've seen few other seniors hesitate on stairs, seemingly unsure of their footing at first, but it's not nearly as consistent or long term as Matt - going on a couple years now.

 

Long story short: It could be something medical. It could just be something that's gotten in his head at some point.

Edited December 9, 2011 by KennelMom

[Sambuca]

Tuffy does have a history of tendinitis in his shoulder and a corn in a front foot. But, he hasn't limped at all recently. If I get him up to the third step he goes up like normal, but still won't go up from the bottom. He does go down just fine which would be more painful on his shoulder if that were acting up. I really think this is a mental thing so we are starting back at stair training 101 and see what happens.