Greys And Stairs

[Guest NancyS]

I adopted my first grey just before Thanksgiving and she is a doll. I would like her to sleep in her bed upstairs in my bedroom, rather than crating her all night. The first couple of days she was afraid of all stairs, now she will go up and down a short staircase in my house, but not the 12 steps to my bedroom. I put carpet treads down hoping this would help since the wood floor was slippery. With food I can get her to go up 2-3 steps, as long as her hind feet don't move. HELP!!! I really don't want to crate her at night, but she is a little devil and finds things to get into. Suggestions??????????

[Guest FrankieWylie]

We have a set of steep stairs that lead to our backyard. It took some work (maybe a total of 30 minutes) but with food lures we were able to get both boys comfortable. It was easier for us to do it as a team since the stairs are steep....one of us in front and one of us behind. But now, they take them all on their own with no prompting! I'd say just spend a little time only working on that :-) she will get it!

[Guest shanesmom]

I live in a second floor condo and stairs are not an option. They're the scary see-through stairs too but at least they are carpeted. I have taught several greys to go up and down them. I just get behind them and help by placing their feet on the stairs. Putting treats on the stairs worked for some but not at all for Ace. He is not treat motivated not even for hot dogs but he is toy motivated so I would have someone on the top of the stairs with a stuffy. Ace took a long time to learn the stairs. Even after he got over his fear of them, he thought he was supposed to just put the front feet up and I was supposed to move his back feet for him. We did this for 6 weeks. With time though even he learned the stairs and now I have to run to keep up. The others never took more than a day to teach.

[kudzu]

Here is how we would handle it. Put her on leash. Lure her up those 2-3 steps & then physically pick up her back feet & place them on the next step. Be sure to help support her when you do this as it may throw off her balance. You may then be able to lure her up the next step or two. If you can't then pick up her front feet & place them on the next steps. Usually we do this up a few stairs & then if the Grey seems really stressed we let her choose whether to go the rest of the way up or turn around & go back down. If she doesn't seem unduly stressed we usually just keep going the rest of the way up with or without our help, depending on the dog. Coming down is usually harder to get started but then goes fast. In fact, you usually need to help them just to prevent it from going too fast. Do you have carpet at the bottom of the stairs to prevent slipping? If not, make sure there is a non-skid mat or area rug at the bottom.

 

Usually it only takes a few times to get this going well. It may not look graceful & sometimes they still need coaxing for a little while longer, especially on the way down, but the rest comes in time. If your girl needs coaxing to do the whole thing on her own on the way up just feed her dinner up there. Take the bowl upstairs & wait. The dog will almost always quickly follow. And I would think the prospect of breakfast in the morning would take care of going down.

 

Good luck.

[Guest BrianRke]

It can take a lot of time and patience. Frank was the only one that took a little work and now he will fly up and down the stairs. What I did was pick him up, put him in the middle of the staircase, sat beside him on the stairs, and placed his legs where they need to be. The reason I put him in the midde of the staircase was so he HAD to do something and couldnt chicken out and turn around(that sounds mean doesnt it?).

 

I have high ceilings so I have 17 stairs so they were extra scary. It took about 3 trys and then he was navigating them like a pro.

 

This being said, I was never able to teach my bridge girl, Cleo, to go up or down stairs. She would just freeze up, and since it wasnt imperative that she need to learn, I didnt want to put her through the trauma.

 

Good luck to you!

[GreyTzu]

My girls learned stairs the second night we were at Sandy Paws last year. I slept upstairs with my door opened the first night. By morning Dessie was in bed with me. By the next evening both girls were in bed with me. It was either learn the stairs, which were open backed, or sleep downstairs. They learned.

[Batmom]

I do @ what kudzu describes. Going up, I stand BEHIND the dog, with my knees against their butt, and then lean over and place their feet as needed. Going down, firm hand on the collar (or even better, harness) and I stay a little in front of the dog. Couple times a day, couple days, she'll likely know how to do it better than you do .

[MaryJane]

I do @ what kudzu describes. Going up, I stand BEHIND the dog, with my knees against their butt, and then lean over and place their feet as needed. Going down, firm hand on the collar (or even better, harness) and I stay a little in front of the dog. Couple times a day, couple days, she'll likely know how to do it better than you do .

 

 

I vary this a bit and use my knee to pick up their butt onto the next step. One hand I have on their halter and the other on the railing. I use the hand on the halter to help them propel up that stairs so I don't have to take each front leg and put it on the next step. You do want to hold the railing as the dog can came back a little and upset your balance.

 

I would also use a halter going down and you have to be very CAREFUL - some dogs want to jump down the stairs - so you need to hold the halter and get them as close to the wall as possible and then just pull a bit until they start to go down the stairs. Again, make sure that one of your hands is on the halter and the other on the railing.

 

It doesn't take long, a few days if you do it 2 or 3 times a day.

[Guest Tiptons_Mom]

My Tipton conqured the stairs the second day of being home. I attribute this to the freshly baked liver muffins used to lore him up.

[Guest karilynn]

They call me the "stair girl" because the stairs were such a serious concern for me before adopting. I live on the fifth floor of a high rise building, which means, stairs stairs stairs galore. Bruce is a master of the stairs now but it didn't happen too easily. I had to work with him on them. Things that helped me: using a harness and sort of lifting him like a suitcase, giving him treats and positive reinforcement, going behind him and sort of pushing him from behind, literally placing each paw on the appropriate stair. I also found some stairs near my apartment complex that were outside and we practiced on those for a while. It was easier out in the open. Once he mastered those stairs, we went back in and tried the real stairs and he ran right up.

[Feisty49]

I, and Annie Bella, appear to be the only failures when it comes to stairs. Annie can do stairs as long as there is not a wall involved. She runs up and down the 9 steps to the back door because they are flagstone steps going up through the terrace gardens.

 

She shook, shuddered and practically collapsed when I tried to train her on the indoor stairway, which has a wall on one side and a banister on the other, leading to the second floor and the bedrooms. I worked on it for over a week: foot-foot, paw-paw, push-push, at least twice a day. It was horrible. She whined and actually peed once. Getting her to go down was worse. After a week I decided *I* was the one who wanted her in my bedroom at night but it was optional on her part, so I stopped trying. (If it had been necessary, such as in Brucie's case, I would have gotten professional help and plowed ahead). I figured if she wanted to be with me, she'd come up. That was back in July and she still sleeps downstairs all by herself. I feel bad but that's my human feelings transferring to her and obviously she doesn't care because she never cries or whines nor gets into mischief.

Edited December 14, 2011 by Feisty49

[kudzu]

My Tipton conqured the stairs the second day of being home. I attribute this to the freshly baked liver muffins used to lore him up.

OT: Would love the recipe for liver muffins. Thx.

[Brandiandwe]

We had to carry Brandi up the second half of our stair case, and down for a couple of days. We did the physically moving her paws and luring her, but the second half freaked her out - got to the landing and stopped. So we blocked all of the view off between the bannisters, which are open, using sheets and towels, and then 'suitcased' her. By day four she was a pro. Paige learned off Brandi.

[philospher77]

Katie seems to have finally mastered the stairs. Peanut butter balls, letting her take her time and decide to do it on her own, and occasionally moving the back feet seems to have been the method that worked with her. The back feet seem to be an issue if they get too stretched out. Then they get stuck. But moving the feet a step closer "unsticks" her, and she'll do the rest on her own.

[GeorgeofNE]

I had to move George's paws, one by one, up the three flights of emergency stairs in my old condo (he HAD to learn them; we had tons of false fire alarms, and I wasn't about to ignore the alarms (you never know!) or leave him behind).

 

It was agonizing for me. Three flights. Paw by paw, over and over and over. Noithing else worked. I used a helper. I used stinky treats. I used all his favorite foods. He would not do it. So I had to.

 

One day I decided we had to try going down--imagine my shock when he delicately traipsed down them like a princess! All three flights without a pause or a problem.

 

It did take me three weeks to teach him to go UP.

 

When we moved to a condo with no elevator, he learned the stairs here really quickly--he just followed the moving men right up the first day! Of course the stairs here have carpet, and the other ones were metal (black and shiny too).

[philospher77]

Now that Katie is doing the stairs on her own, it is interesting to watch her do it. You can practically see her thinking through each move: first this front foot, and then that front foot. Now the back foot... where is the step? Ah, there it is! Now the other back foot. Then this front foot..... And if she gets disturbed by something, then she gets a bit stuck.

 

But she is getting better with practice, so I think it won't be long before she takes inside stairs as easily as she does outside ones.