Teaching Stairs

[Guest Eyeblaura]

So we are in the process of adopting a greyhound. He was in foster for several months but they had a ranch, we have a traditional 2 story. He doesn't know how to do stairs. He handles going down pretty well, we have 4 steps off our deck into the yard and he walks down them by himself but he jumps back up them.

 

He wants to go upstairs with us. Last night I took him by the collar and gently started up the stairs, not pulling just guiding, and he started great got about halfway up and then turned around and went back down. After that he didn't want to try again. We were going to,bed and I wasn't going to let him run free downstairs. I am fine with him sleeping confined to our bedroom on the floor. He was whining in the crate and not used to be crated at night at the foster. So my husband and I moved him up the stairs literally one foot at a time. He wasn't comfortable with it all and he is a big guy, 87 lbs.

 

Once there he slept in the corner of my bedroom on a couple of old quilts all night and didn't come down with me this morning (he looked at me like I was nuts when I asked if he wanted to go out at 7:30) and even an hour later he only relunctantly got out of bed when my husband made him come down. We didn't want to leave him upstairs and him not be able to get down on his own.

 

If you hold his collar and walk down next to him he comes down pretty easily and doesn't really resist although he is hesitant. He isn't completely comfortable but pretty good.

 

What is the best way to teach him? Do we wait and give him time and confine him downstairs where he doesn't want to be? Do we force him upstairs where he is happy once he's there? I tried to do the suitcase type carry to help him up holding his collar and then wrapping my other arm around his chest but he is so heavy and leans back against you. We left him downstairs while we were upstairs putting the kids to bed and he paced and whined at the bottom of the stairs, off and on, some of the time he went and laid down.

 

Thanks,

 

Laura

[philospher77]

If he is doing them with you holding his collar and walking with him, I would just keep doing that, with treats if possible to reinforce "this is a good thing". With practice, he will get more confident. It took me forever to get Katie to go up and down stairs, and now she does them with no hesitation.

[Sambuca]

I live alone in a townhouse and teach stairs to all my fosters. I put a leash and collar on them and stand directly behind them (going up). I use the leash to make sure they don't try to turn around and I put a knee between their back legs and lift them up step by step with my knee. Their front legs will have to move and the leash helps make sure they go up. After a few times they start to do it on their own when they feel more comfortable. Going down I use the collar and leash again and grab the leash near the collar and stand directly in front of them so they can't see the whole flight of stairs and walk down like that.

[Batmom]

So my husband and I moved him up the stairs literally one foot at a time.

 

Do it 3-4 times and he'll likely be ready to do it on his own.

 

Helps if he gets a really yummy treat at each step or two .

[Guest Eyeblaura]

Thanks for the tips! We did the paw by paw again last night and he did a bit better. We did entice him with some chicken jerky too

 

Might try the knee between the back legs and see if he will move the fronts. Do you move back paws alternately or simultaneously up the steps?

[Guest amethyst]

I didn't attempt to teach stairs in the beginning. I figured it was a good way to keep her confined to the lower level of the house. One day about a week after I got her, I came home and she was upstairs looking down at me. She couldn't get down by herself so I helped her go down twice and she had it.

[Guest Geostar]

I would just get behind him, bend over his back, and raise his left front paw up and place it on a step, do the same with the other foot and hind legs; praising him as he begins to understand. We did that in Georgia with our dogs and fosters and it works.. Best wishes..

=star

[Jerilyn]

My suggestion is to take the dog to some public building with big, wide, solid stairs to the entrance. Because they are wide open and usually not very steep most dogs find them pretty easy to do. Lots of practice going up and down them could make the dog confident enough to do the stairs in your home.

 

I took Lila to the local college campus to do this. There were lots of good buildings to practice with (plus lots of squirrels to chase in between). It really helped her confidence. By the end of our outing she was even willing to do the scary open-backed wooden stairs on a deck.

 

Good luck!

[Guest Eyeblaura]

Thanks for all the tips, last night I put the leash on him and walked him to the bottom of the stairs, he hesitated but once I put his front feet on the bottom step he flew up the rest at top speed. Amazing how fast he learned them considering 3 days ago it took us having to move his feet one at a time. I predict by weeks end he'll be an expert!

Edited January 10, 2012 by Eyeblaura