Teaching A Hound To Climb The Stairs

[Guest lilmoosies]

Our foster boy is having difficulty mastering the stairs. He even had trouble coming up to concrete/brick steps to the front door of our home when I brought him home. Since we don't have stairs in our house, I'm trying to teach him on the 5 steps we have going from the house into the garage. The steps are not open and they are covered with linoleum and metal strips on the edges. I've tried putting treats on the steps and putting his front paws on the first step and try to lead him up the stairs, but he "plants" his back feet on the floor and will not move.

 

I welcome any ideas/tips from this forum on how to help him master the stairs and build his confidence.

[Guest DragonflyDM]

Well.. if you have linoleum steps then you are going to have multiple issues because the steps are slippery.

 

1. If you are buy yourself, you can get behind him and with your knees you can coax him the stairs with support. Then give a really good treat at the top.

2. If you have two people, you can use the knees technique and have the other person on the side to help support and cheer on the hound.

3. Don’t pull up the stairs. And you may want to play with the treats a bit to get him in the mood for a snack first.

 

If you can put something on the linoleum to add grip that would help too.

[philospher77]

I'll also add that you might want to try finding some other steps to practice on. I'm thinking that 5 is going to be an awkward number, because it's short enough that they have the "getting on the stairs" transition and the "getting off the stairs" transition, and not much "actually on the stairs" work. If it were my Katie on those stairs, she would probably just try to jump to the bottom, and not mess with them. So I would try finding some longer sets, and maybe try starting outside. For some reason, Katie would trot up and down outside steps with no problem, but it took us a while to get her to do inside stairs, which just baffled (and slightly frustrated!) me. I'd be like "these are stairs, you treat them exactly the same as the 500 hundred steps we have gone up and down on the way to this building!"

[Guest DragonflyDM]

Funny story, when I was teaching boomer, my stairs go up to a landing and then turn. He would confidently get up to the first landing all happy and then freak out. It was took high for to go down and too scary to go up. It took about a week, but now you would never know he was ever afraid of steps.

[GeorgeofNE]

1) Search this forum for the many old threads on this topic, and 2) be patient!

[Guest BrianRke]

This has always worked for me, and I know some people wont agree with my method, but here it goes: I pick them up and put them in the middle of my staircase and I sit down beside them. I gently move one of their paws at a time until they "get it". By being in the middle of the staircase, they HAVE to do something, and they always do.

 

Its never taken me more than a couple hours to train a dog this way but maybe I've just been lucky.

 

(Now that I've said this, the next dog I try this with will plant himself in the middle of the staircase and wont move)

[Guest Trammell]

This has always worked for me, and I know some people wont agree with my method, but here it goes: I pick them up and put them in the middle of my staircase and I sit down beside them. I gently move one of their paws at a time until they "get it". By being in the middle of the staircase, they HAVE to do something, and they always do.

 

Its never taken me more than a couple hours to train a dog this way but maybe I've just been lucky.

 

(Now that I've said this, the next dog I try this with will plant himself in the middle of the staircase and wont move)

 

That's a really good idea! I live on the third floor apartment complex. I had to teach my three dogs how to go up/down the stairs, I did it by "showing" them; now don't picture me climbing on all fours up the stairs! That isn't what I mean! I put each paw one by one how they would do it. While lifting and shifting their weight. This was easy with the two ten-pounders, but a fantastic workout with the Grey After getting her up them a couple of times this way, she figured it out (after all we were going up and down every two hours to work on house training). I did the same thing for going down FYI, but my Fiance got in front of her to make sure none of us fell.

[Guest Eyeblaura]

We did the moving of one paw at a time too. After about 3 days he was bounding up the stairs. He's always cautious coming down but he does them on his own just fine. He was very reluctant at first and at 87 lbs it took two of us and it was still a work out.

[MaryJane]

I've had a few fosters and they pretty much all needed to learn the stairs. I found the following works really well and one person can do it alone but, YOU ALWAYS have to make sure that you are holding a railing so you don't fall.

 

Stand in back of your greyhound and have one hand on the railing and the other one lifting one of the front paws to the first step. Learn over your greyhound slightly to make sure he/she cannot rear up (again, make sure you are holding the railing) - if your dog doesn't like anyone leaning over him then you will need 2 people. Use your knee to lift your dog's butt onto the next step and when this is done, the front paws should go up a step. At this point, you should be able to hold the collar to keep your dog straight and just use your knee to lift to the next step and he/she should move their front paws up. If they don't move their front paws, you may have to let go of the collar and move the front paws up one at a time.

 

Going down is also a problem because your dog will have a tendency to try and jump all the stairs. While a dog can master going up the stairs fairly quickly so they don't need help - I make sure that they don't go down the stairs by themselves for at least a week or two.

 

Going down the stairs it is easier to use a halter and hold on at the cross point on the back. Again, you need to make sure that you are holding onto the railing. Keep your dog right up against the wall - they seem to feel safer in this position and you can control them better. Grab the halter and start going down the stairs and you pretty much have to pull them but, be careful - their pulling back will turn to lunging forward and their tendency is to want to jump down the whole flight of stairs so you have to make sure that you make them go down a step at a time - even at the bottom.

[Guest JustGreyt05]

I picked his feet up one by one and placed them on each step too. Took like 2 weeks but as long as you're patient, he'll get it eventually. Cookies help I think.

[Guest Matty]

Luckily Nemo hasn't had too rough of a time with stairs (though he won't touch our hardwood stairs - we're getting carpet runners installed to help mitigate the issue because we're kind of nervous about how slippery they are even for humans). We still take him up and down stairs to practice - see if there are any local parks nearby where they have stone staircases. We are lucky to have such a park that runs along a stream, and everywhere there are dams there are staircases. So we just walk him up and down the steps and give him praises and treats every time he successfully makes it up (and moreso down).

[Guest Snazzy_Chloe]

I found some stairs at a park that we practiced on a few times first- some had 2-3 foot long treads before taking a step, and others were made of RR ties so the tread was wide compared to the rise of the step. Once they got that (pretty easy for her), I used the stairs in the back yard that were combo's of long steps with a 3 normal steps at the beginning and end so she learned the mechanics of steps. We then tried short lengths of steps 5-6 stairs inside to a landing -once we walked the dog up step by step and then back down several times - the dog was still scared of going up the long flight of steps. It seemed to be more of a mental thing- just seeing all those steps doing up. I had my wife walk up ahead of us (to block the hounds view) and I pulled her up using the halter from the side - she went right up. Going down was super scary for her (I would think it would look to them about the same as we thought when we went to jump/dive off of the high dive board into a swimming pool). I had my wife walk in front to block the view, and I pulled her like a suitcase off of the top landing - once she was all on the stairs she relaxed somewhat and started walking with me as I was talking happy talk to her. We have done it a 4-5 times now and she is still scared going down, but I am now able to let her pick her way off of the first and second step herself then she settles down - still not comfortable with the down but she is learning. She has no problems at all going up any longer..So although it took her a week - I only worked on it once a day (3-5 times up/down)..giving her treats at the top and bottom. We have carpet stair treads on a wooden steps so I had to hug the wall, keeping her in the center of the stairs so she could not get on the slippery part of the stairs. Our angel hounds always went up the side of the carpeted staircase where they touched or almost touched the walls for security, where that would not work in this house - I am sure that would have helped a lot. Very interesting - working on this with hounds and a different type of training experience. It sure was tough love on the going down part though.

[Guest greygirls2]

I have two sets of 7 stairs each with a landing in the middle...split level ranch.....they have to use the stairs to get to the main living areas of the house then back down to go outside, no other way to access the house. I've always used their harness to teach my fosters the stairs. I hold the back of the harness firmly and keep the dog by my side as I guide them up the stairs slowly so they know they won't fall. The same on the way back down. usually by the end of their first day they are doing the stairs themselves. I only had one foster that took 3 days to learn but he'd been in a previous foster home that knew nothing about greys and they tried to pull him with his collar and leash up 14 straight stairs which completely panicked him. So I attribute his reluctance to that experiance. The harness makes them feel secure and you're right by their side so it's all less scary.

[Brandiandwe]

I also spent a lot f time sitting on the landing halfway up (or down) our stairs the first few days with Brandi. She was desparate to get to and eventually, once we blocked off all of the views through the banisters with blankets, managed them by herself. But the first few days we were also carrying her up and down. Easy for my husband, less so for me (30 kg, 67 lb dog). Now she whizzes up and down very happily, and PK learned off her.

[Guest lilmoosies]

Well.. if you have linoleum steps then you are going to have multiple issues because the steps are slippery.

 

1. If you are buy yourself, you can get behind him and with your knees you can coax him the stairs with support. Then give a really good treat at the top.

2. If you have two people, you can use the knees technique and have the other person on the side to help support and cheer on the hound.

3. Don’t pull up the stairs. And you may want to play with the treats a bit to get him in the mood for a snack first.

 

If you can put something on the linoleum to add grip that would help too.

 

 

Thanks for your response!

 

I'll also add that you might want to try finding some other steps to practice on. I'm thinking that 5 is going to be an awkward number, because it's short enough that they have the "getting on the stairs" transition and the "getting off the stairs" transition, and not much "actually on the stairs" work. If it were my Katie on those stairs, she would probably just try to jump to the bottom, and not mess with them. So I would try finding some longer sets, and maybe try starting outside. For some reason, Katie would trot up and down outside steps with no problem, but it took us a while to get her to do inside stairs, which just baffled (and slightly frustrated!) me. I'd be like "these are stairs, you treat them exactly the same as the 500 hundred steps we have gone up and down on the way to this building!"

 

Thanks for your response!

 

Funny story, when I was teaching boomer, my stairs go up to a landing and then turn. He would confidently get up to the first landing all happy and then freak out. It was took high for to go down and too scary to go up. It took about a week, but now you would never know he was ever afraid of steps.

 

Thanks for your response!

 

This has always worked for me, and I know some people wont agree with my method, but here it goes: I pick them up and put them in the middle of my staircase and I sit down beside them. I gently move one of their paws at a time until they "get it". By being in the middle of the staircase, they HAVE to do something, and they always do.

 

Its never taken me more than a couple hours to train a dog this way but maybe I've just been lucky.

 

(Now that I've said this, the next dog I try this with will plant himself in the middle of the staircase and wont move)

 

Thanks for your response! I'll have to find a full set of stairs somewhere.

 

I've had a few fosters and they pretty much all needed to learn the stairs. I found the following works really well and one person can do it alone but, YOU ALWAYS have to make sure that you are holding a railing so you don't fall.

 

Stand in back of your greyhound and have one hand on the railing and the other one lifting one of the front paws to the first step. Learn over your greyhound slightly to make sure he/she cannot rear up (again, make sure you are holding the railing) - if your dog doesn't like anyone leaning over him then you will need 2 people. Use your knee to lift your dog's butt onto the next step and when this is done, the front paws should go up a step. At this point, you should be able to hold the collar to keep your dog straight and just use your knee to lift to the next step and he/she should move their front paws up. If they don't move their front paws, you may have to let go of the collar and move the front paws up one at a time.

 

Going down is also a problem because your dog will have a tendency to try and jump all the stairs. While a dog can master going up the stairs fairly quickly so they don't need help - I make sure that they don't go down the stairs by themselves for at least a week or two.

 

Going down the stairs it is easier to use a halter and hold on at the cross point on the back. Again, you need to make sure that you are holding onto the railing. Keep your dog right up against the wall - they seem to feel safer in this position and you can control them better. Grab the halter and start going down the stairs and you pretty much have to pull them but, be careful - their pulling back will turn to lunging forward and their tendency is to want to jump down the whole flight of stairs so you have to make sure that you make them go down a step at a time - even at the bottom.

 

Thanks for your response!

 

I picked his feet up one by one and placed them on each step too. Took like 2 weeks but as long as you're patient, he'll get it eventually. Cookies help I think.

 

Thanks for your response!

 

Luckily Nemo hasn't had too rough of a time with stairs (though he won't touch our hardwood stairs - we're getting carpet runners installed to help mitigate the issue because we're kind of nervous about how slippery they are even for humans). We still take him up and down stairs to practice - see if there are any local parks nearby where they have stone staircases. We are lucky to have such a park that runs along a stream, and everywhere there are dams there are staircases. So we just walk him up and down the steps and give him praises and treats every time he successfully makes it up (and moreso down).

 

 

Thanks for your response! I'm definitely leaning towards finding a full set of stairs somewhere "outside"!

 

I have two sets of 7 stairs each with a landing in the middle...split level ranch.....they have to use the stairs to get to the main living areas of the house then back down to go outside, no other way to access the house. I've always used their harness to teach my fosters the stairs. I hold the back of the harness firmly and keep the dog by my side as I guide them up the stairs slowly so they know they won't fall. The same on the way back down. usually by the end of their first day they are doing the stairs themselves. I only had one foster that took 3 days to learn but he'd been in a previous foster home that knew nothing about greys and they tried to pull him with his collar and leash up 14 straight stairs which completely panicked him. So I attribute his reluctance to that experiance. The harness makes them feel secure and you're right by their side so it's all less scary.

 

Thanks for your response!

 

I also spent a lot f time sitting on the landing halfway up (or down) our stairs the first few days with Brandi. She was desparate to get to and eventually, once we blocked off all of the views through the banisters with blankets, managed them by herself. But the first few days we were also carrying her up and down. Easy for my husband, less so for me (30 kg, 67 lb dog). Now she whizzes up and down very happily, and PK learned off her.

 

 

Thanks for your response!

[Guest leemc]

I agree to be patient. With each of my 3 greys, it took between 2 and 2 1/2 weeks for each of them to go up and down alone. Each day we would practice, me in the front trying to encourage them and my husband behind for safety. Good Luck!