big dog question?

Question

I have a great dane that I can't get to go up stairs. How can I help him to over come this fear?

Answer 1

Let him live downstairs because he is terrified of them, I have a male black Lab 120 lbs and he is afraid of hardwood floors but he will not go up the stairs even though they are carpet

Answer 2

I have a mid-sized dog that had the same problem. She now goes up stairs without difficulty. I started by using food and sitting on a lower step and she would then step on a step to reach the food. I moved up to a higher step as she progressed, until she finally reached the top. It took quite a while and I made a fun game of it. She had difficulty coming down, but I just stood at the bottom and encouraged her with food. She would finally do it on her own. This might work for you but would be more difficult as a Great Dane has a much longer reach.

Answer 3

Some of the already posted answers have good ideas in them, especially those encouraging you to lure him up the stairs using treats, which is my suggestion, too. I would encourage you to use the most wonderful (safe) food treat you could find, like cheese, peanut butter, a piece of hotdog or a piece of canned chicken. I call vienna sausages "crack for dogs", only because dogs will do *anything* for them. Maybe those would work for your dane. Once you find what *he* considers the most valuable food treat, do place a couple at the foot of the stairs, and a couple on the first step. He can get these without stepping on that scary step. "Reload" the bottom stair and add a few to the next couple of stairs up. Your dane is probably tall enough to reach these without stepping up on a stair to do so. Once he is comfortable taking these treats from the stairs, you can add treats to a higher stair, and so forth. You might need to place an even more valuable treat at the top of the staircase (like a piece of leftover steak). Be sure to show it to him/let him smell it before he watches you place it at the top of the stairs. Hopefully, he can't resist the treats and gets enough courage to step on a stair to get the next treat and so forth. Through this exercise, he learns that stairs are a good thing (and/or that they taste like vienna sausages or whatever, haha).
Please don't expect him to accomplish stair climbing in one "treats on the stairs" session. He might do it, but, don't feel disappointed if he does not. Anyway, using lots of pieces of high value treats, lots of patience, some encouraging praise, giving him lots of space and his own time to achieve this, I think he can eventually overcome his fear.

Perhaps it could be his hips or his knees. Maybe it is painful. I think you would already have a good idea if this were the case by the way he walks/runs/gets up. I am guessing this is not a joint malfunction or joint pain problem.

I am basing my next suggestion on the assumption that your great dane has never gone up (or down?) stairs, and that this is not caused by a new fear or medical issue.

If the stairs are hard or slick surface (like hardwood), you might need to consider securing some non-skid surface on them for him. If that is not possible, try this (which is going to sound ridiculous, but I know personally that it works for a rottweiler that won't walk "bare-pawed" on hardwood floors): get a pair of toddler (or he might need bigger) socks and paint "treads" on the bottom with puffy paint (or just buy children's socks that already have non-skid surface). Getting him to *wear* them, is another Q & A session that I could participate in...if you can stand to read my lengthy answer! ;-)

Good luck!

Answer 4

My parents had one and she was scared but she finally got it when they offered her a big rawhide chew.....she was a pup then I don't know how old yours is but if older may never do it....danes have langly legs and just getting up is difficult sometimes.........it may be the angle of stairs is too much and the dog KNOWS ......some dogs are just smart! Do n't force it ...and take care of your doggie they have it rough with those long legs!

Answer 5

Get a bone, and he'll go up or down stairs. I had this same fear in my dog, and now he can't wait to beat me up or down the stairs.

Answer 6

Using a treat that the dog likes, work on one step at a time...if he goes up one step, give him the treat and really praise him. Then work on another step and repeat. Keep going until he goes up the whole staircase. This process may take a while but never scold him if he doesn't do it...use praise only

Answer 7

Find out what his favorite treat is.... throw it up the stairs in front of him. If that does not work, move his food upstairs, eventually he will find it... maybe that's cruel, but survival will overpower fear in any animal.

Answer 8

What I did was carry him half way up and put him on the steps to go the rest of the way. Comfort him before leaving him. Took a few times but he learned.

Answer 9

Have you been carrying up because he's 'too scared to go up by himself'?

If you have carried him, he may have trained you to keep carrying him up the stairs. Dogs are pretty smart.

Answer 10

work with him and praise him if he goes up 1 stair maybe he will overcome his fear