does anyone know how to make your dog NOT afraid of the stairs?

Question

i lve in a upstairs apartment and just got a 6 mo old lab mix she wont go up or down the stairs and is 40 pounds of pure muscle{heavey}lol does anyone have any tips on what to do ? thank you for helping

Answer 1

This is a good one. But pretty easy to fix. Does she like to run? You have to break her "fixation". When you get to the stairs, she probly gets tense, and will "fixate" on the stairs. First of all, you can't have any nervous or concerned energy. If you thinking, "Boy, I hope she doesn't freak out on the stairs again..." I guarantee she will. Try getting her distracted with another activity, get her moving, running if possible. Then without thinking too much about, making the stairs part of your route, hit the stairs and don't slow down anymore than you have to. She should be half-way down before she even realizes whats happening. Give her a treat and rewards and praise immediately. You can also try a more reserved approach. Walk her to the stairs. Do whatever you have to (stay confident!) to get her on the stairs. Once she is on the stairs, give her lots of treats and affection while she's on the stairs. This will help her to re-associate. She will now see the stairs as "the place I get treats and love" and not "the place that scares me". When you are on the stairs, be happy, confident, and unconcerned. Let her know thru your behavior that there's nothing to be scared of. She will follow your lead. Good Luck!

Answer 2

Are the stairs ones you can see through. If they are then that is probably where your problem is. Most dogs wont step on anything that they can see through. My mother in law tried taking her dog to work (she works for a company that makes pet products and the dog is a catahoula (sp)) and she refused to go up the stairs to her office because all the stairs were the see through type.She had to be carried up them. If it is a puppy you might be able to coax them up the stairs but do it on a day when you have plenty of time and wont have many distractions. you might put them on one step at a time and reward them when they go on it. Then slowly continue doing it up the next stair. Once you get them up a couple of stairs I would take them back down and reward them for going down the stairs. I would do it a little at a time instead of trying to get them to go all the way up on the first time. I hope this helps. If you have any questions feel free to email me. Good luck

Answer 3

:) Puppies are do adorable. I have experienced this with my bichon/poodle puppy. You probably experience that she's more scared of going down than up. My advice is to break it down for her. It might be too overwhelming looking up or down these massive steps. So work up from 2-3 steps to 5-6 and on, slowly moving up as she feels comfortable. Always reward the action you want, build confidence and never push her. Treats and vocal praise is important. She will take cues from your voice. So it's always in a happy, confident voice that you address her. Not too hyper, placating or angry. I got to a point where my puppy would shoot up the stairs but wouldn't go down. This was the case even with just 3 step stairs. My process was to be in front of him by a step or two. At the beginning I would even sit just below him and make it a play session to go up and down one step while playing with his fav toy. It begins to take away the fright of the stairs and associates it with play time and good things like treats. My pup is now able to go down the steps. Its a two step process. Front paws on the step and then swings down the bottom half of his body unlike a bigger dog who's able to shoot down the steps quite easily which is hopefully what your lab will be able to do very soon.

P.S. Monitor them until they're able to smoothly navigate the steps. Falls are dangerous and just kick you back in progress. And make sure your pups nails are trimmed to help with gripping the floor comfortably.

Good luck!

Answer 4

If you can see through the stairs to the ground, she probably feels like she is going to fall through. Try holding her head up with her leash so she can't look through the stairs easily. I recently moved to an upstairs apartment, and my 2 pups were the same way. They are fine with it now.

Answer 5

If you can get someone to help you try leading her with a leash and have the other person tempt her to move forward with her favorite treat. My Great Dane was scared to come down stairs so I walked him close to the wall with a leash and my roommate tempted him with a piece of pizza until he finally went down the stairs. We gave him lots of praise and had to repeat it about 3 times until he got enough confidence to do it on his own. It'll take a lot of patience but she'll get it eventually...

Answer 6

Sorry my 3 yr old male still wont go down the basement stairs..lol and he is 80+lbs of muscle bound wimp. If you figure it out let me know because I have tried every kind of bribery there is and he still wont use the stairs. LMAO

Answer 7

The only way I could get my lab to understand that they were safe, is to get him to watch me go up and down a few times and then he finally got the hang of it. He's still a little creeped out by them but he will actually walk on them now. Hope this helps.

Answer 8

No body she have a terror of massive canines a million) because they're a similar as small canines 2) small canines are ordinarily better nasty then massive canines. 3) no canines is not in any respect is nasty its the owner who makes them nasty massive and small. over the years I have got here upon out that cartoons and action pictures have portrayed massive canines as nasty canines, ever heard of a staffy? ok maximum staffys are wonderful, yet some canines do not get the social existence they decide on at the same time as they're growing up. look on the former English sheep canines, loves guy and woman, Spanish water canines lovable and curly. i ought to rigidity that purely because massive canines are massive DOESNT mean they're all techniques nasty, and that i hate that they get stuck up in this mess. not in any respect be petrified of massive canines, they're a similar as small canines, purely with higher legs Any way solid success.

Answer 9

My puppy won't go down the basement stairs at my house which are wood. But he will go down stairs at my friends house. The difference is his brother is leading the way at her house and he just follows.
good luck

Answer 10

Treats!!! lost of them and lots of praise when he attempts to go up them...you shouldn't carry him b/c he needs to learn and he's pretty hefty.... Also, does he appear to be afraid b/c he may slip? or is there noise? or your shoes make noise? sometimes puppies get skittish but if you make it like play time you'd be surprised how quickly he'll run up the stairs! good luck!