So uh....Luc. My sweet, sweet Luc. Very underexposed for most his life from a puppy (3 years in a shelter from somewhere between 6-9 mos old). The nicest dog you could ever meet. Kind of not that smart.

Anyways, I have what is not really a problem as it doesn't much matter but it bugs me. I live in a bungalow. There are stairs down to the basement (where my brother lives) and the back door landing. The stairs are through a door from my level.

I should note: where we lived before, we had to walk up a flight of stairs (inside my apartment). Luc is not scared of stairs.

So - Luc will NOT, go into the stairwell going out the back door.

As far as I know, he has had no negative experiences with it. I leave the door open when I'm going down to the laundry, and he can see the stairs. Steve (my brother) comes up and Luc loves him. He'll stand there quite happily and watch us talk in the stairwell. But he will NOT enter it.

I didn't realize how stubborn he was about this until about 10 days ago. I was helping Steve move something downstairs from outside. Luc was with us and when I called Luc to come in through the back door, he hesitated, looked at it, and then tucked his tail between his legs and ran around to the front. I did go get him, bring him back, and shove him through the door and he ran upstairs.

But I feel bad, b/c I don't see this as something that requires compulsion and I probably just added a negative association.

Any help?

Last night I was talking to Steve in the stairwell, so I got some high value treats and tried luring Luc over. Didn't really work. He went almost to the edge of the stairs, got one treat, but wouldn't go any further. I set a treat down on each stair, and encouraged him. He sniffed over the edge, looked at me (with what I like to call the 'Luc look' - it's like a mix of 'ARE YOU CRAZY LADY?!' with 'AUGH!'), and then backed away back into my part of the house and sat down about 2M away, slightly turned away but every so often turning his head to give me a horrified look.

It's not like he's required to use the back door/stairs for anything....but what gives? Normally he trusts me but he has a thing about the stairs apparently.

Storm was like that when he first saw a spiral staircase. I walked him up it (forceably, on lead) and then back down. Then I put his ball at the top and asked him to go get it - he did because the ball was so high value.

You could take him to as many places as you can with stairs, varied sizes, shapes, locations, enclosed, open etc. mark when he gets it right.

He's just always been fine with every staircase we've ever encountered before - not just the one at our old house. But maybe it's worthwhile doing a whole whack of staircases and then trying.

It's this staircase specifically he's got a thing about.

So, just to clarify, the stairs go from your apt., down to a landing (where a door leads oustide), and then down to the basement where your brother lives?

Maybe it smells funky to him? Dunno, but Lucy bolts sometimes depending on a specific odor...which, if I could figure out what that odor was, I would eliminate it from the world!

Lynne, yes, that's how it's set up.

Jo....maybe. But I would imagine it would smell like Steve and his cat, if anything. Luc's never met his cat, but he loves Steve.

I don't want to force him....I just want to see if I can make the stairs positive and have him go in willingly. It's not a super important thing, it's just so weird of him to me.

What's the setup outside the back door? Porch? More stairs?

Straight outside - no porch, no steps.

And he'll hang out in that part of the yard no problem....

What about putting Neb on a leash, and Luc on another leash and leading them both into the landing and back out again? If that doesn't work, I think you would have to approach it as a desensitizing thing and reward for closer and closer approach to the landing and then the stairs.

Is he food motivated? (I know he's not toy motivated )

Another option may be the type of stairs. My basement stairs were the open kind that were just a plank of wood for each step. All dogs I've had were nervous with those stairs going either up or down. I bought some carpet scraps to staple onto the stairs giving them a traditional look with no gaps. Haven't had any issues since.