I have a 15 week old puppy, Her name is Berlin. I wanted to introduce stairs to her, she has gone up and down small sets of stairs 2 steps out the sliding glass door or 2 steps in to the garage. My thinking was to try her on the stair way going to the basement,if I could get her to go down the basement , there is alot of room to train with her. I thought it would be easier for her to go up instead of down. So I picked her up and carried her down, about 1/2 way down she flipped out was really frightened. I figured at that point I would go the rest of the way down and then try to reasure her. She calmed down pretty fast but no way was going to go back to those steps, not even for all the treats in the world. After a few mins I gave up the idea but didnt know how to get her back up, I decided to let my older female in to show her, that didnt work so I turned on as many lights as possible to light up the steps better and left her at the bottom, and just kept a eye on her, figured maybe she woul get the confidence to try herself. She did! now should I not try them steps any more or should I take her back to them. This puppy has been super confident until that incident, It has been the only thing that I have found that she is leary of. I have been working on everything I can think of in the house since her birth. sweepers, hair dryers, fire crackers, and she isnt fazed by any of it. I'm scared I'm going to do something to change all that, Is it easy to ruin a puppy? Or set them way back? I dont want to throw all the good work away by doing something stupid. Thank-you for any replys.

Got a short flight of carpeted steps?

Or any carpeted steps that you can go up and down one stair, then two, then three....

(BTW, it's the going down part that scares most dogs who are scared by steps, IME.)

Edited by Connie Sutherland (12/18/2010 02:08 PM)
Edit reason: BTW

I dont have any couple of steps that are carpeted. The basement stairs are, I guess I could go and get pieces of carpet and put on the garage steps you think that would be ok? she goes up and down those now without carpet and doesnt even give any thought to those.

My dog was super scared of stairs, still is a little leary of them. Puts his nails out, which makes it slippery, when it isn't all that slippery.

Are they open steps and steep like many basement stairs?

I always start dogs on easy steps first.
Short rises, with blocked off and wide treads. They can be long or short flights but they're easy.
You'll find stairs like I'm thinking about in public buildings and in fromt of churchs and the like.
Try starting the dog on those kind of stairs before you ask them to tackle hard to climb open see through flights.

yeah they are kinda steep. I think I will take her to apartment complex sometimes they have steps going up to the 2nd floor that are wide and at a lower angle. Have you walked on eggshells so to speak with any of your puppys trying to rear them? Berlin seems to be pretty forgiving. I just want a stable well adjusted dog. Is there anything I should be doing with her right now that helps, I'm afraid to play tug cause of her teeth.

Berlin is doing real well on ceramic tile which is what is in the kitchen. But I had her on that since she started crawling. I cant remember a dog that I've had that has liked stairs.I know the one puppy I had I took to apartment complex steps with alot of treats, It wasnt long she was finding every set of the steps in the complex and going up them so she would get a treat, sometimes there just too darn smart.

I forgot to tell you betty congrads on your litters. there so cute. I just now read the darn thread on it. better late then never. Good luck with them all, sorry to hear about that little male.

When you take puppy out for walks, are there any stairs on your route? I have been getting Jethro comfortable with climbing by playing Up and Down on the stairs on our route. He is getting really good with jumping up onto things and then off, which is a happy way to burn energy as part of our walk. It has the added bonus of giving him an outlet for his love of climbing without having him climbing on tables and chairs in the house.

Maybe you could make a game of chase outside, where puppy chases a toy up and down a few stairs.

Debbie that's not the Betty that had the litter. It's Betty Waldron that did.

All my pups have gone up & down steps here since 8 or 9 weeks old. Open steps, carpeted, basement, steep etc. I never had any problems with steps. I never let them overdo it & would carry them a good deal of the time, but they just figured it out themselves. I have steps of all kinds to get into my home or out to the yard.

I would just put them on the floor at the bottom & let them figure it out. They would go up a couple to explore & then figure out how to get back to the bottom where I was sitting on the floor. They would eventually go up higher each time & then come back down. I just let them figure it out on their own at their own pace. My male used to run up the steps if we were down in the family room. He just likes doing it. I finally had to gate the steps or her would just run up & down. He still does that up & down the deck steps. But then he is weird, anyway.

I do also make it a point with pups to take them to places with all kinds of weird steps, open high metal steps(fire escape steps)inside & outside of office buildings with steps that can be metal or concrete & open backed etc. Also elevators & any odd thing that I can think of. Playground equipement is also a good place to go, walking on top of rock walls especially ramdom stone walls that makes for odd footing.Teaches them to know where their feet are & how to walk around & step on things that are not flat. Up & down boat ramps that kinda have steps & out on the floating docks. Raising pups is fun for me & them.