I live in a 3 story row house in Baltimore and have a senior Malinois male that I rescued. All of the floors are hardwood, with area rugs, but the stairs and hardwood throughout.
The dog has no issues going up the stairs or navigating going down stairs for short runs (less than 6 or 7 stairs before a landing). However, the stairs leading from the 1st to the 2nd floor do not have an intermediate landing and so there are about 15 stairs in a row.
He has slipped a couple of times. After the third time, I put gates up at the top and bottom of the stairs so that he would not try to navigate them. I also walk alongside hime going down the stairs using a harness for him and keeping myself positioned in front of him so that if he slips my body will prevent him from sliding. I also keep a firm grip on his collar (no lease).
I let him decide to come down and don't force him. But it is obvious that he is fearful. And of course, anytime he's downstairs he wants to head upstairs.
I don't think there is an issue with hips. But I am looking for creative solutions.
Has anyone found a supplier for stairs treads that are rubberized or non-slip? I think that I can rebuild his confidence if over a period of time he comes down without incident. Otherwise, I'll be sleeping on the couch soon instead of in the master bedroom on the third floor .
"I put gates up at the top and bottom of the stairs so that he would not try to navigate them. I also walk alongside hime going down the stairs using a harness for him and keeping myself positioned in front of him so that if he slips my body will prevent him from sliding. I also keep a firm grip on his collar (no lease)."
Let him learn to navigate without your help. It's how confidence is born and reinforced. If the reward is great enough (him wanting to be on the 3rd floor with you), he'll figure it out.
You might also want to check his nails, maybe a bit too long?
DFrost
Any behavior that is reinforced is more likely to occur again.
Thanks for the response. My goal is for him to get back to navigating them on his own. But the slip/falls were bad and now he wants no part of navigating down the long run from the 2nd to the 1st floor unless I am there. He is very much afraid.
I should note that I've had him for over a year and this is a recent issue, less than 3 months ago was the first slip.
I'm guessing that others have had these issues and may have solutions outside of carpeting the stairs (expensive).
My first priorty is no more slips, no more falls and reduce the chance he will become injured.
You can buy a running rug from home depot (They will cut the length that you need) and run them on your stairs with the sticky tape (don't remember the name of it) under it. Cost me about 50.00 for my 14 stair run and another 6 dollars for the ends.
I did not look at Kelly's link but do want to add there are certain types of paint available which have grit/sand in them which supposedly make steps safer. It is normally used for outside on deck steps, but might be an option as well. There are also adhesive, rubber strips available but of course will take some effort to remove at some point.
I just googled "non slip strips for stairs" and came up with a ton of options for fairly cheap. We have these at my work on marble floor and they catch me all the time .Hopefully this can help. Good luck!
I purchased these from Solutions.com because they are washable. I haven't had to wash them yet, but I throw them in the dryer (no heat, just tumble) every few weeks to "freshen" them.
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