He wont go down the stairs!

[sarah_bailey]

Bailey started to go up stairs about a month ago, but he still wont come down. He's only 5 months old, but is already 40lbs so it's hard to carry him now!

I've heard that you're not supposed to let them go down when they're too young but I'm not sure what the recommended age is.

Can anyone give me some advice?

 

[MyGirlHeidi]

Have you tried to coax him down the stairs with a treat that he really likes? That's how I got my puppy to start down the stairs. He would go one step at a time and realized he wouldn't tumble down them. He was about 3 months when he started going down them w/o any problems. He's a Shih Tzu and lower to the ground than a boxer. Heidi was full grown when we got her. It was so cute to watch him go up and down the stairs because he was so tiny and trying with all his might to be a big dog!

I've never heard about restricting them from the stairs until a certain age.

 

[sarah_bailey]

I'll give it a go! He just tends to sit there looking all sad at the top, we've tried leaving him, hoping he'll want to come down when he realises we're not there but just goes back into the room he came out of and terrorises it!!!

 

[boxer]

Tempting him down just a couple of steps at a time might do the trick and help him to realise that he won't tumble down the rest of the way.

Are your stairs carpeted? Few dogs enjoy going down stairs that are either open (where you can see through the gaps between each step) or are slippery. Can't blame them either - they do tend to slip.

If none of that is a factor, I wonder whether you've considered having his eyes tested? The main reason baby puppies dislike going down stairs is that their vision (depth perception) isn't well developed so they find it difficult to judge descending stairs. By 5 months though, I would expect him to be well past that. Might be worth checking out though, if there's no other reasonable explanation or any other signs that he might have a vision problem.

 

[Harley&Vegas]

Suggestion

I would call him to you from the bottom of the steps. This seemed to work for our baby when she was about three months old. Maybe even stop him when he starts up the stairs to turn around so that it is not so many steps to walk down. Baby steps!

 

[lisabethshaw]

Heavy load down the steps!

When it was time for Shiva to learn to come down the steps, I sat two or three steps down and put a treat on the step just above me. he cautiously came down half a step to get it. Then I moved down another two or three, put out the treat and he came down another two... Did this all the way down. Next time I started out the same two or three steps down but moved farther down with the second treat. After three or four times, he was walking down - still cautiously - by himself.

Kali, on the other hand, is fearless and follows Shiva everywhere. It was hard to keep her from going down the steps when we first brought her home!

What I love is when they're really little and go up the steps. Hop, hop, hop with those little butts!

 

[Jan]

It's pretty daunting to look down a whole flight of stairs. Just start from couple of stairs from the bottom and lure him down. When he realizes that he can do that you can gradually add more stairs. In no time he will be going down the whole fight of stairs with no problem.

 

[sarah_bailey]

Thanks everyone, much appreciated. I'll try this weekend!

 

[TracyandSam]

We had a Choc Lab that refused to go down stairs and it didn't matter if there were 3 stairs or 14...he would not go down even with any amout of coaxing. He used to lay out on our back deck and there were 3 stairs you had to go up and down...he had no trouble going up but he never went down...even when he was old and achy he would still jump from the top.

 

[Natasmama]

Scary steps!

I agree with Lisa and Jan, Natas is three months old and did not want to come down the steps, well... it wasn't that he didn't want to, he really did want to, he just didn't know how to. I had to show him three steps, how to place his feet to go down, I used the ones on my back deck because they are open. Then we moved to the front of the house were there are two sets of 4. We did those and then he was ready for the ones inside. He just had to learn how to place his feet to come down safely. Angel my shepard mix has never been downstairs in our basement, she is way to scared to even try. She does great on the outside steps but you bring her in and the brakes are on. So, she just stays upstairs.