Hi all, I live in a two story house. My bedroom is upstairs and my little girl sleeps with me. Problem is, is that she recently refuses to come up stairs. We had some bad storms recently and I suspect maybe that’s why. Weather is back to normal though but she refuses to come up. She will get about 2/3 of the way up and turn back around. I’ve tried treats but she refuses and will just bark for ever. Last night I finally caved and slept on the couch downstairs with her. Tonite I’m trying to let her bark it out but she’s been going on for at least 30-45 minutes. What do I do??
Hi @C Dawg Hmmm An unusual problem. Is she barking because she wants to join you upstairs? Carrying her up the stairs and not allowing her back down until she had calmed would be the forceful way of approaching the problem. It is not something I am advocating. Flooding is fraught with problems for you, and the dog. Let's see if there is a better alternative. Try laying special tasty treats on the stairs from the initial step to the top and a little bit on. Have a special bowl at the top that she can see. I would do it off lead. While that may succeed in getting her up the staircase her anxiety will still be high. Alternatively, if you have taught your dog shaping, then use that method to reward your dog for successive approximations to climbing the stairs. Reward liberally for successive approximations to moving in the direction of the next tread. This would be my preferred method because there is a stronger element of counter-conditioning. Can you think of any reason why she is happy to go up the stairs only part of the way? What can she see when he gets to the last third? Do you need to open/close the bedroom doors, turn all the lights on, have some Mozart playing, perform the training during the day, dusk, etc. This is an important step in the training if you can solve what is the potential issue. It is designed to change the presentation of the upstairs, reduce her anxiety and thereby solve the approach-avoidance problem your dog is experiencing in a force free manner. Let us know whether she gets further than two-thirds of the way up. You might need to do the training over a series of days and training sessions. If she goes up just one step more or more importantly appears less anxious, then you know you are on the right tack.
I’ve tried high value treats. I am currently downstairs attempting to sleep on the couch with her . We just recently moved into this house a month ago and she’s never had problems with the stairs before. She’s too heavy for me to lift. I did try to get her to go upstairs during the day today a few times but had no success then either. Thanks for the suggestions. I will try again tomorrow...but until then I’ve got to get some sleep too. Lol
Could you leave her to sleep downstairs alone while you go up to bed? Or is that when she is barking?
that’s when the barking starts. She wants me to stay with her . Don’t know if this could be related, but she does need to ge ther nails trimmed. I’m hoping maybe this is why she won’t go up the stairs....fingers crossed it’s a simple solution like this!!
I would suggest you work on this during the day, since you won't feel under pressure to get her there and since the storms might only be associated with the night at the moment. Scatter some treats on the stairs and see if she is happy to eat them and where you get to with that, during the day - is she happy to go upstairs then? If she is, have a training session in your bedroom - with lots of treats - sits and downs and attention etc etc etc. Do this daily until you see her feelings about your bedroom start to change...
The vet suggested I got some stair treads in case she had slipped or something so I did but that has not helped yet. I have tried high value treats as well but still no luck. She refuses to move beyond the first landing which almost there....just 3 more stairs. Sigh. This is during the day and at night. I was able to take a 2 hour nap in my bed the other day. She was fine by herself laying on the landing until she had enough and started barking.
I think maybe you need to get a crate, condition her to really love the crate using Susan Garrett's excellent Crate Games DVD and my crate training approach: https://thehappypuppysite.com/crate-training-a-puppy/ Once she has a place like a crate - which is her own designated spot and has a strong reinforcement history for being there - I think she will be happier downstairs. There are many reasons why dogs can't make it upstairs anymore - elderly dogs get arthritis or dogs get hip or elbow issues - so this is something which has to be trained for other reasons often and, in the long-run, this might be the best approach anyway.
