Hi All Long time lurker, first time poster. We’ve got ourselves a rascal of a Labrador named Wilson. He’s just shy of 6 months and has finally got supervised free range of our downstairs (it’s open plan; such a relief to be rid of baby gates!) We have decided not to allow the puppy upstairs presently so we are trying to teach him that he cannot go up the stairs. However, our two cats who do skip past him up the stairs make the desire to do so irresistible. As you can expect paws on one step became two, and so on until he’s halfway up the stairs looking very guilty. Any training tips to teach this boundary? We’ve had success with clicker training so happy to use any of these methods. He is fine to be in the halfway so we’re struggling to figure out how to train him that the hall is OK but the bottom stair is not. Thanks in advance from a self confessed forum lurker and her pup Jess & Wilson the Lab
Hi Jess, A wonderful poster we don't see as much of these days was very good at explaining how to teach and reinforce boundaries. Here's a link to one thread: https://thelabradorforum.com/threads/pup-vs-puppy-gate.26730/#post-389690 But if you search for other posts by Michael A Brooks with "boundary" in them, you'll find even more snippets of wisdom. Good luck, do come back and let us know how Wilson gets on!
Super. Many thanks. I’ll have a bash and report back! Any tips from anyone who’s trained this approach still welcome