I have a stairgate to prevent my 14 month cockapoo from going upstairs. It is because a) I don't want him upstairs, b) he still pinches things so kids stuff safe up there. I would however like to lose the fate at some point, any ideas?
No ideas. Ive found it really hard to train any of our dogs to recognize "no go" areas in the house. I know its possible as my niece has trained her collie to keep out the dining room. I see this is your first post so welcome to the forum.
Hi Anita - welcome to the forum from me too. I haven't ever used a baby gate so can't really advise you on this. I think there are some members who have had success with this, but not sure there was any particular skill involved - just that the dog wasn't used to going up the stairs so just didn't try when the gate was opened/removed?. I home someone comes along that can give you a few pointers. jac
I haven't trained a dog to do this, I have retractable fabric gates that slide into a slim box on the wall and I think I'll just always leave them there. But if I wanted to train a dog not to enter a certain area, I think I'd reward them for something they could recognise. So, staying one side of a small barrier and reward, reward for that. Then I'd proof that in the same way as anything else - have people, food, balls etc on the other side of the barrier and reward for not crossing it. Then I'd fade the barrier and up duration really slowly. I've never done it! Finding unobtrusive baby gates was much quicker.
I have a stair gate to prevent 20 month old Molly from going upstairs. My husband insists on keeping it there as he seems convinced that Molly would create havoc in his study. I don't see how he would notice, as it is already a mess. I think that once the initial novelty has worn off, she will prefer to be downstairs with us. I leave the gate open when he is out and call her down everytime she goes up. I trained my previous dog NOT to go upstairs. I had an elderly cat who had taken refuge up there and was prepared to be much more aggressive in my approach and used a rattle box to deter Holly.
Hi and welcome to the forum, I used a stair gate with Juno to stop her going up the stairs as a small puppy and to give the cats an area that was puppy proof . I removed the gate when she 6 months old as she was making no attempt to go up stairs even when the gate was left open. She's never gone up the stairs, in fact when we wanted upstairs for a bath we had to bribe her every step of the way. The most she does now is sit on one of the stairs when we are upstairs during the day. The gate came in useful though when she had her elbow op so I could restrict her movement to the kitchen.
There is a possible method for this in the late John Fishers book Think Dog. Backed up with some training using Bitter Apple Spray first, he discusses how you can use a secondary scent marker (cheap perfume) which the dog associates as a warning that something unpleasant is awaiting if they proceed beyond this warning scent. The scenario is more around protecting furniture without spending a fortune on Apple Spray, but the concept appears to me to be identical, as the warning scent takes on a "do not cross this line" property. The perfume will quickly fade to the human nose, but it'll be detectable by the dogs nose for a very long time. I can't really do it justice in my own words so pick up a copy if interest, the Kindle version is a steal at £2.50. It's a very good book too that gives some valuable insight into how the canine mind works. Haven't tried it though. Our upstairs is reasonably dog proofed, and we don't have stealing or destruction problems so upstairs isn't off-limits. Yet, our stairgate is staying anyway, so I can clean the bathroom with chemicals safely, and although I allow sharing of the human bed, upstairs is temporarily closed to a wet or muddy dog! Since de-crating, upstairs has become doggy sanctuary if she wants some peace and quiet! On a related note, if you never allow a dog to tackle the staircase, might there be a risk of them developing a stair phobia?
Like the idea of fabric retractable gates. Where do you get them from Julie T? Milo sometimes dashes up the stairs if he gets excited. Unfortunately if he throws himself at our bedroom door it does have a tendency to open and he loves nothing more than seizing a cushion. He just loves to have something to bring to us!
