Our 4 month old runs up and down the stairs in our house with no fear or hesitation 80% of the time. But other times she just freezes at the top of the stairs and will not come down for anything. She'll just stand at the top and whimper. We've tried every kind of enticement from favorite foods to putting on her harness to go for a walk (which she loves!). She absolutely hates being left alone so just leaving her there and moving out of sight is a pretty strong motivator for her. She will start crying and whining loudly, but still will not come down. When she gets in this state of mind the only way to get her down is to carry her. But at 33 lbs (15kg) and growing fast, that is something we can't continue. I don't want to just start dragging her down because that's likely to just make her more scared. Our stairs are carpeted so fear of slipping shouldn't be an issue. As far as we know, she's never fallen on the stairs since we had her. Maybe she fell at the breeders when a baby but that would have been a while ago and, since she goes up and down the stairs just fine most of the time, I'm not sure a past fall would still be an issue. No idea why sometimes she has these episodes then, an hour later, she's running up and down again like nothing happened. Any suggestions for things to try would motivators like food won't work?
Have you tried going down step by step on your bum with her? When we got our boy we were told he couldn't do stairs (sounded brilliant!) 2days in and he was up and slowly down again. He will stop at the top and sometimes look as if to say "no i can't" but he is just being stubborn. if i sit down and bop down each stair he follows
I was wondering does she need to run up and down the stairs? I personally didn't allow either of my pups to run up and down the stairs, probably until about 4 months but that was just walking up them occasionally. I have a stairgate at the top so they didn't really go up the stairs as there was no point anyway . The whimper in your case may be due to a twinge due to the loading effort on young joints.
Yes, our bedrooms and her crates are upstairs. Door to the potty area is downstairs. She really does need to be able to go up and down stairs.
I'm with @Beanwood and would be concerned about the whimpering being due to discomfort particularly as nothing entices her to move. Perhaps a vet check to be sure? My dogs are never allowed free access to stairs until a year old and trips up/down are accompanied and controlled in fact my girl at 3.5 years only goes up or down with supervision.
Cassie isn't really allowed upstairs but does sometimes find her way up there and is fairly excited when she does. They are quite steep and when younger she would stand there looking down and really struggle to descend in a controlled way and would often end up in a bit of a heap. I wonder if coming down is a bit of a challenge for them, maybe they can't quite see where they are going or co-ordinate themselves when small. Just a thought.
I have found putting her on her lead helps. I don't even have to pull her at all. Just clipping the lead on and saying "Let's go!" seems to give her the reassurance to tackle the stairs. A "Let's go!" without the lead doesn't work though. Weird.
Our breeder gave strict instructions: no stairs at all until 6 months. We lasted till 4 months but then he got too heavy to pick up (14 kg). But until then we carried him up and down, bedroom is upstairs so it meant carrying at night for toilet training (I once fell down the stairs carrying him one night in the dark - misjudged the last step, didn’t drop him!! Big bruise on me!). However, fast-forward two years and he started hesitating on the stairs. Turned out to be a slipped disc. So I’d recommend not forcing her to take the steps if she’s resisting, and get her checked by a vet. Our boy is fine now - 6 yo - but I often check him on the stairs to make sure he’s not hesitating (very worried about slipped disc recurring). You could put a sling under her tummy to assist her (take weight off her joints) up and down the stairs if necessary.
We have quite steep stairs and Lilly was pretty confident on them from a young age. Lilly was diagnosed with HD at under a year old and I do wonder if the stairs contributed to this. I would highly advise carrying on stairs and training it slowly on lead for when you're dog is too heavy to carry. Better safe than sorry I'm my personal opinion.
My 20 month old still won't go downstairs. We've tried everything from treats, playing with toys, bringing in other dogs to entice him and nothing works. We've carried him down and he wouldn't come up on his own so we resigned ourselves that he will never go down and that's ok. The stairs are carpeted but I think the depth perception bothers him.
