I have a two story home, I have grown up with many dogs in my life but never had to deal with stairs because he lived in a ranch. I have a 11 week old puppy and until now I didn’t know they weren’t suppose to use the stairs he has only been using them for maybe a week or two. Now that I’m aware of this no stairs till they are a year old I went out a bought a baby gate. Do you think I have already caused damage to my puppies joints??
Hi @Apdino no one knows the answer to your question. You are doing something about it now, so don't be hard on yourself. How are you going to manage a 7 month old dog. Carrying up and down stairs is going to be inadvisable on your back, and it can be dangerous.
I totally agree with Michael, don't beat yourself up about it or worry about it. The baby gate is a great idea. We also have stairs and a puppy who sleeps upstairs with us. We carried him until he was just about 6 months, but he is relatively light so we felt safe doing it. He is now only allowed up and down with supervision and no more than a couple of times a day. He always walks nice and slowly on the stairs so we have never felt like he needed to be on lead, but if your puppy is prone to charging up and down I would consider popping them on lead for the stairs.
Hi @Chewies_mum has some good suggestions. It will also depend on the surface. Polished wooden steps can place considerable strain on the dog's ligaments. Another issue is the steepness of the stairs. A ramp would be better, but I recognise that it may not be feasible.
For as long as you can feasibly carry your puppy up and down, do that. When he gets too big to carry, keep him on leash when going up and down, and prevent him from bombing up and down at 100 miles an hour.
