Our seven month old puppy is terrified of walking on slippery floors - lino, wood, marble. We have tried to encourage and make it as positive and as calm as possible, but she is not getting better . In fact she's getting worse. Have you any experience of this? How can we help her to get over this fear?
Hi and welcome to the forum My honest answer is to put down non-slip mats to give your dog some grip on the floor. Sometimes a training solution just isn't the way to go and the best and kindest thing is to modify the environment. Slipping is obviously scary and possibly even a bit painful on your dog's joints/muscles and making the floor non-slip will alleviate this very quickly (though you might need to encourage her with food initially).
Hi DaisyJane and welcome to the forum I've just put down non slip runners and mats. Mabel has become terrified of slippy floors like your puppy she won't walk on lino, wood or ceramic tiles. Once the mats were down I scattered tiny pieces of juicy chicken and she's now fine. I agree modifying the environment is the kindest and best solution. Good luck and we like puppy photos on the forum I'm sure you have some to share
Hi, I agree modifying the environment is the best solution but still, a fear of any kind is something that you must address. This scenario pops in my mind. You are someplace with your dog and there are slippery floors there..you find yourself with a problem. I'm not an expert but what I would do is: train somewhere where are slippery floors but also floors where she can feel comfy. Try distracting her with very tasty treats or a toy (something that she loves) and just walk on to the slippery floor. Even if she takes one step on that floor treat. I've seen this exercise done on Cesar Millan he did it with running with the dog for a while and when she/he was completely distracted he would run on the slippery floors. The running thing seems risky to me cause you can make things worse..like if she slips and falls during running.
When we first got Coco (at 16 months) we walked in an area with some huge, raised manhole covers - a bit slippy, echoey and just felt odd to him. He would NOT walk on them. There was no real reason why he should anyway, they're in the middle of a big grassy area, but we thought it best to address it rather than avoid them. So slowly, slowly with plenty of treats and praise for a step on, then a couple of steps. Very soon he could walk the length of one. Now he doesn't bat an eyelid.
In the home environment I would put down non-slip mats to help the situation but also think it's a situation which needs to be addressed otherwise how will you manage going to the vets for example with a fully grown 25 kg dog? My experience of vets is that the floor is usually of some easy clean surface which could be "slippery" by dogs. How will you visit other locations, for example your local pet shop, train station, café etc if your pup won't walk on lots of different surfaces. I would adopt Sue's approach and tackle it, perhaps one surface at a time, with lots of treats. Juno doesn't particularly like manhole or telephone covers or other metal mesh type inserts in roads/paths but she will walk over them as she gets treated for doing it.
Also check her feet. Too long toenails and too much hair between the toes will make her feet slide out. My sister's dog had a phobia about floors. She could control her own house but not other places, like our Aunt's nursing home. Laddie had so much trouble with the tile floors at the nursing home it just wasn't worth the bother of taking him there. Here's the funny thing though. When Laddie got caught having to go from one piece of carpet to another he'd walk backwards. It was hilarious. Dumb us, we never thought to video that. Something you might try is asking someone that doesn't know about this foible of puppy's to walk her. Laddie also didn't like stairs but when my OH brought him in the basement once he happily walked down the stairs with no problem. We figure Sis was giving off signals that she could not control that Laddie was responding to, partly. If that's the case with you and your puppy the ideas above with treating for nano steps might help both of you.
Your pup might actually be fine with smooth surfaces in other locations. It could be that she's just anticipating a negative experience in the context of your house (because of slipping over once before or something). Dogs can be very context-specific with their worries. How does your pup go in other Iocations with smooth floors? If she's afraid of all smooth floors then I agree that an attempt at training her to feel ok in these environments is a good idea. And maybe also get the vet to take a look at her joints on your next visit to make sure there's no underlying soreness that's making her feel less stable. Boots with a grippy sole are another option if she's worried about slippery places other than your home, like at the vet's.
Riley had a bad fall when we were on holiday. The cottage we'd booked had a kitchen floor like an ice rink! He's been nervous of shiny floors ever since. My mum put down mats for him at their house as you had to go through the kitchen to get to the garden for a pee (the dogs not me!) Gradually we moved the mats further apart so he had to put more paws on the floor between mats. He was and is still to some degree nervous of 'new' floors but we've always taken it slowly and tried not to rush or force him and over time his confidence has improved. He's never been a bold dog and this is part of that I think
