I recently (as in October 10) brought home a 5 month old Lab puppy named Charlie. The first day, he was pretty scared of the stairs leading up to my condo (I live on the fourth floor). However, after a bit of coaxing and encouragement, we made it up the stairs in roughly 10 minutes.
Now he has no problem going up the stairs, recently though he has begun to shy away from going down the stairs.
This morning, I tried to coax him with encouragement and when that didn't work and he just sat down at the top, I turned around and sat down waiting for him to come down to meet me. However, he didn't so I began to think it was something more than his just being stubborn. I tried to use a treat and thats when I discovered that he wasn't just being stubborn but was (I assume) scared to go down. He would stand on the very edge to try and grab the treat, but would not go down the stairs. It took many attempts for him to finally make it down the first stair and repeated treats to make it down the other 3 flights.
Any suggestions?
Afraid of Stairs?
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- Posts: 4
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- Location: Northern Virginia
Afraid of Stairs?
Michelle Claire
Mason Nation
Ffx, VA
Mason Nation
Ffx, VA
My vet told me that stairs can do a lot of damage to growing pups and small dogs, they have to over extend the back legs to get up and down them which can cause problems.
I would carry him up, you can make it easier for him by putting him in a bag.
I would carry him up, you can make it easier for him by putting him in a bag.
[url=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/Nethertumbleweed/PIXIE.jpg][img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/Nethertumbleweed/th_PIXIE.jpg[/img][/url]
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- Posts: 4
- Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2009 10:50 am
- Location: Northern Virginia
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- Posts: 4
- Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2009 10:50 am
- Location: Northern Virginia