Stair Question

[Denise G.]

Good to know I'm not alone with the stair problem. I tried to put her on the stairs to go up and she just freezes and doesn't quite know what to do. We'll keep working on it--she'll get at some point because she's brilliant!!

[Kdemars]

Ella wanted to go down the stairs so badly but was shaking with fear whenever she got close. I never encouraged her as I didn't mind taking her up and down and she is still a baby so I figured it would come in time. Well, she got up the nerve one day and now she thinks they are terrible fun to run up and down. Every once in a while she misses on the way up and can't pull her hiney up - she promptly acts like she was never trying to get up the stairs in the first place, she meant to do that and find something nearby to play with as though that was the plan all along.

[Denise G.]

How cute! Gotta look cool going up the stairs for sure!

[PhylB]

Last weekend, I had a dog trainer here for a two hour session with Abby. Abby would go up the stairs, but not down.

She showed Abby how to go down (physically helping her, moving her back legs when Abby stopped, etc. and said the key was showing her three times. Sure enough, after showing/helping Abby three times, Abby now goes down the stairs.

We do not have her go down our main staircase yet, because it's very long, it's not carpeted, and I'm afraid she'll get scared and go through the railing, resulting in a very long drop down.

Good luck!

[selina]

Jeremy is quite happy to go up and down stairs. But My Golden retrievers wont. I still have to lift them into the car even

[Cathy Moon]

One of the first things we did in agility was to teach our dogs hind leg/foot awareness. This kind of awareness helps the dog to do stairs, too.

This is done by laying a ladder on the floor and letting the dog explore it on his/her own, clicking and treating the pup for sniffing it or putting front feet into the sections. Gradually we encouraged our dogs to walk in the sections of the floor between the ladder rungs, stepping over the rungs. After awhile, they are able to do this easily, moving quickly back and forth the entire length of the ladder. That's when you know they have awareness of their hind legs.

Another exercise that helps develop hind leg awareness is teaching dogs to walk backwards by facing them and slowly moving forward, clicking and treating them as they move backwards.

One more activity is to place a book on the floor and click and treat your pup for sniffing the book and for touching it with front paws. After awhile, encourage your pup to put both front feet on the book. Then, standing next to your dog and facing the same direction, take tiny sidesteps closer to the dog, clicking and treating when he/she moves hind legs to circle around the book with his/her front feet still on the book. Do this in both directions, moving clockwise and counterclockwise.

After practicing these exercises the dog will become very agile, which makes it easy to do stairs, ramps, and all the agility contact obstacles! Geordie can even climb a small step ladder.