Large Breed Puppy And Stairs

[Guest hankodie]

A few days ago we picked up our Golden Retriever puppy and things are going great! He loves his crate and asks to be let out to toilet, so far no accidents inside the house.

As this is the first large breed dog that both me and my husband have owned, we have researched into joint issues and the genetic/environmental aspect of it.

Our house has a set of 13 stairs internally that lead downstairs where the backyard is. So far I have been carrying him up & down but he'll soon grow too big for me to do this (I'm little and unfortunately not very strong!) What precautions should I take to minimise any potential damage to his growing joints? I plan on taking him up and down gently on the lead until he's fully grown. We are also training our other dog to "go slow" up the stairs.

Any other advice on navigating around the stairs issue? Carpet maybe? We also have hardwood floors but are adding more rugs everywhere and we will be discouraging any running/playing inside. My breeder gave me tons of excellent info and I have asked her this question but I just wanted to hear from other large breed puppy owners.

Here's a photo of our Hank - or as my husband likes to call him "Handsome Hank" :laugh:

[aliwake]

I'm not really sure what I'd do in that situation, we only have 2 steps. I put a ramp over the steps for Nixon when he was pretty small and made him use it going down because that seemed a lot harder on the joints.

Not sure how that would work with so many steps though!

We also have timber floors, and I cringe ever time Nixon starts running inside because he slides everywhere! I'm sure it's terrible for him, but there's not much you can do when they get the crazies, except refuse to participate!

At our basic obedience class recently they mentioned that when grooming, it can be useful to trim the hair on the footpads so they can grip better. Was definitely news to me, but I haven't tried it yet - I think it will help with the sliding quite a lot though. Particularly as we keep his nails really short, so there isn't much giving him grip at the moment.

[Misteri]

Not much to add as we don't have stairs... but teaching him to go down them slowly seems like a really wise idea, not just for when he's a pup. Make sure he isn't jumping off the bottom when he goes down too.

(I really just wanted to post to say that Hank is so adorable!)

[BC Crazy]

I too just wanted to say Hank the handsome is to die for So adorable .....

[Lugeanjaam]

I have about 16 internal stairs and I am paranoid about Flynn my 9 month old Groenenda racing up and down them. Once we was to big to carry I would pop his lead on him when we used the stairs and I taught him the 'slowly' command. He now heels at my side when using stairs, I still worry about his hips but its better than nothing.

[Guest hankodie]

At our basic obedience class recently they mentioned that when grooming, it can be useful to trim the hair on the footpads so they can grip better. Was definitely news to me, but I haven't tried it yet - I think it will help with the sliding quite a lot though. Particularly as we keep his nails really short, so there isn't much giving him grip at the moment.

Good point, thank you! My breeder has sent instructions on how to do this so I'll get him used to it right away. I'm in the same boat with my floors, he chased after his sister this morning and seeing him slide around nearly gave me a heart attack I have to really try and enforce "calm time" inside the house (as well as buy a few more rugs)

[Guest hankodie]

Not much to add as we don't have stairs... but teaching him to go down them slowly seems like a really wise idea, not just for when he's a pup. Make sure he isn't jumping off the bottom when he goes down too.

(I really just wanted to post to say that Hank is so adorable!)

I too just wanted to say Hank the handsome is to die for So adorable .....

Thank you! I can already tell he's going to get away with murder, he does the best "puppy eyes"look I've ever seen! :laugh:

[Guest hankodie]

I have about 16 internal stairs and I am paranoid about Flynn my 9 month old Groenenda racing up and down them. Once we was to big to carry I would pop his lead on him when we used the stairs and I taught him the 'slowly' command. He now heels at my side when using stairs, I still worry about his hips but its better than nothing.

This is my plan with Hank. The breeder said that stairs are not ideal but as long as we are sensible it should be okay. Like you I am still very nervous though, I wish we could build some sort of ramp but the staircase is far too narrow

[aliwake]

The ramp wouldn't help in the long term anyway - Nixon now takes flying pig leaps off the top step at the slightest provocation! It's not a big drop, but it still can't be good for him.

There's only so far you can manage things - some things we just can't control!

I think going downstairs quickly would be more damaging than running upstairs, so if you can teach that from the start you'll be ahead. And there might be less chance he'll be tempted to take flying leaps off the lower steps too :)

[LisaCC]

I think the biggest problem even with teaching him to go slowly is the last few steps where dogs like to fly off them!

I've only got small steps at my house but I have got one of those dog car ramps from Sam's warehouse and have them on the steps. If you put one of those of the last few steps you might prevent that from happening :)

[Guest hankodie]

I think the biggest problem even with teaching him to go slowly is the last few steps where dogs like to fly off them!

I've only got small steps at my house but I have got one of those dog car ramps from Sam's warehouse and have them on the steps. If you put one of those of the last few steps you might prevent that from happening :)

Very true! Our other dog goes racing down the last few steps, I can't count the number of times she's taken a tumble I really have to enforce the slowing down rule but she's always so excited to go out to the yard. The car ramp is a good idea - I'll look into it, thank you! :)

[sheena]

This worried me a lot when we got our new border collie pup. We only have two sets of 4 steps outside the house but he has always thought he was Superman & would/does jump from the top to land at the bottom. So we put some thick rubber mats to cushion his jump. Not sure what you could do with your slippery floors, but I thought I read somewhere that there is something you can spray on their feet to make them grip better or you could put baby socks on him with those grippy things on the soles, but he would probably eat them.

Trimming the hair from the pads does help some.

ETA Found it Firm Grip Spray but can't be shipped from America, but maybe something similar in OZ :)

A product available in Oz Firm Grip Spray

Edited August 6, 2013 by sheena

[Guest hankodie]

This worried me a lot when we got our new border collie pup. We only have two sets of 4 steps outside the house but he has always thought he was Superman & would/does jump from the top to land at the bottom. So we put some thick rubber mats to cushion his jump. Not sure what you could do with your slippery floors, but I thought I read somewhere that there is something you can spray on their feet to make them grip better or you could put baby socks on him with those grippy things on the soles, but he would probably eat them.

Trimming the hair from the pads does help some.

ETA Found it Firm Grip Spray but can't be shipped from America, but maybe something similar in OZ :)

A product available in Oz Firm Grip Spray

Thanks very much for the link! :) Yes I think some sort of solution is needed for the floors - it was Hank's 4th day with us and he's decided that chasing his sister around the house is lots of fun indeed! have tried to discourage this by telling our older dog to "go to her place" so they can play on the big dog bed but not sure how long I can keep that up for :laugh: I'll definitely look into that grip spray or something like it!

[seld]

We have an english mastiff puppy and timber floors. We went to a few carpet places and bought some large remnants and talked them down in price for the actual carpets. We paid $7 a metre to get edges bound, but thats not totally necessary. Even marine carpet from bunnings would be an option but its pretty expensive I think. The best part about the mats is that the house has that beautiful new carpet smell!

We had stairs in our old house and had the same problem with our old boy, he just had to learn that upstairs was a no go zone which was ok as it was bedrooms only up there.

[dancinbcs]

I read an article just in the last few weeks about stairs and HD. It stated that using stairs in the first 6 months was the biggest contributing factor to dogs suffering HD so I would be keeping him off the stairs as much as possible. I wish I could remember where I saw the article.

[bellske]

I've had a german shepherd pup for the last 3 weeks, her breeder mentioned no stairs for at least 4months, so we're carrying her up and down, ours stairs are inside though and the only time she really needs to go up stairs is at bed time, so its only a once a day thing. I was considering basket or something for when she gets bigger and is more awkward to carry.

Cheapest thing with hard floors, carpet offcuts, we're in a rental for the next 6-12months, and downstairs is all tiled and up stairs is polished wood, for less then the price of one big rug, I've been able to cover practically all over the floor downstairs and I the bonus is we don't have to stress out about rugs having accidents on them or the end being ripped, we're still teaching her not to but its not like its $180+ rugs getting wrecked.

Not sure where in NSW you are but if your in Western Sydney shoot me a pm I'll give you a number/link for where I got our offcuts, it came up when I was looking for the cheapest rugs possible lol

Edited August 10, 2013 by bellske

[Guest hankodie]

Thanks bellske! Turns out my mother in law had a couple of old rugs so we are trying those out for now - I've designated them as the "play time" area and the dogs know pretty quick not to rough house on the floors or else they get a time out. The basket is a fantastic idea - it's only been a week but I swear he's grown! He's almost as big as my frenchie so pretty soon I'll be struggling to transport him up and down!

[sandgrubber]

I read an article just in the last few weeks about stairs and HD. It stated that using stairs in the first 6 months was the biggest contributing factor to dogs suffering HD so I would be keeping him off the stairs as much as possible. I wish I could remember where I saw the article.

such an article was posted in the Studies About Dogs in the General Forum. The link is

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120326112842.htm

Large sample (400 dogs, 4 breeds) . .. PhD research done at a Norwegian university.

Here's a snippit:

After about eight weeks, the puppies began life with their new owner. The opportunity to exercise daily in parks up until the age of three months reduced the risk of HD, whereas the daily use of steps during the same period increased the risk. Overall, it would appear that daily exercise out in gently undulating terrain up until the age of three months gives a good prognosis when it comes to preventing HD.

I would avoid stairs as much as possible. When you have to go up and down, have the pup on a leash and make sure he goes SLOW.

[Guest hankodie]

thanks for the link sandgrubber, very interesting. As I mentioned the stairs are almost impossible to avoid at our house as the dogs need to go down them to toilet and back up to the family/living area (bedroom, kitchen, tv area etc are all upstairs at the moment until we renovate downstairs). Hank is getting heavy already but someone mentioned a basket to carry him up/down so I will be doing that until he gets too big, then I'll be taking him down on a lead very slowly :)

[Starkehre]

He is just beautiful.

Ensure stairs are full, as in go gaps through the back between each step, nowhere for legs to go through. If they are gapped steps, have them filled.

Your leash idea is excellent and I would continue this until you feel confident that he must walk slowly up and down them.

Ensure the stairs are blocked off at the top an bottom so he cannot negotiate them without you.

Best of luck :)