Issues With Stairs

[Nushie]

We have just moved into a new place which has wooden stairs up to the bedrooms. Brandy is now ~18months old and never really had issues with stairs before but most of the internal stairs we have used have been carpet. She was a bit hesitant when we first moved in about 4 weeks ago but with a bit of coaxing she was fine using them up until last week. Over the past week she has been getting more and more reluctant to use them. As far as we know she hasn't had an accident on them, however she did seem to "rush" them when she was using them. The last week we have tried to treat her or make a fuss of her when she does use them and ignore her when she doesn't and try and get her to work it out but it is getting worse. Last night she flat out refused to use them and spent 20mins crying at the bottom of the stairs while we were in bed. Eventually I went down, took her outside to distract her and then carried her up the stairs.

We will probably set up a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs so that they cant get up to the rooms (the bedroom doors are closed when we are out so no reason for them to go up there) just in case she has had a accident while we weren't there. I tried to coax her up 2 steps yesterday and happily puts her front feet up but wont put her back feet up. Thinking a vet visit may be in order just to make sure there is nothing happening in her hind legs.

But has anyone else come across similar problems?

From a training point of view if I spend time with her slowly getting her up 1 step at a time etc. Will it be undoing it if I then have to turn around and carry her up at night?

Looks like I might be spending a long time sitting on stairs with roast chicken :)

Edited March 15, 2016 by Nushie

[Rebanne]

Try buying some heavy carpet and cut it to the same size as each tread. This worked for a greyhound I know. But a baby gate to make sure there isn't any accidents is a very good idea.

[Scottsmum]

Probably more likely that its an issue with the wooden floors, more than the stairs. A lot of scotties back problems flared up when we moved into a house with floor boards. We had to put mats at certain points to help him get traction (eg a yoga mat for its non-slipperyness under some carpet so he could get enough traction to jump on, and safely jump back off the bed and couch.

Depending on how wide the stairs are you cold put some non-slip down. Maybe cut up yoga mats? Maybe something like those mats you can / (used to?) put in the bath to stop slipping (haven't seen them in years). I'd just be wary of creating trip hazards for humans.

You could try something like this:

https://www.toegrips.com/

You mentioned crying at night - possibly look at using a night light too - I know my older dog (before Scottie) had failing eyesight and had a lot of trouble navigating the very dark stairs at night. Towards the end she stopped using them at all and we carried her up and down - she'd wake us if she needed a night time pee.

She had taken a tumble or two down one or two steps of the bottom steps and it really knocked her confidence - plus it bothered me having her land on hard tiles at the bottom. I'm not suggesting your dog has poor eye sight - just that stair wells can be very dark. We had a plug in night light for her. We've also used a desk lamp.

I'd be inclined to make being downstairs the most amazing thing ever in the whole entire world.

[Pjrt]

Put non slip matting of some kind on the step surface of the stair. Are the stairs solid in construction or are they floating stairs with an open back? If the have open backs your best bet is to enclose the back of the stair. Just use cardboard or something to test it out. Many dogs hate open stairs but will happily use enclosed ones

[Nushie]

Depending on how wide the stairs are you cold put some non-slip down. Maybe cut up yoga mats? Maybe something like those mats you can / (used to?) put in the bath to stop slipping (haven't seen them in years). I'd just be wary of creating trip hazards for humans.

My first thought was to put a non slip type material up the stairs but the OH was concerned about the potential trip hazard for us. Might head to Bunnings this weekend and see if they have something that looks suitable that hopefully wont cause us issues while trying to solve hers.

She isn't a very spring-y dog either which also might be causing issues. We don't have a very high bed but we had to put an low ottoman at the bottom of it so that she could get up onto the bed on her own. So maybe a the fact that it is a little slippery and that she hasn't got good springs in her could be the reason for the problems.

Might even try the stairs at the park and see if she hesitate with them. She hasn't had issues with concrete or other outdoor stairs before but they all tend to have more grip. So will be interesting to see if it is just the indoor stairs that she is reluctant to use.

Thanks everyone. Any other ideas are welcome.

Really helps to be able to talk these things through.

[luvmybulldog]

I got some rubber stair treads from Bunnings ( don't know how to post a link ) but if you go onto the website and search for Black Rubber Stair Treads they will come up.

They sit on top of the stair and have a lip that comes down over the front of the tread. I only have 4 stairs though and you can probably stick them down with a couple of spots of glue if you find they move. About $15 dollars each.