Moved to new house... dog refusing to use the staircase

[Algarve]

I moved house on Christmas Day. It was a really big decision to move from an old crumbling 4 bedroom house with a garden to a 1 bedroom house without a garden thats walking distance from work.

Given I've 5 dogs the only way this was viable is if the roof terrace became the garden. I was a little concerned that my elderly 3 legged pit bull wouldn't be able to cope with the staircase.

Here she is on the first attempt - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m5tpKLpCa62dX8GrI...

So all good I thought.... then it turns out the 4 legged staffie mix simply refuses to use the stairs




So thats a problem I wasn't expecting. She's 11-12 years old, I got her from the dog pound maybe 6 months ago. Her last owner went into an old folks home and his family dumped her and her son at the pound (he was rehomed too, separately). I suspect she's probably never seen a staircase in her life, she'll have lived in this old guys garden and probably never left it.

I had a nice big garden before that was somewhat fenced but not really dog proof. I wasn't comfortable leaving the dogs out alone as my jack Russel would always leave then come back a few hours later. Plus there is always the risk of gypsies stealing your dogs.

So for 4 of my dogs they now have a better life I think. I've traded 3 unused bedrooms that they weren't allowed in anyway for a "garden" thats 24/7 access for them. But Gemma is being a pest... I'm having to carry her up and down the stairs.

The very first time she ran up the stairs herself, but then didn't want to come back down. Even after I carried her back down she now won't go up again. If she realises I'm going to make her come up or down she tries to run off.

I tried forcing her to go, but her collar is a bit too big and was slipping off her head. I've tried bribing her with some nice cooked food. I've tried going on the roof with my other dogs and leaving her alone in the house to see if she'll join us. I've tried it the other way around and leaving her on the roof alone. Nothings working.

She seems quite happy either in the house or on the roof. She just doesn't want to take part in the process of moving between



She's 40kg and the stairs are quite narrow and I've got a couple of other little dogs running around my legs while I lift her. Plus she's being obstructive and trying to poke her legs out so we can't pass through the narrow doorway. We're both going to end up going head first down the stairs if we can't resolve this...



Shops will be open again today so one option is get a proper fitting collar and force her to go, but I'd rather not do that. I don't know if she's likely to realise its nothing bad after a few times, then go willingly. Or if I'll make her worse.

The other option is for now just put a lead on her and walk her outside a little to pee. But longer term I really need her to use the roof terrace. This was a huge part of the reason for the house move, I can now go away for the night if I want, have a friend pop in to play with them a bit and feed them and they're 100% safe and secure with the roof. I couldn't do that before as I couldn't risk my dogs leaving the garden and I'm 250km away in Lisbon I don't want her pissing all over the place because she's scared to go up the stairs...

So how do we resolve this?

Edited by Algarve on Thursday 27th December 09:43

[PositronicRay]

How about a carpet runner?

[nickwilcock]

1. Tie sausage to piece of string.
2. Ensure dog knows there's a sausage to be had.
3. Walk up stairs towing sausage behind you.

Greed will overcome fear!

[moorx]

PositronicRay said:

How about a carpet runner?

I agree that the slippery surface may not be helping.

A lot of greyhounds don't know how to use stairs when they are rehomed - it may be worth doing internet searches on how people have overcome this issue with greys.

[CAPP0]

I think she may be afraid of that bloke with the 'tache and the green hat who's guarding the stairs.

I started this reply as a jokey comment but she does seem to be staring at it. And if she's a recent rescue then who knows what has freaked her out in the past. Worth paper-bagging the newel post for a while and leave her to decide whether it's now safe?

Edited by CAPP0 on Thursday 27th December 16:21

[anonymous-user]

Our two Bull dogs would not use the stairs until they were about 18months old, used to have to train them to take one step at a time whilst holding them.

No idea why, then one day they were fine, odd little creatures.

Putting a biscuit on each step used to help, going up wasn’t as bad as going down, that took a while longer.

[Boosted LS1]

Best not to force her. Let her decide to walk up them. Have the steps got grip, are her claws trimmed. Has she got an age related injury? You could put some nice food on the first landing and leave her to think about it :-)

[bexVN]

Going down the stairs is a daunting process for some dogs, especially bigger heavier build dogs. It puts a LOT of strain on their front legs.

Also given her age her eyes may struggle to define the steps clearly.

So there is the worry of slipping and the potential of pain as she goes down them and not seeing them properly.

Carpet on the stairs will be a help I think.

I am not sure pulling her down the stairs on a collar and lead is the best idea (which is essentially what you will end up doing, even if you don't intend to)

It will take time. Sit one step below with a tasty treat. As she eventually steps down one step move down one more step, so on and so forth. Hopefully with patience she will find a way to cope with them.

[Algarve]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_nnYpQF68gmIfNNXW...

She's eating off some of the steps but doesn't want to come up further. I'm gonna sort some sort of carpeting.

I had all the dogs on the roof earlier. I needed some stuff from shop and was only going to be out 20mins so I just left her on the roof. When I came home she was in the lounge. So she's ignored all my bribes earlier then just went down on her own when I wasn't even home