Before we brought Oso home we moved our TV area from the upstairs to the lower level because it was better for him. Julie encouraged us to teach Oso to use stairs in case of emergency.
These photos show Oso climbing the steps and how happy he is to be on the landing. Our last GSD loved the landing because she could see all the doors and windows from there.
That’s great, Kelli! We had tried to do the same, because our bedroom is upstairs and Julie said we won’t be able to carry him for long (and Oso is much bigger than Dutch!). Dutch goes up the stairs now well, but is afraid to go down. I’ve tried sitting there and moving his front legs to the next step down, and help him ease his back legs down to the same tread, but he looks down and won’t go further yet. We have deep treads, with a landing half way down, so it shouldn’t be that scary.
Do you have any suggestions to help teach him how to go DOWN the stairs?
One more thing – he slept all night from 10 to 6 – that was great for me!
Oso does not like coming down as much as going up either. I put a treat on every other step and that motivated him. I also gave him a jackpot when he was successful at first and I can tell he thinks he has done an amazing thing. I think he would stay on the landing if I would let him.
He HAS done something amazing! I’ve been trying to lure Dutch with treats, too, but he gets so scared when he starts sliding. I think part of the problem is that we have wood stairs without carpeting, so he doesn’t have the security of any traction. They are very slippery. I actually worry that he could slide down and hurt himself, too. He’s going to be too big to carry soon, so this is a real problem.
On the other hand, the pictures of Oso are wonderful! I love the one of him peering through the handrails. And, I am so happy to hear your big bear slept through the night. Dutch has done it 3 times, but last night he woke me up at 5 am. Thankfully, he was happy to go right back to bed afterward. But he was so tired I had to carry him back up the stairs. He was lying at the bottom like a lump.
That is funny Bev. Oso is like a lump too when he is tired. He is very close to being too big for me to carry too.
Now the part about slipping on the steps is not so funny. You are right in that I think the carpeting helps with traction. The puppies are not very coordinated right now. I wonder if there is something you could use to mimic two steps rather than having the whole thing right in front of him?
He goes down the two steps outside the front door with no problem, but they are large stone steps, so he’s not looking down too far, and they’re not at all slippery. I want him to learn how to carefully and slowly go down the formal staircase. Now I wish I had installed a runner there. I’m going to check home depot and see if there might be something I can put on each tread temporarily to give him more traction.
Good idea – I bet that will work. You love your puppy, don’t you? I can feel your care and concern even in an e-mail.
Do you have a step stool with 2 or 3 steps? Like the white ones with the hand rail at the top, you can try that. Also it won’t be long and you won’t be able to keep him downstairs. OK your probably going to think I am mean but he has your number, as long as your willing to carry him, he will let you. Go upstairs and out of sight call him he will come because he loves being with his humans.or put a leash on him until he figures out going up the stairs by himself, that way you can give a little motivation. Sabree runs up the stairs lickety split, Kapone still walks up them one by one. The no carpet doesn’t help, but he will figure it out. When you know he CAN safely come down the stairs but won’t, then go downstairs out of sight and call him or ignore him, he will come down. To teach coming down I stood facing them from lower steps so they were king of above me, so they had a little added security that something would stop them if they did fall. One more thing, if they do start to fall, help them but don’t make it a big deal, act like it was no big deal, even though it scares the bageebees out of you.
I hope one of these might help you. But never fear it will happen.
One t,e ypu will turn around and he will be right on your heels.
one other thing if you have a porch outside with just a few steps work on that maybe first.
At this age, the puppy’s depth perception isn’t the best, so going down stairs is more scary than going up. You need to teach your puppy to go down each step so that it doesn’t go part way and jump to the bottom.
This is how I train for steps:
Keep the puppy on lead. Place the puppy on the third or fourth step from the bottom and gently guide it down the steps. Keep a little pressure on the lead so that the puppy can’t leap or jump off. Don’t pull/drag the pup down. Use lots of encouragement. Big jackpot at bottom! You can touch each step as you go down. It also helps if the stairway has a solid wall and keep the puppy close to that side of the stairs for added security. The puppy will usually hug the solid wall on its own. With the open rail stairway, you lose that sense of security – maybe put a large piece of cardboard on one side to give the impression of a solid wall.
Practice mastering up and down the 3 or 4 steps until it is no big deal and gradually increase a couple steps at a time. Even with the wooden steps, once Dutch learns to relax a little, the steps won’t be as slippery. It might also be a consideration to purchase a stair runner to use temporarily for better traction.
Remember to use a ton of praise and treats. If you are clicker training, use it! Hope this helps.
In the first photo I like how Oso is taking his time and watching where he’s going.
Yes, Kelli, I love my little Dutch so much I would probably just lose it if he fell, but I’ll be as stoic as possible like Karen advises if that should happen. I can’t risk him picking up on my fears – he may already sense some of my concern when he starts sliding off the tread.
Thank you, too, Carole, for your help. We have solid walls on the one side of all staircases. Dutch usually has no problem going up, except when he needs to return to bed after going outside in the middle-of-the-night. I’m going to try placing him a couple of steps up, and gradually increase the number of steps as he succeeds. I asked Scott to find something to put on the treads for better traction – we think that’s a great idea, and will make it much safer.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
@Carole
I don’t have any depth perception so I can relate to these puppies. You should see me try to walk up or down bleacher stairs. It’s not pretty.
Our main floor has a sunken living room with just one step. WTRanger mastered that one step within an hour or two of coming home. That certainly made manipulating the real stairs a snap for WTRanger. He has had no trouble going up and down the stairs (the cheering and rewards certainly helped!) since his first day home. I still carry him quite a bit since we have to take the stairs every single time we go out – which as we all know is quite often with a puppy! He does NOT like to be carried. He makes horribly mean noises at me when I do carry him and once even showed his displeasure with me by biting onto my glasses and flinging them off! Point taken. However, his annoyance with me carrying him is less important to me than putting too much pressure on his growing body by scaling the stairs a hundred times a day. I hope I’m doing the right thing.
Kirsten, I am so glad to hear WTRanger’s had such great success from the start with the stairs. Do you have wood stairs or carpeted stairs? I’ve even offered bits of raw steak, but poor little Dutch’s attempts to go down have not met with great success. His first few slips may have scared him. I’m going to take him to Petco now for a little ride, and we’ll find a harness for him. I’ll clip the leash to the harness as a backup in case he starts to fall. Unfortunately, Dutch usually likes me to carry him, constantly cranking his head around to lick my neck and chin. I have to be so careful going down the stairs because I am dividing my attention between navigating the stairs and carrying a squirmy puppy.
Beverly we have carpet on our stairs – so WTRanger has lots of stair traction. At first he did stumble on the one step going down into the living room and the next few times he encountered that step he’d whine a little, but he got over it quick. He also has NO fear. He’d dive off the roof if I’d let him.
Wow what a brave heart he is, Kirsten! My Lab Beamont was like that. When he was 8 weeks, we were playing with him on the back porch that has several steps to the ground. My husband called him, and instead of trying to navigate the steps, he actually jumped from the deck to the grass, landing on his belly! We were horrified, but fortunately he didn’t injure himself at all. From a very young age, he used to hike the mountains of Montana and South Dakota with us. Julie has cautioned us all about too much high energy activity during Dutch’s first year, so we’re going to be more careful. I’m still not entirely clear on what’s allowed; we were hoping he’d be able to do some dock diving this summer at the lake.
I don’t think Zeta even gave stairs a second thought, but that was probably because she was watching Niro and Kora going up and down them, so she didn’t hesitate at all,
Same with Odin – the very next day he was going up and down- he had to be with his boy.
Koda is a natural too, I don’t know if Alan had stairs in his house but he went up and down the stairs from day 1.
Willa, the pup I kept would go up the stairs no problem but not down. I have a very long staircase with swinging half doors at the bottom so it looks especially odd. I put Willa half way down the stairs and called her. She turned around and went back up. I scrambled after her and retrieved her bringing her closer to the bottom and held the swinging door open for her. She turned around to go back upstairs, I grabbed her collar and helped her make the first step, she finished going down by herself no problem. We still have to go downstairs from the bottom 4 stairs and not from the top, we will get there shortly.
Good work Kelli and Dan on teaching the stairs!