Hi Everyone,
My new dog (3 - 7 yo, approx) will go down stairs no problem. Yesterday when we brought her home, she seemed a bit skiddish about going down the stairs but now totally fine going down. But, she won't go up! And, she has to go up in order to go out to go to the bathroom! ::argh::
*We've put a sheet on the stairs in order to try and disguise the spaces between the stairs.
*We duct taped white paper behind the stairs to try, again, to fool her.
*We put a treat on each stair - she only came up as far as up as she could with her hind legs still firmly on the floor.
*We stood at the top and called her - she turned around and lay down.
::These are all suggestions we've read online.::
We're going to take a break for the night and try again tomorrow. But, my wife is physically disabled so this carrying her up the stairs (all 60 pounds of her) is not going to fly for much longer while I am at work all day long because she needs to take her out at least once a day. Obviously, we will get a trainer if we have to but we are hoping to avoid that (what I assume will be a) huge cost.
Please, please, please, any advice/helpful hints/thoughts are welcome. We have had this dog for one day and she does not seem stressed or anxious, she is perfectly happy, eating and drinking and sleeping, she's wagging her tail and being pet and lying at our feet. She's just ignoring our cats without any sign of anxiousness at all. She's going into her crate at night, absolutely no problems EXCEPT this. She's the perfect dog and she absolutely needs to do this one thing!
My new dog (3 - 7 yo, approx) will go down stairs no problem. Yesterday when we brought her home, she seemed a bit skiddish about going down the stairs but now totally fine going down. But, she won't go up! And, she has to go up in order to go out to go to the bathroom! ::argh::
*We've put a sheet on the stairs in order to try and disguise the spaces between the stairs.
*We duct taped white paper behind the stairs to try, again, to fool her.
*We put a treat on each stair - she only came up as far as up as she could with her hind legs still firmly on the floor.
*We stood at the top and called her - she turned around and lay down.
::These are all suggestions we've read online.::
We're going to take a break for the night and try again tomorrow. But, my wife is physically disabled so this carrying her up the stairs (all 60 pounds of her) is not going to fly for much longer while I am at work all day long because she needs to take her out at least once a day. Obviously, we will get a trainer if we have to but we are hoping to avoid that (what I assume will be a) huge cost.
Please, please, please, any advice/helpful hints/thoughts are welcome. We have had this dog for one day and she does not seem stressed or anxious, she is perfectly happy, eating and drinking and sleeping, she's wagging her tail and being pet and lying at our feet. She's just ignoring our cats without any sign of anxiousness at all. She's going into her crate at night, absolutely no problems EXCEPT this. She's the perfect dog and she absolutely needs to do this one thing!