[Thisisme19]

Anyone help a dog overcome their fear of going up/down or near indoor stairs? Tucker has some weird phobia of them, not sure why - he's never fallen down any stairs or anything. He does fine with stairs that are outside, will run up or down full flights of stairs if they are outdoors with no hesitation. But when it comes to stairs indoors won't even attempt them. Thought it might be wood stairs because they can be a bit slick but have tried carpeted and concrete stairs in side and no luck. Sometimes he'll put his front 2 paws up on the first step but that's it.

I've been trying to work with him in the fire escape of my building. It's got shorter sections of steps. (3 steps then a landing, then another 3 steps and landing and so on) but could only lure him up the first run of the steps using an enormous amount of treats. But once he gets to the first landing and can't see anymore treats he bolts and goes back down to the bottom.

These stairs don't seem to scare him as much as some do. We were at a friends house the other day and when you come in the front door there is a flight of stairs going down to the basement and a hallway (stair railing on one side and bedroom/washroom wall on the other) When we got there he ran in the front door, then immediately back out. Once I managed to get him in the house he wouldn't go back in the hallway until we left and I had to open the front door so he could run passed the stairs and straight outside.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[desmetval]

Hello!!

I had the same problem with my dog! I consulted a friend who is a dog trainer and it was quite funny! She said: "if he can do 2 stairs outside, he can do 20 stairs inside". It's just the same! But I always carried Charlie down the stairs (indoors).
I've put Charlie on a leash and gentle escorted him down the stairs. The first time was a bit 'rough', but after 2 times he got the hang of it!

I hope this helps!!

Love x

 

[Thisisme19]

Hello!!

I had the same problem with my dog! I consulted a friend who is a dog trainer and it was quite funny! She said: "if he can do 2 stairs outside, he can do 20 stairs inside". It's just the same! But I always carried Charlie down the stairs (indoors).
I've put Charlie on a leash and gentle escorted him down the stairs. The first time was a bit 'rough', but after 2 times he got the hang of it!

I hope this helps!!

Love x

I know he's perfectly capable of going up and down the stairs inside. As I mentioned in my original post, I have managed to get him to go up some stairs inside, with a lot of treats. I figured the same thing, that if I could just get him to do a couple steps he'd figure out it wasn't so scary and try more. (this is what we did with outside stairs).

I'll try and get of video of him and the stairs so you can see what I mean.