[Janet1962]

How did people teach their puppy to come down stairs. Mine is terrified he will go up ok but refuses to come down and stands shaking, when you pick him up to come down he runs away,my stairs are very steep so can understand but he has a big sister who I thought he would follow but no.

 

[KayWilson]

Basically you have to take it 1 stair at a time. I sat at the top (these stairs lead to the basement) with my dog, click, and treat. Then we eventually moved to the next stair down, etc. Took a few months, but now I miss those days when she refused to go down.

 

[Laco]

How big is he? Could be if he is small, his legs need to grow a bit so he can handle the steps better. Our Samantha, a 15 pound poodle/bischon mix, thinks the steps are basically a toy for her. Her goal seems to be, to never let anyone get ahead of her on the steps, even if it means only hitting every third step. Scares me to watch, but she seems to have it under control.

 

[Ems]

Some advice I got from our first trainer was don't worry about the stairs till you have to, everything is new for a puppy they are still learning and exploring, and while they are small enough to be carried just carry them, chances are once they are confident enough they will try the stairs on their own and you just have to be there to help avoid accidents. Also carrying them over obstacles and gently helping them with things they are scared of builds trust. If they fall on their first go they will be very scared of stairs. For us our puppy just decided to go down the stairs one day. She slipped a little but I was right there to help and then I made a big fuss of her at the bottom.

If your pup starts getting too large to safely carry that is when you try the one step at a time approach.