Imagine what it would be like to go down "stairs" where each step is as tall as you.

If you can find a place with 1-2 stairs, see if you can get her down that.

Or pick her up and place her one step from the bottom, let her go down, play. Repeat a few times. Then set her 2 from the bottom....

 

Maybe a treat and praise for incentive for going down a step or two!
just a thought
Karen

 

be patient eventually they will learn to use them. And yes this is normal, most pups I have had are cautious around steps. It will be a fun feat when they finally go down them and yes positive reinforcement helps... like treats on each step..

 

Cooper is also three months and afraid of steps. He'll grow out of it, I'm sure.

 

yup normal. I agree with finding a spot with about 5 steps. Put her at the top and have her come down with you around. A treat after is good - but you don't want her jumping down to get them.

Noah use to bark for us to come get him ...they are so cute at that age. They will figure it out.

 

Ohhh, how I miss the days (all 5 or 6 of them!) that Sawyer was afraid to go down the steps. ha ha ha!!! He is fearless when it comes to going down the stairs. It's not a bad thing except that I haven't puppy proofed our lower level yet. When Sophie was a puppy, she didn't like going downstairs, and to this day won't go down there without being prompted or invited, so we never really needed to make the kids pick up small Barbie pieces and Legos. Sounds like a good Sunday project for them!

We did have to watch Sawyer VERY closely (we still do) when he started going down the steps. He got so excited near the bottom that he'd leap from 2-3 steps up. Not so good with tile or a concrete slab at the bottom!

 

I had a bulldog that was the same way. If you add treats to ever 2nd or 3rd step, he'll learn really quickly.

 

I'll never forget my dogs' first encounter with the basement stairs. We didn't have them in California, and the ones here are open on both sides. All three border collies stared at them as if there was something very, very wrong, like stairs MUST have one side that's a wall.
They'll get used to them in just a few tries. Then comes the fun part, teaching them to not run up/down the stairs.

 

In a way it is a GOOD thing that a pup does not like to go down stairs. Once they get past this "fear" they tend to bound down them recklessly and can actually do damage to their elbows and other joints. So do not be in a big hurry to get past this.
JMHO :wavey:

 

Great advice! I would not hurry up to teach a puppy to do that either

 

Totally normal. Joey did the basement stairs today for the first time, up and down. Ofcourse now that he figured out he can do them, its been quite the challenge trying to keep him up here! Try luring her with treats, and what helped Joey was having me like 'show' him what to do and how to do the stairs

 

It took Sadie a long time to be comfortable going down stairs, even if she would do 2-3 sometimes, other times, she would freeze! We were a little afraid that we would have to carry her forever. She learned on her first day of doggie day care, because they had to go down the stairs. I still don't know what happened, but it may have been seeing the other dogs? All of a sudden, she had no problem with them!

 

Took jasper a good 3 weeks of going up and down to finally not fear them.

Great thing to get is a laser pointer, most pups go nuts chasing those, and up the stairs the pointer would go, and so would he.... Then half way up he would realize, oh crap im stuck!

 

LOL! thats so cute. I never thought about using one of those, but now that i think about it, it would totally work!

 

Totally normal

Totally normal for the pup to be afraid to go down the stairs. They will learn to feel safe with them.
As someone else said great time to practice with a treat.

 

Jaro, who is also 3 months, was afraid until very recently. Now he just bounds down like the others said. Just give it a little time.

 

If it is imperative to train your pup to go down the steps, do so in a very controlled manner.
Teach them in stages a few at a time. Use food to coax her down SLOWLY. And teach her to do EVERY step, not allowing her to get within three of the bottom and jumping off. Teach her to do each and everyone every step.

 

I had to carry vincent down the steps to pee (down our back deck) for his first month..lol.

 

Just imagine if you were on all fours and had to go face first up the stairs and face first down the stairs. Obviously, going up would be easy, but going down that way would be a little scary!

Every puppy I've ever had was scared to go down the stairs in the beginning. All it takes is encouragement. We would never force them to go down a set of 20 steps in the beginning. We would always start easy - like the 4 or 5 steps going down the deck. One person would be at the top of the steps just so they know someone is there with them, and someone else at the bottom of the steps. Whoever was at the bottom of the steps would cheer them on to come down the steps and praise them when they would do it. It never took long for any of my puppies to become pros at going down the stairs!

 

I wish Gilmour took more care on steps!

Back when he was under a year old, and I was taking him to my Mom's house on Saturdays (a 3 level town house), he used to go up and down the stairs like some sort of daredevil. It scared the hell out of me.


Coming up wasn't bad, but when he went down he would step down to the first step, then take off. Legs flying everywhere, butt flinging back and forth, almost looking like a spinning tasmanian devil. Looked like some sort of Cartoon Character.

He never fell, but I was so worried that he eventually would.

 

Sadie went down the three stairs to get outside the day we brought her home, at 8 weeks. She was going down the 7 steps to get to the front door the next day. We have a split-foyer, so there are 7 steps down to the front door, a landing, and 7 steps down into the basement. She goes too fast, so I have been trying to slow her down by using a leash. One problem is as bad as the other, in my opinion. At least in not going down, the pup is not likely to get hurt.

 

9 week old puppy

Hello! I am new to the forum and love all the helpful information that is here!
Ozzi is a great little guy full of puppy energy. He loves to go up the stairs but is terrified to go down them...he barks, cries and whines if you leave him there and if you try to go get him to bring him down and acts the same way unless you are already up there with him.

Also we are seeing signs of aggression towards our hands...I know puppies love to chew on hands and we have a wide variety of toys from him to play with but sometimes out of the blue he will snap and go for your hands...we re-direct him and give him a toy but sometimes he wants nothing but the hand.

One last thing is that he is doing great at night with the crate...he cries when he has to go potty and sleeps soundly...when we leave him at certain points during the day he pees in his crate...he sits right in it...he is only left for 2 or 2 1/2 hours at a time and he is going on 10 weeks old. How come he can make it 3 or even 5 hours at night but not 2 during the day?

Thank you so much for any suggestions anyone may have! We had a 13 1/2 lab retriever that we had to put down in June, she was great with the potty training and the stairs so I don't remember some of these puppy things!

Tricia
Ozzi's mommmy

 

This is Abbie at 8 weeks. She was going down stairs her first day at home.

 

Abbie is so cute going down the BIG stairs....make sure you take lots of pictures of your pup learning new things, they grow so quick.