Stair Training :)

[JMFS]

Stairs, ramps, step ups, hitch steps . . . no-brainers to us, utterly foreign weirdness to dogs and Not to be trusted.  😆  Gertrude jumped right past the stairs - we'll work on that.  I want her to start using them to save her joints.  When I had a car it wasn't so bad, but now the SUV is pretty high.  If anyone has an SUV that has a narrow door opening, I can tell you 14" will fit and 16" might - it looks like there's room - and these are what I got: https://www.chewy.com/pet-gear-pet-step-cat-dog-stairs/dp/227332 and they're good up to 100 lbs.  They were super easy to put together, though I feel I want to find a way to stabilize them just a wee bit.  They fit in the back and are super light.  Didn't even need the instructions to put them together, it was intuitive. They are covered with a gripping material as well. Much better than me hoisting a 35 lb pup who doesn't help me - so floppy!  :p

She was Not having it until I put treats on the stairs.  I started with one on the very top stair, but she wasn't going for it so I did the same "draw a line" trick we do for "sit" and "down."  She slid just forward enough to touch the stair with her paw, which then gave her confidence there was something there.  After that it was bloop, bloop, bloop, and done.  One round of treats is all it took - I was expecting to spend a good 10 minutes on this but she's all set now.  Those ears, haha!  This will save not only their joints, but my back.  :)

[Adrienne]

Awww, how cute! That's a great confidence boosting exercise on its own. Great job Esther!

[FrederykBlot]

Hi ! 

 

I'm upping this as Loki started to begin a little fright of the stairs lately. (I think I mentioned it in another post)
He had no problem with it before, so I suspect he may have tried them alone for exploration, and slipped, or fall...
I really suspect like that, because it's going down that scares him, going up is no issue. 

 

That being said, thank you for the method. I was luring with treats in my hand before, and started to put treats on the steps as suggested by Adrienne in her reply to my message, and it worked quite well. It's nice to see a good application of the method ! Praise to Esther ! Loki gets a jackpot when he's downstairs to make him know that coming downstairs when I'm downstairs myself is very cool !!

Also, thank to your post, and this is not related to stairs per say, I think I'm gonna get a stair like yours for the car. I never thought about, but it seems so convenient. 
I think one of the thing Loki doesn't like with the car is the difficulty to get in or out. He can't jump in alone, so we have to carry him (and being carried unless in exhausted is not his type, we may have to train that a little), and he doesn't find a convenient way to get out, so I'm pretty sure he can feel a little trapped (and that, just to add to the fact he can have motion sickness). Maybe the little mobile stairs may help to cope at least with this part

 

For the questions part now :D :D
Do you have any idea of anything else what could cause this sudden setback ? My trauma thing is a wild guess, I didn't see him having an unconfortable moment in the stairs
Also, I was wondering if at Loki's age, we can train that specifically ? I was doing it only when go to walk, because I read that stairs aren't supposed to be good for puppies because of joints, and plates... but is 4.5 months old enough to try a few times up and down during the day ? 

 

Thanks & regards

 

[JMFS]

Those stairs are massively helpful, especially now that Esther is 39 pounds.  It's better for their joints and my back.  The stairs I got are very lightweight but sturdy enough to support their weight.  I think they were said to support up to 100 lbs and I feel they could go that high, but anything over that I wouldn't trust.

There is the ramp option as well if your door will open wide enough.  I had to go with stairs because my door opening is narrow and the ramp we have wouldn't fit at all.  I load them into the back seat of a Land Rover so it's pretty high off the ground.  They can both jump in, but Esther was hesitant when she first came home with us and the stairs were a good solution.  I appreciate that they're lightweight enough for my arthritic self to move around and they fit in the cargo space of the vehicle.  If I have to get groceries I can put bags in the hollow area so even though the stairs take up space all I have to do is flip them around and it becomes usable space.

I'm going with your trauma guess.  He could have stepped funny one day and for some dogs that's enough to spook them.  Esther was jumping back from her Kong Wobbler lid yesterday like it was a hot poker that had touched her.  She uses the Wobbler twice per day, every day, but for whatever reason having only the lid presented was enough to freak her out.  I ended up moving it towards her and spilling food out of it over and over again so she learned it's a delivery system, not a deadly predator, lol.  Dogs get scared by the strangest things and while she's bold and confident with normal life, Esther is extremely skittish with new experiences.  I would love to know what happened in her first 6 months of life!  I swear she was locked in a windowless room with no stimuli whatsoever with the way she reacts to mundane things.

I'm not sure about the growth plates.  Esther doesn't have much of a choice - she has 14 stairs to traverse any time we need to go outside, which is about 5 times during the day.  28 (up and down) stairs x 5 flights  = 140 stairs on average daily.  (And the husband says we never use Algebra, pfft!  s * 5f = 140, solve for s!  Or 28s * f = 140, solve for f!  Lol - I'm a nerd.)

[FrederykBlot]

We might actually go for the rampe option
I have a 4 seat sports car, and trunk capacity is something you have to sacrifice for sports ahaha
Having a flat ramp will be more practical if we have luggage in the trunk, or groceries

 

I guess for the actual stair training, we can do during walks : 2-4 per day depending on the heat, and I'm sure at the point, he'd get the grasp of it
I think it's just more practical to practice something fully in one session then get onto something else
To me, we'd get better and quicker results, if we could trained that as any behavior modification, just not a one time thing separated by hours

 

lol I'm a dev, I'm ok with some maths and nerdiness :D :D

 

[JMFS]

The stair training will come in handy when you go somewhere that has stairs.  You won't have to struggle with convincing him to use the stairs or allow you to pick him up.  Life skills, lol.  All of our dogs have learned stairs easily.  Gertie goes up stairs like we do - alternating legs and one stair at a time.  Esther skips stairs and runs up them front legs together, back legs together.  Abbi rides in our arms.  Brownie did, too.  Stairs aren't great for Dachshund spines because the breed's backs are so long and need extra support so we do what we can to protect them.  Momo was a flurry of red hair dashing up and down.  He was much like Esther, but took them one at a time and Really fast.

I wish I could find the video that was part of a compilation I watched.  It was several bulldogs in one household and they All had different approaches to the stairs.  One slid down, one Ran down, one kind of side hopped, one took forever to finally do it and slowly took them step-by-step.  It was an excellent illustration of how different even the same breed can be.

If I'd have known better back in the 90s I would have taken computer classes!  I have an aptitude for coding and most things computer, but without that backbone of education I have to wing it.  I do alright - most of my work is automated now thanks to Access, Excel, and Autohotkey.  😉  One day I will learn about VPN and many other things, but for now there's just not time.  I know a little about a lot of things and I Love geeking out.  :)

[FrederykBlot]

just throwing a little idea here instead of a trauma : 

 

it seems to be unsure how to proceed anymore

when he was younger, one paw forward would put him in the middle of the step below
but now that he's grown, he's a bit longer, and a full paw forward may bring him two steps down, and he's really unsure about that

I thought about that when I noticed him going down a little on the side rather than full front

 

do this makes any sense ?

 

[JMFS]

How are you leading him down?  Lure or putting treats on the steps, or maybe both?  They can definitely spook themselves when their feet don't land where they are expected.

[FrederykBlot]

now I put treat on steps

 

It's getting better, he seems to just need on the first or second step to "ignite" him :D

He's way more confident to go the whole way down once the first difficult ones are done

 

I have good hope with some more repititions his confidence will build, and he'll be back being able to go down on his own

(I will then have to proof downstairs, but each time its problem :D :D)

 

[FrederykBlot]

Rejoice people ! Today is a day of joy and celebration !

After days, and numerous walks, of pieces of treats on stairs steps, and jackpot downstairs, mister Loki did respond to "come" when I was downstairs and join me there without any treats on the steps !

He got a maxi jackpot once downstairs !

 

I guess the confidence built up, and he also managed to "perform the mechanics"

 

HARD WORK AND PATIENCE WORK PEOPLE !!!!

 

Another cause of celebration for today (with the electric fence thing) !

Thanks to you both Jennifer and Adrienne for the help and the guidance on this matter, which is now almost solved
(I will still go on jackpoting the coming downstairs for a while just to be sure)

[JMFS]

Magnificent!  We had a setback today (bed #2 has been destroyed) so it's heartening to see a positive story.  Go Loki!