We knew she could manage going up and down a few, but she had never had the occasion to climb up or down a full staircase.
I decided to move the baby gate from the bottom of our stairs and invite her to the second floor of the house. She managed to get up them with no problem, and had plenty of fun sniffing around the newly discovered territory. But when it came time to come down, we had this on our hands:
We called, cajoled, physically "encouraged" her, and even disappeared around the corner (which I thought would be the surefire winner) in our efforts to get her to come down. She wouldn't do it. She'd get on her belly at the top of the stairs and put one paw on the second stair down. Then she'd get too nervous and give up.
She was up there for about ten minutes alone at the top of the stairs, when I pulled out the treats. I put a few pieces of kibble on each of the stairs coming down. She got the first two stairs' worth, but still retreated back to the top.
Not ready to carry the 60-pound baby down the stairs, I decide to up the ante.
I went to the fridge and got the cheese. I laid the Wisconsin cheddar trail on the stairs. A small bit on every other step.
Thirty seconds later, we had a very relieved (and proud) puppy bounding through the kitchen.
We've practiced a lot since. She's all about going upstairs or down to the basement now (when we let her). It's probably not the best thing, but we couldn't keep her from learning stairs.
The fun part is, she still does the commando crawl down the stairs. Except now it's at top speed.
1 comment:
we always had that problem with all our goldens. Food did not work. You had to give them a little kick down the stairs once and then they were fine.
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