[COLOR="Red"]"Well, it appears there is another problem with my boy wonder. We recently came into possession of a condo in the city. It is about an hour drive from our house. For now, we are planning in spending about 25% of our time there, in various chunks.
I was very concerned about how much limit setting I would have to do in the condo . . . especially because it is a loft-style unit with an open floor plan. This is our first day here and he has been adjusting remarkably well. Of course he was very anxious at first and kept pacing, but now has settled down nicely. And it has been a piece of cake to teach him where he is allowed and where he is not.
Ok, I am getting to the point . . . the unit has a metal winding staircase going up to the loft area, which will be used primarily for sleeping and not much else. I knew he might have a problem going up the stairs and sure enough, he wanted no part of them. I was kind of shocked when food would not lure him to take even one step up.
To see if the problem was his being able to see through the stairs, we taped up some towels to cover the open spaces of the first few stairs. At first he was still reluctant, but with a little coaxing and a food pellet, he finally did go up and get the kibble.
So, is there some way I might be eventually able to get him to go up? Maybe I should post this in a new thread. The problem may come when it is time to go to sleep. At home, he sleeps in his bed which is at the foot of our bed, which is upstairs. He will not want to sleep alone. And I don't want to start carrying him up and down the stairs, for a number of reasons.
I again welcome any and all suggestions . . . even though the pay sucks. " [/COLOR]from raffee
My Zoey had never seen stairs and she was scared of them all -- open or closed. There were three humans in the house at the time and we all encouraged her to come upstairs. No way! She slept downstairs.
Then, one day, we were congregated at the top of the stairs, one of us sitting on the top stair. It was too much for her. She had to join in and up she came! From then on, she had no problem with regular stairs.
The stairs to the basement, however, were open. Those she couldn't handle. She finally came down them to see what was going on, but we had to let her outside to come up the solid stairs. She was just beginning to conquer the open stairs when she got bloat.
From this experience, raffee, I am suggesting you go on up to bed. Call him up. If he doesn't want to come, OK. I wouldn't be surprised if you woke up with him in his normal bed. Let him figure out for himself that being with you is more important than being afraid of the stairs.
I don't like the idea of you carrying him up -- suppose you trip? And forcing anyone to do something that scares them seems wrong to me.
The only problem I see is if he starts crying because you aren't with him.
Someone else may have a suggestion. (I saw Cesar Millan get a dog to climb closed stairs, but I still think my way was far better.)
kjd
