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Okay - brief background...We adopted Max 2 weeks ago from a co-worker who took in a stray, after dog was loitering in the employee parking lot. She was the second employee to take the dog in. Max was loose in dog-run all day in her yard. Most of the homes in the area where he was found are single story homes. She took dog to vet where he got all his shots, except for bordetella and heartworm test. We would be taking the dog tomorrow to our own vet for check-up. Max did not appear neglected when found as a stray but had no collar nonetheless.
Our home has hardwood on the first floor, all carpet upstairs starting from stairs. We prefer to not have the dog upstairs this early as we are not sure of his behavior just yet. All our bathrooms are upstairs and he would be getting his first bath with us this weekend. Max appears to be a very gentle dog just very willing to please.
All week he seemed timid to go up the stairs. He is crated at night and loose inside the house if someone was at home. Last night, we brought him upstairs to play with the kids. Since last night, he now seems to want to keep going upstairs.
Question is, is it confusing for him when we bring him upstairs just for his bath? How do we train him to realize it's only for baths when he's allowed upstairs, at least for now? Do we put him on a leash and lead him upstairs for a bath and lead him back down, in the hope that he associates the leash with "it's okay to go upstairs"? Or is this impossible? We prefer to not have a gate at the bottom of the stairs since DH would probably trip over it.
The leash is a good idea, but I don't think you will be able to keep him from the upstairs without some sort of barricade. We have a 1 year old golden/choc. lab mix who sleeps upstairs in a sectioned off portion of our room (this is new-she had been crated at night up until a week ago). When we bring her down (on her leash), if we don't put the gate up in our kitchen doorway, she makes a beeline for the upstairs. Chances are she would come back down once she realized nobody was up there, unless she found something to chew on, but she definately does not NOT go up there just because we tell her she can't.
Okay - brief background...We adopted Max 2 weeks ago from a co-worker who took in a stray, after dog was loitering in the employee parking lot. She was the second employee to take the dog in. Max was loose in dog-run all day in her yard. Most of the homes in the area where he was found are single story homes. She took dog to vet where he got all his shots, except for bordetella and heartworm test. We would be taking the dog tomorrow to our own vet for check-up. Max did not appear neglected when found as a stray but had no collar nonetheless.
Our home has hardwood on the first floor, all carpet upstairs starting from stairs. We prefer to not have the dog upstairs this early as we are not sure of his behavior just yet. All our bathrooms are upstairs and he would be getting his first bath with us this weekend. Max appears to be a very gentle dog just very willing to please.
All week he seemed timid to go up the stairs. He is crated at night and loose inside the house if someone was at home. Last night, we brought him upstairs to play with the kids. Since last night, he now seems to want to keep going upstairs.
Question is, is it confusing for him when we bring him upstairs just for his bath? How do we train him to realize it's only for baths when he's allowed upstairs, at least for now? Do we put him on a leash and lead him upstairs for a bath and lead him back down, in the hope that he associates the leash with "it's okay to go upstairs"? Or is this impossible? We prefer to not have a gate at the bottom of the stairs since DH would probably trip over it.
Suggestions?
baby gates are heavenly inventions!!!!!
Cody was blocked from my rents stair for about 6months when he was over and we slowly moved the gate away. We have him lots of treats downstairs and discouraged him from going upstairs. There is no ate and he only goes upstairs if I go or my mom ask him too. He's only there about once a week to visit, so it might be different then living in a house w/ stairs.
I bought a baby gate for less than $20 that has it's own door.
I go through the gate door before I can go through the bedroom door. It's easy to work and you don't have to screw in any bolts. You will probably need it for a while. Any behavior can be modified with proper training and giving positive reinforement for the alternative behavior. Unfortunetely, you already gave positive reinforcement for the upstairs when you let him play with kids up there. So, wht you do is only allow playtime be downstairs and do it offten enough so that the dog notices it only happens downstairs. Keep him on a leash when it's tubby time and do not stop for anything while you travel from upstairs to downstairs. Give treats at the tub and during tubby time. Give treats again AFTER you reach your destination of downstairs. Your goal is to make it clear to him the rules. He will only be confused if you allow other activities besides tubby time.
And no, this is not impossible to train. Very doable. Our dogs aren't allowed in the kitchen and they know it. The same can be for upstairs, but the gate will probably be needed in the beginning of this training phase. Unless he is supervisized in the area. My other suggestion is don't allow him near the stairs period. But, I dont' know the set up of your house. If you don't know any proper traing skills I highly recommend you speak with a local trainer. It would be very helpful even with just one or two visits. A training class would be very beneficial for you and your dog all around. Not just for the upstairs issue, but building a good relationship with your dog.
NOTE: you will have to have the entire household involved with this training!!! Any family member not on the same page as you may jepordize your efforts (lettin the dog upstairs, etc) and you will have to start all over again with longer amount of time to retrain the behavior.
I understand your concern. We made decision not to let our dog go upstairs when we just got her. Well, in the end, we love her so much that we encouraged her to go upstairs. Our GSD still refuses to sleep in master bedroom. We think she still remembers the early days that we didn't allow her to go upstairs. Feeling guilty...
Thanks for all the suggestions. Deegers, we will check into baby gates. Our only concern is the way we would put the gate at the bottom of the stairs. The main posts are surrounded by smaller pillars, so I would probably check online for thinner gates that could go through these pillars as we would not screw anything on to them. We don't think he would barge into the gate (unlike our former yellow lab!) so hopefully that would work. Tonight, he attempted to get to the first landing but a stern NO seems to send him scurrying back down. And Lingling, I know how we break down the best defenses, especially when they look up to you with those eyes!
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