Mot of you will most probably have heard about my youngest husky, Alpha, a rescue at 2 years old. Well, I've had my fair share of problems with him such as, being riddled with worms when I got him and the fact that he'd ever been trained.

Well, thankfully, we've got past the majority of that. He sits when I ask him to and even goes down which doesn't sound like much but is an absolute breakthrough!

But, the main problem is, he will not climb stairs. He will happily go down them. But refuses to go up them. I have tried all sorts of remedies such as placing bits of raw steak on each step to coax him up but to no avail. I've also picked him up, carried him three steps from the top and he still runs back down.

The strangest bit of all is the fact we took both the dogs for a long walk down the canal the other day. To get down to the towpath, you have to go down some steps. There were seven if I remember rightly. Alpha had no problem with that. But, when we were going back, I dreaded having to carry him up these steps and falling!

But, Alpha acted like there were no steps there! He went up them without even hesitating! It was absolutely amazing! Byron, my other husky, had already gone up the steps but I know this had nothing to do with influencing Alpha to go up because at home, I make Byron go upstairs and hope that Alpha will try and follow. He doesn't.

The furthest we've got is when I go upstairs (bearing in mind he cries when I leave his side) he will watch me from the bottom of the stairs. Occasionally he'll put his two front legs three steps up and one of his back legs on the first step but he will always have one leg firmly on the ground.

I thik it could be to do with something in his past. Perhaps he sees steps in the house as a no go area but when you carry him up, he is physically shaking.

Any suggestions would be great!

I don't know if my reply will be of much use to you, but perhaps its 'indoor' stairs? I know Maddie is exactly the same in the house, wouldn't go upstairs if her life depended on it :D But outside steps are different, she never hesitates at all, up or down. On holiday for the first few days wouldn't go up or down the steps to the caravan, but she got used to them in the end as she knew it was the only way in and out :) Mind you I have never encouraged her up the stairs in the house, so maybe your dog wasn't either?

My guess is since he was a rescue that he had some sort of stair related. Maybe he fell down it when he was a puppy , maybe tripped while going up.

i'd be grateful! my dogs come up wet or dry and jump all over my bed!

I agree it sounds like something in his past.  Perhaps he was severely punished for ever going upstairs in his first home....

I have a boy like that. Fine with steps, but he wouldn't do the stairs at home. Which was marvellous, because it meant I didn't need to use a stairgate! But at the age of 5 he suddenly learned, and the stairgate's a permanent fixture. I wish he'd never learned.

Guess his hips are OK?  My Vet says going up is harder on hips than going down.  And as for his going up when outside, my observation is that our doggy pets have no faith in us and are terrified they will be left behind, thus overcoming the fear of going up in his case?

Are the steps carpeted?  That might help.  Or maybe you could build a ramp to cover the steps?  We had ramps all over our house when my cat was old.

His hips are fine. he's cross-eyed and can't see particularly well but it isn't just the stairs in this house, it's the stairs in every house. When seeing my grandparents in London, you have to climb many stairs (they live in a maisonette). The stairs are inside but I had to carry him all the way to the top. 34 concrete steps in total! He has an extremely bad fear of steps and as some of you have already said, it could be that he was severely punished for going upstairs when he was a pup. We have discussed this ourselves. Another relatively strange thing is he won't jump into the car. He did once because I got into the boot, cleaning the slobbery windows and he NEEDED to be with me! Completely shocked me when he jumped in to be with me but he's never done it since.

I definitely think alot of it is to do with his past as I have reason to believe that he was most probably beaten. Shame.

Funny you mentioning about the car,my pup who has never been ill treated wont get in the car if she can help it,Hubbie usually has to carry her in at 6 stone that is no joke,we had one day when she hopped in and out really well,now she will walk towards car and then stop about 3-4 feet away and refuse to move,just cant work it out.
Can understand your dog having his problems through maybe harsh punishment re: stairs and maybe the car though .

House rules before we got a dog was there would be certain no go areas and upstairs was one.  The first time she climbed a few I shouted at her and she has never tried again and now 20 mths.  I can leave her all day and know she doesn't go upstairs.  My husband found dog wandering in the park and brought him home so we could phone the owners, he brought the dog into the house and let it off the lead and it trotted round and shot straight up the stairs, our dog's face was a picture and she started whining as if to say "he's gone upstairs? he's gone upstairs!" very funny.  So perhaps with your dog this was the one thing that was trained into him although you won't know what methods of 'training' this involved. BTW she also runs her front legs up the stairs but her back legs never leave the ground floor.

So has anyone got any ideas how I could maybe train him into going up stairs. It's something I need him to do as there are a few people who I know where you have to climb stairs to see them. He's useless!

(But I love him)

Is it your stairs in particular?  Has it got something to do with walls on either side maybe?  Had lots of trouble getting my dog through the agility tunnel first time (much to amusement of others as I ended up in tunnel on tummy, muddy boots sticking out, coaxing dog in gently tugging on lead for her to jump all over my head once in).  I mention this because I am guessing the steps you encountered on your walk would not have had walls either side.  Maybe it's like going through a tunnel rather than going upstairs if you see what I mean?  Will he go through a tunnel?  Having said all that mine does go through tunnel now but still doesn't go upstairs but then I don't encourage her to because it's out of bounds.

This might be nothing to do with it but my youngest dog is reluctant to go upstairs if my oldest dog is already up there.  I have problems with them guarding but there is a definite link between poppy getting upstairs first and 'lording it' over Lubo, he would rather stay on the stairs than go up them!

It's not just my stairs. At one of my houses the stairs are surrounded by walls on either side. In the other house we have an open stairway, wall on the left hand side and banister looking into the living room on the right hand side. The stairs going up to my grandparents house are like any other public stairs within a building. Wall on one side and banister on the other as they go up in a square spiral.

There's no problem with guarding when it comes to the stairs but one thing I have definitely noticed is when Byron (the dog that does go up stairs) comes down the stairs, Alpha leaps at him and tries to play fight. As if he's kindly telling him off for going upstairs.

If only dogs could talk!

I would think it's just a matter of time and patience. Because he's relatively new to you, it might be worth thinking about going back to basics and treating him as a puppy - you know, reward him for standing on a step etc. It probably is fear or training that has made him like this but you either need to wait and hope that something will click (as it did with our pup) or make the whole experience pleasurable.  As for him playfighting with the other dog when he comes back downstairs, it may just be that he is relieved to see him back alive and well!

God you're right, he may just have had experienced something horrible in the past that happened just as he got up the indoor stairs and its made him reluctant now.  Can you not make it something of a treat in the room you want him to get to?  Squeaky toys, (disco balls, loud music - or is that just me?) - so that rather than concentrating on the stairs you are directing him to something beyond him.  Sorry, that sounds garbled, i know what I want to say but I'm obviously incapable of writing it...

Well, today we had another case of having to go up steps with no choice. It was to get to the car in a car park in town. I took the dogs with us and totally forgot that there were stairs. The stairs are outside and once again, there's only a few (seven-ish). Alpha went up a about three then looked at me with pleading in his eyes. He then turned round and went to the bottom. I was halfway up the stairs and he did it again. Finally he decided to go for it. He raced up the stairs and got to the top trying his hardest to get away from them.

Now this makes me wonder whether he actually noticed the stairs at the canal a few weeks back. He may have gone up the stairs today because he had no other choice. Whereas, at home he knows that I will tire of trying to get him up the stairs. But today he may have realised that if he didn't go up the stairs then I would have left him there (well, obviously I wouldn't have done that but you never know what he might be thinking).

you message was posted a while ago... but..

My pup is very scared of new things. he will hesitate from "jumping" over a small barracade and will whine. Same with retrieving a ball from a basket, even though he can reach it. He just doesnt know he can do it. So in those cases, with a lot of patience i set him up to succeed.

Food, toys, and just lots of encouragement (he is more motivated by words than food). Wait till he's hungry, say dinner time, skip breakfast if you must.. put dog at the bottom, let him see you carry food to top. Thats a pretty strong motivator and within a few times he know it can be done... If its a fear responce or responce to previous training then mabe he knows he can climb stairs but doesnt want to... then its a lot more encouragment and time. And dare i say it, dont ever give up again. There is no option, we are going to climb the stairs, or else... we are going to sit here and do nothing. your motivation is at the top and im not bringing it to you again...

I would go for the the full thing straight off. if that doesnt work then scale from one step at a time.

My dog is a sook too, and i can fully see myself crawling through a tunnel to make Mac follow...
He needed stair training too, and still hasnt go the coordination quite right and slips occasionally. But he knows... (/sings... the only way is up... )