Hi All,

I'm keen to get some opinions on letting my puppy climb two steps to get into our house. She's 14 weeks old, and since we got her we've been lifting her up and down the two steps that lead from our kitchen to the garden. At the moment, and until her second jab, she's had a cordonned off area for toilet training, but we'd like to open up the garden and give her free range to come and go into the kitchen. The total hight of the steps is about 18 inches - is this too much for her? I'm very aware of not putting any strain on her hips and she doesn't climb the stairs in the house or climb on any of the furniture but I think if she were to be allowed a little more freedom to play and have fun in the garden she might be a little more inclined to a) leave me for a bit longer and b) be able to get out to the loo when she pleases?

Any thoughts?

Karen

Hi Karen

Not knowing what breed she is I could guess at the size of her stride or step but I would say at 14 weeks she may still stumble on the steps and bruise her legs.  Can you run a wide board down over the steps just like you would for a wheel chair then you know she can access the garden in relative safety.

We had a similar problem with our new girl when she came home - our dog door is slightly higher than ideal on the garden side due to the house design, and though the adults have no trouble I couldn't imagine Ellie could or should jump that far up or down. We put long planks on the garden side to make an extra step or two, and gradually reduced the number of planks as she grew. Putting a wide board down over the steps sounds like a good idea. :-)

Sorry, she's a golden retriever.

The wooden plank sounds like a good idea!