We have two labs, an eight year old one that never goes upstairs and a 6 month old pup who loves it up there. Mainly so she can eat the cat food/harass the cats. Up till now we’ve prevented cat/pup interface using a stair gate. This hols we’ve tried to see if we can train her out of it
It’s not gone well.
She runs up the stairs but won’t come down. I carried her down a couple of times assuming that the traumatic experience would stop her running up again. Nope.
Currently we’ve got a stand off. Dog at top of stairs boxed in so she can only come down and can’t get anywhere else. Tried treats on every step, abandoning her completely, trying to talk her down step by step, but she’ll not get further than the first step.
She’s fine with steps in our garden, etc but these are a bit steeper.
I want to bring her down, but my wife is all for toughing it out. On the grounds if she has to come down and hates it, she’ll stop going back up…
Any ideas?