# Climbing stairs



## marleysmom (Apr 16, 2008)

I was just curious if anyone else's Malts won't climb stairs. Tobi will just sit at the bottom of the staircase and wait for me to come back down. I know it must look like a mountain to him! If it's a few steps he's fine but won't attempt anything more. On the other hand my boyfriend's Morkie will run up and down like it's an obstacle course. We have to block them off to prevent him from getting hurt. Just curious...


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## 3Maltmom (May 23, 2005)

Mine are all like lightning going up the stairs. Although, I gate it off, when I open it for them, they haul it.

LBB is the quickest. He'll beat them all to the top ~ lol

My Jops, and Frankie love to go up a few steps, and lay by the railing, with their little heads poking under it.

As the years went by, my Daisy would wait for me to carry her up. I now carry Henry. His butt is too big,
and it's hard on his back legs.


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## aea6574 (Feb 18, 2006)

Howdy:

I hope you are well.

Bibi will go up and down the stairs. Bacchus will go up the stairs to our second floor but not down. He will not go up or down the stairs to the basement.


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## I found nemo (Feb 23, 2006)

For years Nemo never did.  Then one day he just went up but very cautiously .
He rarely goes up, which in a way I am happy about.
He goes on my deck and NEVER goes down the stairs , I like it like that.
Nemo once in awhile marks and I don't want him upstairs in the house, so he will wait and sit on the bottom step till I come down.


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## Gail (Oct 14, 2007)

Scarlett won't climb the stairs to the second floor. She tried once, lost her footing and never tried again. She will climb the steps into the house and those at my neighbor's. I carry her up and down the stairs to the second story which isn't a problem.


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## Maidto2Maltese (Oct 19, 2004)

Naddie is larger and very long legs and she flies up and down the stairs. Quincy on the other hand I don't want doing the stairs.. his little legs are so short and the only steps we have are to the basement level and they're not carpeted. MOST times I carry him and he'll wait for me... but he has at times taken a trip down on his own....especially if I've gone down ( say to throw in a load of laundry... and he's afraid he's missing something!! 


Missy was "short-legged' too ( and the issues with her knees) so she always got carried up and down .


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## The A Team (Dec 1, 2005)

Alot of times little Miss Ava follows me right up the steps...... all the way upstairs!!!

But then sometimes she stands at the bottom of the stairs <strike>barking</strike> calling for me to come get her  



I'd rather she not use the stairs, but.....it seems that she is the boss! :w00t:


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## I found nemo (Feb 23, 2006)

QUOTE (2MaltMom @ Jun 12 2009, 07:47 AM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=789636


> Alot of times little Miss Ava follows me right up the steps...... all the way upstairs!!!
> 
> But then sometimes she stands at the bottom of the stairs <strike>barking</strike> calling for me to come get her
> 
> ...


WOW, that blows my mind, she is so tiny and Nemo is huge compared to her and a scardy cat :HistericalSmiley: :HistericalSmiley: :HistericalSmiley: 
Miss Ava is tougher than she looks :wub:


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## camfan (Oct 30, 2006)

Ollie woudn't go up the stairs as a baby...now he's bigger...just under 10 lbs. As he grew and I knew he was going to be "big" and has quite long legs, I didn't want to spend his whole life carrying him up and down the stairs so I trained him to go up and down using treats. When he's older I won't mind carrying him up & down...

My observation is that standard malts (which Ollie is not) do not have nearly as long legs as Ollie does. They have very little ones. I'd probably not "force" going up and down if I had one with tiny legs...and carrying 4-7 lbs up the stairs isn't as bad as 10 lbs


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## kodie (Aug 24, 2004)

I never allowed kodie to go up stairs because of fear of knee issues... he still to this day will NOT attempt stairs (I trainned him well.. lol). Kelsie on the other hand... I never showed her stairs but she will fly up them if i allow her to... i now block the stairs so she can NOT run up and down them. She is too small to be doing that consistantly all day along... i try to prevent knee surgeries.


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## marleysmom (Apr 16, 2008)

I've always carried Tobi up and down so I guess inadvertently I trained him not to climb. Which is just the way I wanted it. I had a VERY scary incident when he was a puppy in which he attempted to jump up onto the bed and missed. He smacked his head on the wood floor and started to lose consciousness. He had a concussion and took a few days to recover. It was terrible! 
I was concerned he might try to climb because he sees our Morkie do it, but fortunately not. It is too cute when I do laundry. He will always jump right into the laundry basket and snuggle in waiting for me to carry him down the stairs. :wub:


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## LJSquishy (Feb 27, 2008)

I made sure I taught London how to go up and down stairs on her own in case of an emergency, like a fire. I would never forgive myself if for some reason I was not able to physically carry her out of a burning building and I knew she had no chance of getting out herself.

Of course, there are bonuses to having a dog that can't go up or down steps, too...like when you open the front door...they aren't going to go dashing down the steps and running down the street!


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## beckinwolf (Sep 2, 2008)

Micky is plenty large enough for stairs. He thinks they are so fun. But I don't let him upstairs very often. We actually gate off the stairs. He can safely go UP the stairs just fine, but on his way down, he has a tendency to play daredevil and just jump the last 3 steps to the floor. SO not good for his poor little knees. So no stairs for Micky. At least not until he decides he's too old to play Evil Knievel.


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## princessre (Dec 23, 2008)

Casanova won't climb any stairs. Occasionally if he gets really excited he will go up or down one step and then act really shocked. Actually it is quite funny b/c we bought a 4' ex-pen for him as our friends told us he would jump the pen. But in reality, I always leave the door to the pen open because he is too scared to come out of the pen which is about 6 inches off the ground.


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## Holly (Apr 20, 2009)

Jimmy was too little to go up our steep, 1940's attic stairs at first. then he would go down, but not up. When he finally grew big enough, we noticed he was hopping on boxes twice the height of our steps with no problem so we figured it was time for him to try it out. Ajay used to play "Jimmy in the middle" which is where he put Jimmy about 3 steps below the top step and try encourage him with treats. No dice. Then he took his toy we call "Maltese Baby" which is a stuffed Maltese about the size of a 4 month old Maltese puppy. Maltese Baby was one of Jimmy's first toys and is also his arch enemy. Ajay showed Jimmy how Maltese Baby hopped up the stairs and got a treat, and that was IT! He had to outdo that little rat so he did! He's been running up and down the stairs with no problems since then.

It's really funny to watch him run up stairs too. He doesn't do the two paws per step hops like I've seen other dogs do. He does this awkward one paw, one step method with his legs spread all wide, and looks similar to a drunk cowboy, but he makes it! The other day I about had a heart attack cause not thinking, I tossed his squeaky down the stairs and he bolted after it, going much too fast!! At the bottom, he couldn't stop, but ended up with his back feet up in the air, skittering on his front feet only like a circus performer. He cam SO close to doing a back flip into the wall. I was terrified, but somehow he managed to right himself just in time and no injuries were sustained. In retrospect, it was the funniest think I've ever seen him do, but not a stunt I want him to repeat!!


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