# Do you let your Malt climb the stairs?



## cleooscar (May 28, 2008)

Do you let your furbaby go up and down the stairs; i.e, between first floor and second floor of a house? Pasha and Raine use the stairs but Napoleon only knows how to go up. He's the smallest and shortest. He tried going down and slipped a couple of times so now I carry him both up and down. I'm just curious what other members do.


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## aea6574 (Feb 18, 2006)

Bibi goes up and down our stairs. Bacchus will only go up if he really has his mind made up and will never go down. Bacchus is also about 8 lbs and Bibi is only 5 lbs.


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## k/c mom (Oct 9, 2004)

Mine are afraid of the stairs and that is fine with me. I would rather they not be able to "sneak" upstairs and I worry about injuries/falling. The only rooms upstairs are two spare rooms and a bathroom and I rarely go up there myself. So this works out well. If I have company up there I don't have to worry about them going up there and getting in to suitcases, etc.


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## drclee (Jul 16, 2008)

Mine both love to go up and down the stairs. They have no problems with it.


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## princessre (Dec 23, 2008)

Casanova is scared of stairs and has only gone up a few times (when extremely desperate to follow me). He has never come down by himself. I'm also very glad he rarely uses the stairs.


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## moshi melo (Jul 2, 2009)

My hubby taught Shi how to go up/down the stairs, but she takes a while so we end up carrying her instead. Plus I would rather her not in case she injures herself, she's probably around the same size as Napoleon.


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## maltlovereileen (Jan 19, 2009)

QUOTE (moshi melo @ Dec 21 2009, 05:01 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=865298


> My hubby taught Shi how to go up/down the stairs, but she takes a while so we end up carrying her instead. Plus I would rather her not in case she injures herself, she's probably around the same size as Napoleon.[/B]


I would recommend not letting your malts do the stairs at all, even if they seem fine now. Since they are such small dogs, it really does place strain on their back/legs/knees... oftentimes, problems won't show themselves til the dog is older and by then it is too late (compacted discs, etc). I recommend ramps or stairs to help them up onto furniture (couches/beds), but otherwise, carrying them. Just my 2cents based on my own past experiences with small dogs who seemed perfectly fine doing stairs/jumping up and down furniture/etc...


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## beckinwolf (Sep 2, 2008)

Micky CAN do stairs, but I don't LET him do them. He has a dare-devil streak and on his way down he tends to take a flying leap off the third to the last step. It about scared the daylights out of me when he first did it. :smheat: So, he is not allowed up the stairs, unless I carry him.


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## pammy4501 (Aug 8, 2007)

Mine go up and down the stairs like lightning! They only get to go upstairs when they are invited, otherwise it is offlimits. So when they get the invite, they take off like a flash!


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## iheartbisou (Feb 13, 2007)

Bisou can go/up down stairs but prefers to be carried instead. she'll go up the few front steps to the building or the groomers but won't go any further than that. She'll sit, look at me and wait to be picked up.


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## 3Maltmom (May 23, 2005)

QUOTE (pammy4501 @ Dec 21 2009, 05:51 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=865333


> Mine go up and down the stairs like lightning! They only get to go upstairs when they are invited, otherwise it is offlimits. So when they get the invite, they take off like a flash![/B]



Mine too, only with an invite, as my stairs are gated. Jops won't do the first two steps, as they are tile, but once set on the carpeted steps, she flies like the wind to my bed.

You should see LBB fly up the steps, he's good, he's quick, and also runs to my bed-steps. 

I would not want them running up, and down, while I'm not at home, hence the gate, but they do go up, and down. I also have little steps to the sectional, but Jops, nor
Frankie will use them. They hang on the sectional after I put them there. Franks will jump off, but not Jops. One day I went to work, and forgot to take her off. 
Poor thing was still there when I got home. I felt like crap. Bless her heart, she didn't pee, poo, nor have any food, or water all day long. :brownbag:


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## The A Team (Dec 1, 2005)

Archie, Abbey and Tinker are fine with stairs. our staircase is carpeted and it makes it easy for them.

But little Ava can only go up. One time she was so excited about someone coming in the front door, she fell down the stairs...now I keep gates at the top and bottom for her protection. She's just too little.


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## 3Maltmom (May 23, 2005)

QUOTE (2MaltMom @ Dec 21 2009, 09:12 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=865402


> Archie, Abbey and Tinker are fine with stairs. our staircase is carpeted and it makes it easy for them.
> 
> But little Ava can only go up. One time she was so excited about someone coming in the front door, she fell down the stairs...now I keep gates at the top and bottom for her protection. She's just too little.[/B]


My Lulu did that once. She was excited, and slid down the stairs like a sled. She wasn't running down, just slid down. She landed on the bottom step, stood up,
and had this look on her face: :blink: Then she looked like this: :jackrabbitslims: Then this: :forgive me: 

I was scared to death. So yep, I looked like this: :new_shocked: 

Stupid LBB did one of these jobs: :good post - perfect 10: 

Seriously that scared the heck out of me.


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## cleooscar (May 28, 2008)

QUOTE (3Maltmom @ Dec 21 2009, 09:45 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=865419


> QUOTE (2MaltMom @ Dec 21 2009, 09:12 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=865402





> Archie, Abbey and Tinker are fine with stairs. our staircase is carpeted and it makes it easy for them.
> 
> But little Ava can only go up. One time she was so excited about someone coming in the front door, she fell down the stairs...now I keep gates at the top and bottom for her protection. She's just too little.[/B]


My Lulu did that once. She was excited, and slid down the stairs like a sled. She wasn't running down, just slid down. She landed on the bottom step, stood up,
and had this look on her face: :blink: Then she looked like this: :jackrabbitslims: Then this: :forgive me: 

I was scared to death. So yep, I looked like this: :new_shocked: 

Stupid LBB did one of these jobs: :good post - perfect 10: 

Seriously that scared the heck out of me.
[/B][/QUOTE]

After Napoleon slipped a couple of times, he got scared and wouldn't use the stairs by himself. I felt so bad. He was following me up and I didn't realize it. :brownbag: We have a curve staircase so the steps have different width and he just couldn't figure that out. Now we gate the stairs rather than risk it. Our late Oscar was like that too and was afraid of stairs. I think he was afraid of heights too as he always squeezed himself as close to the inner wall as possible. He ended up with LP during his last couple of years and I always wondered if the stairs had anything to do with it.


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## camfan (Oct 30, 2006)

Ollie's got rather long legs for a malt and he's just under 10 lbs. I don't have a problem w/ him doing stairs and neither does he. If he were smaller, things would probably be different.


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## tamizami (May 1, 2007)

Reina (4.5 lbs) goes up, but not down. Stuart (5 lbs) goes up and down, and sometimes skips a step at the bottom of each landing, and I scold him for that. For some reason, up seems like its good for muscle development while there is no benefit to down?


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## remy (Jul 9, 2009)

my pup is afraid of heights i think as he never ever goes up/down stairs or jump on/off furniture. he waits for me to pick him up. i prefer that because he's napoleon's size and i'm too afraid he'll hurt himself.


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## Canada (Jun 4, 2009)

My past Malts have all done stairs fine BUT with my current pups I am considering not letting them getting accustomed to stairs...
As we have such long stairs that go to the downstairs in our house now that I worry that if they fell it would be disasterous.
I am a bit paranoid about the safety of my two, but better safe than sorry, I suppose.


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## Harley & Dakotas Mum (Jun 11, 2005)

Mine have 4 legs each, and I let them use them! LOL

Granted, Dakota is 8 pounds, and Harley is pretty much double that, so they are not what you would class as 'fragile' LOL

They are not allowed upstairs when we visit my parents house, it's my parents house, and rightly so, they make the rules. For H & D it's more about training ... we don't go there every week or anything, but when we do go, I make a point of going upstairs (even though I don't need to) just to make them 'wait' for me - so far, so good, they don't like it, but they are learning to obey the rules at mum & dad's house.


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## phesty (May 30, 2006)

Josie weighs about 8 pounds and has long legs for a malt. So, she does stairs just fine but isn't around them much. We spend quite a bit of time at my parents' house and they have a basement, but I don't go down there too often, so she doesn't go down there very often.


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## harrysmom (Sep 28, 2007)

Harry won't go up or down the stairs in the house. He'll go up and down the two stairs on our back 
porch, but he fell once on another stair coming into the house, so he refuses to climb that
stair and we have to carry him in and out of the house... and I'm happy with that arrangement.

Teddy and Ben have absolutely no problems going up or down any stairs. They are both much
taller than Harry and can fly up or down.... a fact that I'm not too happy about a lot of times.


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## cleooscar (May 28, 2008)

We don't have a problem with Pasha or Raine using the stairs either but now that I gate the stairs they can't run up and down freely which I don't mind. Pasha is 9 lbs and has very long legs. He bounds up and down and jumps where he shouldn't. Sometimes I think he thinks he's a big dog. :biggrin: 

Napoleon jumped off the sofa a couple of times and landed on his tummy. It's my fault because he wanted to follow me when I got up. :bysmilie: Now he waits until I put him down on the floor and he's too short to jump up on the sofa himself.


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## roxybaby22 (Feb 25, 2009)

Yes, but I kind of wish I didn't teach her because I lose the little bugger! Roxy is so quiet, I can never tell if she went downstairs. Maybe I should let her nails grow so they make the clacky noise on the floors.


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## SugarBob62 (Nov 9, 2009)

Well for Andy, were never had to worry...because he never learned. And we didn't encourage it. Our cat lived upstairs. And our steps are very steep and dark, hard wood, with rubber like runners down them. So very hard to climb. And even harder to come down them. The cats have come down and go up them fine. But Andy never did.
However when he got older sometimes we'd come home and find him halfway up them :HistericalSmiley: Like say sometimes it'd storm. And he apparently got scared and tried to go up, but couldn't get back down...and couldn't go up all the way. So after that we started putting a low cardboard barrier at the very bottom. That we all learned to step over...but many of times have almost gone head first through the front door! Oh what we do for our pets! And Spencer goes over it fine.

Well....Nelson aka Trouble on the other hand. Came here already learning to go upstairs. He flies up them. AND climbs over the cardboard barrier as well. SO...since that is still Spencer's living quarters, of peace and tranquility...we spend a lot of time retrieving him from halfway up the steps  So I got some new cardboard and we are trying to rig something better. But it still needs to be accessible for Spencer...

We just don't want him upstairs. We have Spencer's food and litter up here. Not a good combination with a dog...
Not to mention Spencer needs to not feel completely threatened by the puppy. He comes down when he feels like mingling, but otherwise he's sleeping upstairs.


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## almitra (Apr 24, 2009)

When I first got Pepper she was petrified of the stairs, but since we live in an upstairs apt, she was/is going to need to go up/down many times daily.....so I just allowed her to take the time that she needed to overcome her fear (and she was s-l-o-w at first), but then soon lost all aversion to them. I am not about to carry a perfectly able bodied dog up or down a flight of stairs (of course, if she had joint damage or arthritis, that would be different). But insofar as she is agility and rally training, what's the point? She high hurdles bars, jumps, launches herself thru hula hoops, you name it.....


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## doggybow (Nov 7, 2009)

My Porsha goes up and down the stairs fine


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## cyndrae (Aug 30, 2009)

Lilly was afraid of the stairs but now she is getting brave. I have the stairs blocked but once she got around it, up one step when I looked at her she was flatten on the step not knowing what to do, looking for some help.

The stairs inside I don't think we'll let her do them alone but the steps outside the front door are short and she loves them now that she has experienced them. I use it as a treat when she stays seated when the door is opened.


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