can your yorkie climb stairs???

[mpark45]

I have a 4 year old 4.5 lb yorkie, who has short legs. I just moved into a new house that is three floors high and I am having a difficult time training her to climb up and down the stairs. She seems really scared and easily tired when I train her. She seems to be able to get up on the last stair but she is extremely scared to climb the rest of the stairs. I don't know if her legs are too short, or if she is able to climb the stairs with some more diligent training? I was curious if other people have yorkies (smaller than 6 lbs) who can climb stairs. Any suggestions???

[megan_kat22]

she is very small, so i dont think i would encourage her too, it could hurt her back or her legs if she does it too much or too fast. welcome to YT!

[gutu28]

Cali's 2.5 lbs right now and she ZOOOOMS up and down the stairs I think it's so funny

[romeos mommy]

romeo runs up and down the stairs. he's faster than me.

[SolnzeUSB]

New stairs, new fears. Encourage and it will click-in one fine day.

[MyTrixie143]

Mine can go up the stairs in a flash, no problems there. It is the going down part they have trouble with. Trixie got the hang of it, but Scampers won't go down the stairs. One time he tried and he ended up rolling down the stairs, of course this was when he was real young and only weighed 2 pounds and he scared me half to death. Now he weighs 5 pounds and he will go down maybe a stair or two but that is it. He would rather go up them, then go down. I had to put a gate in front of the stairs because he would go up the stairs, get stuck and want to come down. So I would bring him down and he would do it all over again. So the gate stops him from going upstairs, and really there is no point for him to go upstairs, the only time we go upstairs is at night. But, he is fully capable of going down the stairs, he just does not want to!!!

Give her some time and work with her and encourage her, and don't ever push her, she will learn on her own time. Soon, she will be zooming up and down the stairs and then you will wish she never learned.

[Dougal&Little]

Your little girl might need to build up some muscles in her hindquarters to tackle all those stairs. And as someone else has said it's a new scary thing.

You could try popping her on a stair one from the top and then call her to you when she comes lots and lots of praise. and do the same from the bottom. Then build up to two steps etc. And just do it a couple of times a day cos her little muscles will take a while to get used to it.

My two zip up and down the stairs like nobodies business!

[lolabella]

Originally Posted by MyTrixie143

Mine can go up the stairs in a flash, no problems there. It is the going down part they have trouble with. Trixie got the hang of it, but Scampers won't go down the stairs. One time he tried and he ended up rolling down the stairs, of course this was when he was real young and only weighed 2 pounds and he scared me half to death. Now he weighs 5 pounds and he will go down maybe a stair or two but that is it. He would rather go up them, then go down. I had to put a gate in front of the stairs because he would go up the stairs, get stuck and want to come down. So I would bring him down and he would do it all over again. So the gate stops him from going upstairs, and really there is no point for him to go upstairs, the only time we go upstairs is at night. But, he is fully capable of going down the stairs, he just does not want to!!!

Give her some time and work with her and encourage her, and don't ever push her, she will learn on her own time. Soon, she will be zooming up and down the stairs and then you will wish she never learned.

Mia is the same way. She loves to run up the stairs but won't go down. I had to get a gate too. It got very annoying to have to go pick her up at the top of the stairs whenever I turned my back for a second.
I tried to teach her to go down the stairs by putting her on step one. She can go down 2 steps perfectly well if she feels like it, but if she doesn't she'll just bark and bark. I gave up on it, and I am considering making a small ramp for her.

[LuvMySissy]

Originally Posted by lolabella

Mia is the same way. She loves to run up the stairs but won't go down. I had to get a gate too. It got very annoying to have to go pick her up at the top of the stairs whenever I turned my back for a second.
I tried to teach her to go down the stairs by putting her on step one. She can go down 2 steps perfectly well if she feels like it, but if she doesn't she'll just bark and bark. I gave up on it, and I am considering making a small ramp for her.

Sissy will go up the stairs no problem (faster than me). She is 4 lbs. She began doing the stairs a few weeks after she came to live with me (when she was 13 weeks and not quite 2 lbs). She has always done fine going up, but she fell down the stairs during that first week she was tackling the stairs and she has not gone down since (she is now 10 months old). She won't even try. I do spend much time upstairs, however (we have a tri-level, with 5 stairs) and the office/computer is upstairs and we don't have a TV on the main level either.

She has no problem jumping down from couches, or stepping off the deck and edging bricks in the yard. But they are the equivalent of just one step. I think her issue is that she tended to "tip over" stepping down when she was younger and that is why she fell down the stairs. Many little guys handle stairs without any difficulty.

[jager]

Lady can dart up the stairs now but going down shes still a little scared, because she doesn't do it on a daily basis since we don't have a regular staircase in our house, we have a spiral staircase and she is very afraid of it, when I go up she sits at the bottom and waits for me. My cat on the other hand loves it. I'm a little afraid of her to climb it right now cause i don't want her falling off the side. Does anyone on here have any experiences with a spiral staircase? Thanks

[DianaB]

We have stairs that go down to our basement and Reuger doesn't like to go up or down on them. I've tried sitting him on the landing and letting him go half-way up and he'll do it but then he hides because he doesn't want to do it again. He's very content to just sit at the top of the stairs and wait on whoever has gone down stairs.

[Vero84]

Give her time she will be run up and down the stairs ...Ally runs up and down fast but at first she was scare to do it ...

[SnowWa]

When I first got my little pup, he had no clue how to get up and down stairs -which was fine with me - but before long he figured it out on his own.

I wouldn't do anything... your pup's so little - just carry her. She obviously doesn't feel safe navigating the stairs - or she'd be doing it. You might try carrying her on the stairs and then letting her try only the last couple steps on her own. But - she may just not want to go up or down stairs on her own.

Be happy you don't have a 45-pound dog!!!!!

Carol Jean

[xBUTTERCUPx]

Buttercup was flying up and down the stairs ever since I got him at 10 weeks. I started out by putting him on the highest step and tease him with a treat and make our way down. He will be 5 months on July 2 and is approximately 3lbs and he still struggles a little to get up because he is so tiny. But I think they'll eventually get it..yorkies are smart

[SnowWa]

My pup was a climber from the get-go.... took only a week or so before he was going up and down stairs.

At 8 weeks (3 lbs) - he was climbing all over the furniture in my house. He climbed like a cat - using his nails to pull himself up onto anything.

But - the way he got down scared me to death. He jumped! But, he didn't just jump down. He jumped up through the air - over and out and then down and landed about 3 or 4 feet away from where he jumped. Believe me, that was a sight to see.

I am sure that some pups just "have no fear" and others are, by nature, much more careful --- sort of like people - right?

Carol Jean