 Train to go down stairs?
My yorkie is almost 8 years old but I just recently adopted her 3 months ago. She is the sweetest dog and wants nothing more than for me to hold her and to sit on my lap. The only problem is that I can't get her to go down the back porch stairs and thus she goes potty in the house (at least she knows to go on her pee pads). I try to take her outside every few hours but that has gotten old very fast. She goes up strairs perfectly fine, but I'm afraid she may have fallen down the stairs when I first got her when I wasn't looking and now she is traumatized. I have tried everything; we made a ramp, we laid down fluffy material that might help her feel more secure, we used treats, nothing works. Even when I take her front paws and put them on the step below it will take her several moments before she will bring her back paws down too. If I put her on the second to last step she will jump from that step straight to the ground. What can I do to get her to overcome this fear? |