[Mom to Hot Rod]

Originally Posted by DBlain

stairs are so scary, especially if they are hardwood. My last yorkie was about 4 lbs and we tried to keep him from the stairs but on occassion the gate would be left down, one fall was so bad I could not believe he lived through it. My friend came over and opened the front door, Kirby shot out of my bedroom in full attack mode, he lost his footing half way down and tumbled the rest of the way, I stood at the top and my friend at the bottom just motionless because we could not do anything to catch him. Another thing to be careful of is them running up along with you, Lola has gotten under my feet several times, now it's like instinct to watch for her when I climb my stairs which since my bedroom and office is up there and I work from home, I do about a zillion times a day. There was a YT member that mentioned that her young yorkie died as a result of getting mixed up between the feet of her son on the stairs. When Lola was a puppy I kept a gate across mine, now she seems to have a good grasp on them and carries her toys up and down like a pro, but I am still really scared about them. We put lattice over the balusters on our upper level balcony because Lola would stick her head and part of her body through them, then she started pushing toys through the spindles so she could watch them hit the foyer floor, which is a 15' drop. Here is a picture of my little Kirby looking through the balusters, it gives me shivers to look at it now.

I had a wooden baby gate at the bottom of my stairs for awhile that we either walked over or moved out of the way. I even put cables ties on it for awhile. When hubby fell up the stairs one night, I broke down and got one of the metal gates with a walk thru door. It is so much nicer to be able to walk thru rather than over.