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Originally Posted by teach2readers  Hello all! I'm new here. My Yorkie (Harley) can no longer (or won't try) walk up stairs. He will be 14 the end of October. I know age is a factor, but he gets around so well in the house, yet the stairs issue has me baffled. Does anyone have/had an older yorkie with a similar issue? I'm going to take him to the vet this week, but I was just curious if anyone has experienced this? I hate that he is going through this |
Well, at 14 it could be its just too much of an effort for an older guy. He also might be scared because maybe he knows he isn't as sure-footed as he used to be. Maybe he's slipped one or twice when you weren't watching. Do you have carpet on the stairs? If they are hardwood, they probably seem more slippery to him. Even carpeted stairs could seem scary to an elderly small dog. I have hardwood and my boy would go up and down the stairs when he was a year or two old, but after that seemed scared of them. I've always wondered if he slipped when we weren't home or something. He's not scared of the carpeted stairs to the basement, though. He's 9 now and we've been carrying him up & down the hardwood stairs for years. My golden retriever got nervous on the stairs around age 8. He was too big to carry, so I always walked right next to him and held his collar to give him more confidence.