[DBlain]

I have wondered about this a while and just saw a thread that made me think of my experience with using pet stairs. My sister uses them and does not have a problem, but with Lola a totally different story, so I was wondering what others have experienced.

This is what happened with us, for the sake of Lola's safety I removed the steps from the bed in about two weeks. My bed is pretty high, she took to climbing up them quickly, but since she moves pretty fast she started leaping over several steps when she wanted down, then she started bypassing the steps and would jump from the bed to the floor, thankfully we have carpet. She would bring a toy up with her then purposely drop it off the side and jump down to get it over and over again. For a good year she had slept in the bed but had never jumped off, now she was doing in on a regular basis. Before long, just after we would fall asleep she would jump down in search of a toy to bring back up to squeak. My DH and I would scour the room each night for toys, but LOL that bugger had lots of hiding places. I also use my bed to lay things out on, like laundry to fold, shopping bags to un pack, suitcases etc, well now all this was fair game for Lola as my bed became her big playpen. In addition to the bed she now could get on our night stands where I found her standing several times, so I had to be careful what I left sitting on them. Making the bed was a hoot, she definitely loved to be on that act. Since the stairs were not high enough I positioned them against a hope chest that was at the foot of the bed, she soon realized that she could bypass the steps and jump on the chest to get quicker access to the bed. As you know, all this jumping is not good for a yorkies legs. So not only did the stairs have to go I also had to move the chest away from the bed. All in all it worked out fine I wound up putting the chest under the window at the end of my bedroom with the stairs next to it, she visits that area a lot during the day since it gives her a great view of the wildlife outside the window. Every dog is different so with another dog the experiences could be quite different, but for my crazy little Lola they had to be moved, so now twice a day when I am ready to go to bed she gets carried up and carried down and LOL life is normal again. I attached a pic of the steps with Lola on the chest, she knew I was packing and wanted to made sure she went along, which she did.

I know there are a lot of pet steps out there so for those that use them do you like your pups to have free access to your bed.