When are they old/big enough to jump?
 

I'd say never. Depends on how high your bed is. But toy dogs bones are fragile and the younger and the more frequent they jump, the more likelihood they will break a bone, or develop LP or other problems. Either crate her or put up stairs to your bed or put her in an expen.

my dad is handy and actually made bella a set of stairs using our old treadmill that didn't work. they don't look too bad except for the warning/safety sticker. :rolleyes: lol but they work and were free so they are good for me. maybe you can find someone can make you some?

If your Yorkie is less than 8 pounds I would say that stairs are a must. You can get them for under $10.00 at places like Walgreen's, and when you consider the cost of surgery for one leg, $1,600 and up, that's a real bargain. We have stairs in the bedroom and in the living room I have a dog bed at the base of the sofa and he's been taught to jump on this and then on the couch. You should get serious about training, and never allow them to get off the bed or couch without using the steps. If they jump, put them back on the bed, and have them use the steps; they will learn that it's faster just to use the steps. Even on dogs that are a little bigger the steps help prevent needless wear and tear on the joints. Cheerios are a great training aid to get them to use the steps. http://www.walgreens.com/store/store...id=prod3091424

My breeder sent Piper home with a bunch of goodies. A sweater, dog bed, blanket, soft dog carrier, 2 bowls, puppy food, nutrical, toy, and doggy stairs. She told me not to let Piper jump on and off things because of the risk of leg fractures. Piper doesn't even know how to jump on and off things. In her mind if there are no stairs, there is no way of getting up there. She doesn't even try to jump up on furniture.

Some dogs will jump up and down with no problem. Out of the 4 I have now only one jumps. Thank goodness. I love it that the rest don't jump. In 20 years of yorkies I've never had stairs. I prefer it that way

You're lucky that yours aren't jumpers, but for the one that does jump, how big is he? Just because you haven't seen LP yet, doesn't mean that he won't get it. Some LP is hereditary and if you see a high grade in the first few months, it's usually due to genetics, however for many Yorkies, it due to constant stress on these tiny joints. My son's dog is a little over 7 pounds, and I notice when he jumps off the couch, he's really not jumping far because his body is long enough to take him half way to the ground, but for Joey at 5 ½ pounds it makes a much bigger difference.

I don't know what to do about Sophie's jumping. She is 10 months old now and weighs about 4 lbs. She does everything FAST. She loves to jump on and off furniture, the bed and even when going down our stairs to the family room slider to go outside she likes to leap and skip the last three stairs, hit the carpet and scoot out the door. She is very strong and healthy but I worry about her being so rambunctious.
Jackie & my :littleangSophie :aimeeyork

only one of mine will jump off the couch, but its pretty low to the ground and he only does it when I run is on the floor, we have tile and he won't jump directly on the tile. The only one won't jump off of anything, which I am glad. While it is a pain picking them up and putting them down off of things I would rather that than a broken leg. I tried the stairs thing but both hated it.

She is feisty and very independent so I can't always grab her to pick her up. What's a momma to do:confused:

Jackie & my :littleangSophie :aimeeyork

I have 3-steps for the living room to get up/down from the furniture (mine is kinda butted up in the corner, so they can run from the loveseat to the couch without problem). I have 5-steps in the bedroom to get up/down on the bed. The bedroom stairs would take up a lot of room if they were perpendicular to the bed, but I run them parallel, so they only take up the width of the stairs (in this case, 12").

I know you can get the 3-steps at Target, but I think they're a little more expensive ($19.95? $29.95? - they're the ones you see on the TV info-mercials).

At any rate, these dogs are so tiny, and the grooves in the knee that allow the bones to move are correspondingly tiny (and shallow). They are prone to something called luxating patella (LP for short), which means that their knees pop out. It's crippling and hurts like the Devil, not to mention expensive to fix. So anything you can do to help prevent the stress that causes it is a good thing.

If you can't afford stairs, stack books or something. Tie boxes together. Do something, because I don't think it's a good thing for them to jump. Some are daredevils and you can't stop them, but most can be taught to avoid this unnecessary danger.