Can your 'tinies' jump up on the sofa???
 

Jett is closing in on 6 months old, and a little over 2 pounds and still isn't even CLOSE to being able to jump up on the sofa. He is a little petite guy, but our couches are fairly low to the ground. Instead of jumping 'toward' the couch when he jumps up, he jumps STRAIGHT in the air, like tigger or a jack in the box or something.

Its kind of amusing, all you see is these little ears peeking over the seat of the sofa, boing, boing, boing, boing. (I swear I can hear this sound when he jumps....I laugh so dang hard watching him.) And he does it NON STOP!! Boing, boing, boing, boing!!! :D

Bella is fairly little, about 4.5 pounds, and isn't much taller than Jett, and she has been jumping up on the sofas since about 3 1/2 months old. I'm just wondering if Jett will ever make it up????? (I KNOW, I KNOW, it is kind of better if they don't jump up, but....I swear Bella teases him by getting up when he can't......LOL) (Or maybe I'm just crazy.......LOL)

Do your little ones jump up on furniture???

I remember when polo wa sthat age, i had to make a step for him to get up the step into the kitchen lol.... Polo has the ability, when really wound up... to jump from the ground .... 1/2 way up the back of the couch... and then with a few scrapes he makes it up to the top...

Oh, be very careful of allowing the tiny dogs to jump, especially not big jumps.

As the owner of a 3 lb. Yorkie who dislocated a shoulder that would not heal, I urge you to get a set of stairs or a ramp for your babies to use as they are too small to put that much stress on such tiny and unstable joints as these very small dogs have as the result of improper breeding practices. My tiny baby had a stairs to use for the couch and the bed and still her tiny shoulder joint could not take the stress of all the jumping she did.

If you want to protect your dogs as much as possible and want to save thousands in vet bills, endless hours nursing them, casting/surgery, vet trips and heartache and pain, get them some way not to jump at all, preferably a ramp and corral their jumping as much as possible.

I know you must be very careful with these little ones jumping. Our sofas that we use are pretty low to the ground. (We use stairs for our bed, because that is pretty high. Jett is too small to even use the stairs to get into bed at this point, it is still a bit of a reach for him. Just really wondering if most little ones eventually can make it to a short couch???

Bella will sit over the edge and I could swear she is saying, na ni na ni boo boo at him.......:) As he boings at the edge........sigh...

Do they make pet ramps???????? That is a fantastic idea.....

I use the scamp ramps. I train mine from day one to use them so they never learned to jump up an down off furniture or beds. Much safer for them.

Oh, I would strongly urge you to get a ramp then. Just please keep the hard stress that jumping requires off these tiny parts ill-designed to take such impact. My vet told me that the tiny dog's joint is just too fragile to take the repetitive jolting of jumping without damaging the cartilage, wearing it away and then denuding bone, deforming it, destabilizing the joint.

Peyton is 5 pounds and almost 3 years old and she can not jump up on anything. she has short legs and can not jump. i have doggie stairs for her :)

Marley is about to be 6 months as well and is no where near close to being able to jump on the couch! She tries and fails lol..she has short little legs.

My Male Sneakers is 2.5yo and is >11 pounds, and My Female Becca
is 9mo >6 lbs and I still set up ramps for them. We have several !
Up to the bed, to several windows on the second floor, various others.

I kinda use a rule of thumb...
If where they're trying to get to, is taller than they can reach with their paws when standing up on their back legs, then it needs steps/ramp.

Understand that they can easily jump up, much higher than that, but having
the stair/ramp makes it easier, and allows them to come down step at a time,
rather than a long downward jump.

I would almost bet you could easily 'create' yourself a safe pet ramp.......hmmmmmmmm

You sure can Suze,

The elevation could be 45° or even more, as long as you have sufficient
cross pieces, for them to get a "toe hold" on. ;)

The cross pieces, probably shouldn't be spaced any greater than
the length of your animal's legs.

Keep in mind though, steeper ramps are fairly easy to go up, but
they aren't that easy to come down on. Momentum is the issue.

nope. puppy stairs =)

The best way to keep small dogs from jumping up and/or down off high furniture is to use some doggie steps. Toby had never used them and it only took about 30 minutes and a few treats to teach him. Our other dog, Speedy, doesn't really need to use them but she does. My husband makes them. Our dogs use them to get in and out of bed and a fellow YT'er just placed an order that is almost ready to be mailed. Here's a couple samples of what he's made so far.

Plz do use doggy stairs!!! Bevo just learned how to jump in the past 3 months, and he is 2 1/2 years old. He actually broke his leg when he was about 10 months old from jumping off the couch!! They are a small investment or you can make your own!!!!!

I agree...teach him as soon as you can to use the steps or a ramp. My 4lb dog very rarely can get up on the bed on his own (takes a whole lot of will power!) He now uses steps to get up...but, getting down....well, unfortunately, he loves to jump, but I make an effort to stop him when he tries and place him on the ground myself. Drives me crazy when he tries to jump off. I'm so afraid he is going to hurt himself.

Okay, those are the cutest things EVER! Are they drawers/lidded as well as stairs??

I have a 3.5lb Yorkie who is 5yrs who doesn't want to sit on the floor. It has to be the couch. So I just purchased doggie stairs which also converts into a ramp if you want it to. She loves it. When I adopted her she has 4 bad legs (ortho issues) so with these little stairs/ramp it is so much better on her little joints!!!

I used a six foot ramp at the end of my bed. It had a flat top, but the ramp was very gradual so that the slope was not steep. It had higher sides so my girls felt more secure, and it also had a berber carpet with grooves in it to help them grip the carpet. They no longer make this ramp but someone can make something similar. It was expensive but invaluable. My girls were not allowed to jump off of everything, but it saved their knees.

I just went to your website. Wow, love your dog stairs and your dog bone bed!!!

Those are beautiful! The carpeting on the white steps is just like my bed ramp, and it is gives them a good grip. I love them!

Dianne do you ship to canada ?

My plans for Harley have always been showing agility, so we were told very strictly absolutely no jumping until he was over a year, so we made huge pillows to go under the couch, so that he could hop on that then hop on the couch. I have the same set up at our bed.

Now he's old enough to jump he doesn't always use them, but uses them more as crash pads when he's got the zoomies...

The reason we shouldn't let our little ones jump is because they don't have proper development in their bones yet. When an animal's bones are growing they are not 100% locked in place so dislocation is a higher risk. Once they hit a year they are most likely almost full grown, so they can start to jump around more. After a year, you only need to be cautious of dangerous jumps, but I assure you Harley my little evil-kenivel has done it all.

You know I agree jumping is okay for a normal, healthy dog but tinies often do not have 100% all healthy joints when full grown for various reasons, not just due to poor joint formation, poor cartilage material but supporting ligament and tendon weakness and attachment problems as well.

If you have a tiny dog, I recommend watching the jumping as a precaution. Teacups and tinies from a litter born of a breeding that has often occurred despite known joint problems, are dogs with potential serious inuries waiting to happen.

Just because the dog grows to adulthood does not mitigate an existing potential joint problem - it often exacerbates it as the dog carries more weight and becomes more active as it ages. My Jilly was grown when her serious shoulder dislocation occurred and all she was doing was jumping down onto her doggie steps. But she was tiny, fragile and had a malformed shoulder joint from a condtion that was passed onto her by her sire. I knew of the potential problem from the parent and took her anyway and so attempted to protect her from injury as she was so fragile at 3 lbs.

Since I experienced this problem from jumping, I wanted to share my story as I hoped it might help some who have tinies better protect them and those reading this in the future aware of this potential problem. I am sure not all tiny dogs have joint problems - but some do. You cannot keep them from jumping or you will probably ruin their little lives but you can monitor them and keep the tinies from excessive jumping if you want as a precaution, and sometimes even that does not stop injury.

Once you have a tiny dog, you often have taken on many health problems and I think it is good to try to protect them as much as you can from those problems.

How tiny is 'tiny' ? Our new rescue yorkie-poo is 6lbs, 7oz and although full of energy and apparently healthy, she is 'tiny' to me. Our last dog was 50lbs of solid muscle so Sugar Bear's little paws, etc., seem fragile in comparison. Is she the size everyone is concerned about?

Like the OP, she is also a jumper - straight up and down, sometimes on all fours, sometimes boinging up and down on her hind legs like a kangaroo. If we hadn't decided to keep her 'Sugar' name, we would have called her 'Roo (even though she's more like Tigger : )

She can jump on the couch and even a pillowtop bed but we quickly taught her those were off-limits. She does, however, try to use the kitchen chairs to jump onto the table so we have to move them away from the table overnight or whenever we are away.

Mine weighed 3 lbs. Very small. The fragility is one of the things one has to accept when we willingly buy a tiny dog.

I agree with Yorkietalkjilly about trying to prevent the jumping. My first Yorkie had LP in one back leg, and her jumping off of the couch at my MIL's house was very bad for her. We needed to take every precaution to prevent her jumping. After she passed away and we brought three more little ones into our lives, we started them as pups by not allowing them to jump. Ashley started to have some problems with her knees when she got much older, but she was still walking usually at least two miles a day weather permitting, even at almost seventeen years of age. Our tiny one Gracie was so agile it seemed like she was flying when she ran, but we always carried she and her sisters from the couch or bed from the time they were babies and also used steps and ramps for them. Fortunately genetically their knees were good, but taking precautions helped to save their knees long-term. They had plenty of other opportunities to keep them physically fit other than jumping, and the overprotective side of me made me worry less, at least wiith regard to injuring themselves.

No, Peanut can't jump up on the couch but, even with steps, he will jump off of the couch when he wants down.

We have the little stairs for Marcel and Pfeiffer. Wylie just flies on/off everything, but he weighs 7lbs, so he does fine.

Bella is not overly tiny, 4 pounds 6 ozs at 1 year. Small, but very sturdy with thicker bones. But Jett I believe is going to stay pretty tiny. He is almost 6 months and just over 2 pounds. His little legs are like pencils they are so tiny with itty bitty feet.

My Bella sounds soooooooo like your dog. She also uses the kitchen chairs to get on the table and her favorite spot is the back of the couch. I am going to get or have my hubby make a new set of stairs or ramp for our bed, this is my worry, as our sofa is very low to the ground. Then I think I will move our stairs from our room to the family room furniture, so Jett can join the family too!!!!

Thanks all for the great advice.