Climbing The Stairs

[~Jilly~]

I know that when puppies are young they shouldn't get too much exercise to avoid health problems in later life so we don't let Bella climb the stairs and this has been fine for the last 3 weeks until..... today!

She came up to me (in bed) this morning before hubby had even had a chance to notice :: (I think he was still half asleep) then just now while I was in the kitchen, I turned around to find she'd gone, looked everywhere and realised she was upstairs

She's only previously tried to come up when hubby or I have been up here but this time I was the only one in the house and she still did it maybe she thought he was up here and was looking for him?!?

We are trying to prevent her/teach her not to but how long do we need to do this for? If it's going to be months I think I'll have to get a stairgate

[PennyB]

Prevention is sometimes better than cure and baby gates are a godsend

[Em - Oscar's mum]

We use a baby gate for Oscar on the stairs and found that it has worked really well so I would recommend getting one.

[paulb]

we generally keep the door to the hall closed,(mainly to stop the children escaping out the front door) but this week Barney legged it upstairs, it was out of the blue and unexpected,
 
he is the devil in disguise (oh yes he is )

but we love him.

[Annette]

We are using a baby gate on the stairs. A real cheapy, pressure fit one from Toys'R'us, works well.

Now that Buddy sleeps upstairs we let him climb the stairs once a day, and though Steve carries him down in the mornings, if I'm up first I let him climb down with me in front of him because I don't feel safe carrying our 10Kg 5 month old cocker down first thing. Reckon that is more risky than letting him hop down on his own just once a day.

You can see the extra strain on his hips as he does it though! Do hope we aren't putting him at risk of hip problems by doing this.

[Em - Oscar's mum]

we generally keep the door to the hall closed,(mainly to stop the children escaping out the front door) but this week Barney legged it upstairs, it was out of the blue and unexpected,
 
he is the devil in disguise (oh yes he is )

but we love him.

[snapback]131036[/snapback]

Hubby left the baby gate door opened the other day and wondered why he had two big eyes poking round the corner when was in the bath....

[paulb]

It is official Barney is addicted to the stairs, he now waits at the stairs pineing to be let up, we now have to slide sideways through the door to stop him gettin out,

it is funny.