WOuld this be possible or not?
To train a dog to stay downstairs with no baby gates or anything actually stopping him getting up the stairs?
My dog is going to be crated when I am out but for when I am home, I would work very very hard on training him to stay downstairs but would it be possible and how would I go about it?
Thanks!
I mean a puppy! She will be 9 weeks old when we bring her home in a couple of days!
Rather, he will be 9 weeks old!!
Tags: Baby Gates, couple of days, downstairs, puppy, stairs
July 31st, 2010 at 12:55 am
It is very possible to train her to stay on one level of the house once she’s older. You’ll want to use the crate while she’s young though.
I am a bit concerned though, why are you getting a dog if you don’t want it following you around the whole house being part of the activity. It is unlikely that she’d want to go upstairs unless you were up there. Dogs are pack animals that like to be involved in what’s going on with the group. It isn’t very nice to make dogs be in a separate living space than where you are hanging out.
Good Luck!
July 31st, 2010 at 12:55 am
My dog stays out of two rooms in my house (living room and dining room) without any baby gates or doors to stop her. We just said "No!" really loudly when she went near them as a puppy, which worked part of the time but to stop it completely we sprayed her once with a water bottle when she went near the rooms and that was the end of it. She hasn’t gone in since. So when your puppy goes near the stairs, say "No!" and/or do something to discourage him from going up them.
Keep in mind though that he will want to be around you. If you spend a lot of time upstairs, you might want to rethink not letting him up there. If he’s going to be lonely downstairs a lot of the time, why not just let him in one room upstairs? I don’t know what your situation is, but if he’s lonely he will be unhappy.
July 31st, 2010 at 12:55 am
Get a baby gate. This young a puppy will not follow instructions and will want to be with you as much as possible. You should be with him as much as possible also. That is how you will know when he starts to know he has to go out and so forth so you can actually begin house training. Befor that time it is owner training. You can start training for real at about 16 weeks (puppy kindergarten) and when you and he have mastered simple commands like come, sit and down then you will know enough about training to begin to work on not coming up stairs unless invited. Good luck.
July 31st, 2010 at 12:55 am
None of the three dogs I’ve had in this house have been allowed upstairs and all followed this rule without a baby gate or anything even being installed. Strangely (and unfortunately) I’m not entirely sure how this happened. They used to be shut in one room downstairs when we were out, so they couldn’t go upstairs then anyway, and if we were there we would be aware if they tried and just tell them off, but in general they never tried much. Then again one of ours was a doddery old rescue with bad hips that I doubt would have found stair-scaling too easy anyway, and another was a middle-aged rescue who had rarely ever been in a house before since she was kept as an outdoor dog, yet never once had a problem with toileting indoors or anything anyway… But our black lab pup learned not to go upstairs too. I suppose all I can say is it is definitely possible with training, and keep them crated/shut in another room while you’re out if you can’t trust them to stay downstairs when you’re out at first…