# Spiral staircase



## oso golden (Jun 2, 2014)

Hi, im new in the forum, i have a 2.5 year old golden named Simba, he is a really playful dog, is very protective and a little hyperactive. The problem i have with him is that he is afraid of "new things" such as water, when he was a puppy he was fearless the first walk we took was to the park and he even climbed a peatonal bridge he even scaped from the second floor at times. But now he dopesnt even want to be near the spiral staircase, the thing is that i may have to move to the third floor and i want him to be able to be at my room beacuse i dont want him to be alone in the first floor. I've already tried to teach him how to go up but he was so confused that he got stressed and ran away. He was able to climb 1 stair but he got stucked there so i had to carry him down, im worried because i know that goin up is the easy part, goin down is the problem i dont want him to feel like im forcing him. Thats why i want help i've been watchin this site for a while but never posted i think this is a good place to start. btw sorry if sometimes my eanglish is bad, im from México.
Thanks


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## Doug (Jul 17, 2010)

Welcome to the forum

Just like people dogs do not get over their fears easily.

I feel that Simba's fear is justified, there is a real risk of injury with our dogs and stairs. 

All we can do is keep up the encouragement and also make the stairs as safe as it can be. What are your stairs made out of?
You can buy strips of clear plastic material that resembles sandpaper to help add friction to the stairs to make it feel more secure.

This is a tough situation as I bet that Simba would love to be upstairs with you.


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## boomers_dawn (Sep 20, 2009)

I'm not a pro trainer or pet psychologist, but I think for animals and people it might help to desensitize - that is - get him used to the stairs with only good things and nothing bad happening.

Can you get him closer and closer to the stairs using treats, no force, and taking it slowly try getting him on the first stair, give him treats, then progress to the second stair, slowly, over time, at his pace?

I think stairs, bridges, and grates they can see through are frightening to them because they can see down and don't understand the structure is holding them up, they just see air - like if we looked off a cliff.


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## oso golden (Jun 2, 2014)

Hi!, thank you all for your advices, sorry that i havent posted any update i've been really bussy with my work. This are my spiral stairs:



We tried twice this week, and he's gettin the concept now, but he still a little nervous about it he looks at me like "why you want me to go up for?", i know the stairs look a little intimidating, the thing with tje bridge that i mentioned before was that everytime we climb it he gets a little weirded out when he looks down to the freeway but he's not afraid of it he is just like "ok if i keep walking foward nothing bad is goin to happend", i guess the thing with the stairs is that is a very little space and he feels he cant fully move, im gonna star trying with cookies for encourage. thank you all for everything.
BTW this is Simba:


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## Anon-2130948gsoni (Apr 12, 2014)

Simba is a beautiful boy and obviously very smart...I'm afraid of heights and even though I know better, I couldn't look down those stairs either! It's wonderful that he's figuring it out and you two can be together. Good for you!


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## Millie'sMom (Sep 7, 2012)

I am wondering if the problem is the openness of the stairs. One of my goldens would go up them, but I am not sure about the other one. 

Is it possible to buy some non slip mats and cut them to the shape of the risers on the stairs and secure them there? Hopefully, with more secure footing, the dog will be happier about going up the stairs. I would be worried that a dogs foot could get caught in the stairs and then the dog would panic.


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## boomers_dawn (Sep 20, 2009)

Those stairs look really hard! Hopefully he will gain confidence and figure it out.
Some dogs learn to climb ladders, so hopefully he can do it!


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## PrincessDi (Jun 8, 2009)

You know, I hate spiral stairs and have always felt like they would be dangerous for animals. I know that you probably don't have any option, but it would be less risky for Simba to stay downstairs. I had a friend that had a Border Collie that was 3 years old. It was very difficult for it to manage the winding staircase.


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