my dog is afraid of stairs - help!

[MD99]

i just adopted a dog a few days ago and have discovered that she's very afraid of going down our building's internal hall stairs. she's ok with the stairs that lead out of the building but i'm guessing that is because they are shorter and more manageable for her.

this is a big problem b/c i live on the 2nd floor of an apartment building and you have to go down the stairs to get outside. my boyfriend and i have had to resort to picking her up but she hates that and is making it harder and harder for us to do so.

we've tried to coax her down with treats but that's not working - she's too afraid. we also haven't had the proper time to train her either as we both work full time and have just enough time to try to get her to pick her up and take her for walks. we're hoping to spend the time this weekend to try to train her but i'm afraid we're going to need more time than that... everything i've read says it could take several days or weeks!

does anyone have any advice?? ...is it bad if we're picking her up in the meantime (and in between training sessions)??

she is a rescue dog and they got her from a shelter. so we don't know her history at all. she's just getting comfortable being with us and so i don't want our lack of training or improper training to make her more nervous or turn her off from us.

help! any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Camsy]

I think you should talk to the shelter to find out more about her history. Also, maybe you could take the alternate route while she's still too afraid of the stairs or while you're not training her? Dogs are creatures of habit. If you keep carrying her around, she might get used to it and might ignore your commands when you're already in training mode.

Hope that helps.

[Lyka_01]

Same problem with our Bubbles, she can't go up and down to the stairs...When she was at the second floor of the house she can't go down we need to carry her for her move down... Now she about a 10 months and still afraid...

[Camsy]

Hi Lyka,

Ever tried taking her to a vet behaviorist?