Dogs and Stairs

[MrRee145]

I'm hoping someone here can assist or at least give pointers as to an issue we are having. My MIL recently acquired a 7 month old Labrador, however the previous owner never let it go upstairs. we now have an issue where the dog will happily go upstairs but like a cow refuses to come down again. it just sits at the top panting. the twice we have had this happen, we ended up having to carry it down.

Does anyone had this issue or know the best way to train/get a dog downstairs by itself. Their previous dog had no issues with this so we are a little stuck as to how best approach it.

[Jasandjules]

Is it food driven? If so, place a treat a couple of steps down, then a couple of steps lower and the dog will mooch down the stairs eating....

[MrRee145]

It doesn't appear to be food driven particularly, we've tried the food on each stair and in his toy even holding it in our hands and trying to coax him down, neither have worked.

[R E S T E C P]

As J&J said, see if it'll follow some food/toys.

Or, when it's in a calm mood (so it doesn't bounce up the stairs before you know what's happened), start at the bottom and get it to just take one step and then call or otherwise entice it to turn around and come back. If it can manage one step, let it do two, then three...

Or find a location with just a couple of steps and practice there:

[jelevents]

My first husky would never go up stairs, then when she eventually went up she would not come down for ages. Took her for a walk one day crossed the railway line over the footbridge going up fine, but then she refused to come down, after trying for about 15 mins gave up and managed to pick her up to carry her down with her crying all the way!
Now I have 2 huskies and the younger one has almost cured the other of her stair fear bit of a pain though as they now go upstairs when not invited. Patience is the key to success with a dog.

[tonyb1968]

I had an issue with my Miniature Schnauzer where she would only go up stairs but didn't like going down them (to start with).

What I did was put her a few steps up on the stairs and get her to come down, it didn't take her long to figure out that even her tiny legs could reach the next step with no problems.
The biggest hurdle was actually the top stair, its slightly bigger and she just felt like she couldn't judge it, so holding her I let her front legs reach the next step down, once she had this sussed she was up and down them (and still is) like a flash

It worked for me, may work for you with a dog with longer legs?