How can I stop my dog getting upstairs

[Shithole101]

I have a tall dog gate up the top of my stairs . But my German shepherd can get it open . I tried making it tighter . I even used lots of cable ties. Which she snapped and now she's broken the fixing that go onto the wall for the gate.. any ideas 💡

Thank you. I can try that. I'm thinking I might make it about 4ft in height 🤔

Put bolts at the top of the doors that you don't want her to open, then no unsightly sheets of wood and faffing about.

Probably 🤣 . I will mange some how

Something like this?

We have put small silver hook and eye catches at the top of several internal doors (on the outside of the door) to stop the dog opening them at night. Annoying to do but effective for the dog (although the kids sometimes lock each other in)

I will start paying house keeping then .

😳 Imprisoned by my dog.

I tried that she scratched shit out of the door

@Shithole101 get a joiner to put dead bolts on all the doors in the house, both upstairs and downstairs. this is also a good idea in case someone break in through a window. just have to lock them when you leave the room. alternatively, get someone to make a special metal grid to cover the whole size of the door opening and confine them to one room.

Unsightly piece of wood...
Preferable to unsightly and unholy mess caused by dogs and or ferrets. 🤣

I did think of a tall metal type of gate maybe simlar to a garden one . But i don't know how I would stop her opening it . Also not sure about the width sizing etc

Get a dog trainer to help you, dogs shouldn’t wreck your house

Use right angled latches at the top of the doors. Small and discreet. We use them downstairs to stop the Danes from trashing

lounging elegantly on the sofas.
Our dogs aren’t allowed upstairs but I’d recommend a drop-in stair gate (you have to lift the middle panel to open it) positioned at the most awkward point for the dog to take off /land - maybe 3 stairs up? We have one at the end of a ling hallway separating the front and back of the house. It’s more for safety than anything else . Delivery drivers tend to panic and drop stuff when they see the size of the dogs. Much easier not to have them ‘helping’ when you open the door. 😂

You're going to have to demolish the upper floor. It's the only way.

I'm so confused metal grid to cover the door ? I don't get it. Sounds like prisoner cell block H 😅

I'm not putting bolts on the doors. No one will break in my house

How can she open a stair gate? Ours has a catch at the top which is tricky enough for a human to master! Beautiful dog 😍

@Shithole101

can you add something at the bottom?

can you change the door handle types? So they aren’t a traditional lever handle but a ball /twist style one?

add the bottom half of a stable type door?

Also - for heavy use or big dogs I wouldn’t be fixing the gate straight into the wall. I’d have a strip of wood mounted to the wall and drill into that for extra oomph. More support than a few wall plugs in plaster..

Sorry, didn’t copy over to pp

Sod knows she even broke cable ties

Whatever you opt for, it needs to be easy for humans to open so that you and your kids can get out in a fire/emergency services can get to you if you're stuck upstairs.

Slightly off tangent, but never having had a dog, I wondered if this was unusual. My DS has a springer and he can't stop on the stairs, if he can't see a clear way to the top, he won't go!

I agree.

Do you know what's causing the need for destruction OP - is it worth reaching out locally and see if there's any good dog trainers around, they might have suggestions for blocking your stairs while you work on the behaviour.

The drop-in gate was invented by my late lamented SF. Two vertical flat ‘posts’ attached either side of the wall/stair post with a small gap between each pair, wide enough to slot a flat lightweight board between them. Ours has two cut outs, one at the top to use as a handhold and one at the bottom to allow access for the untrainable cat.

With the doors the German shepherd will just scratch the doors trying to get in.

The gate was fixed to wood not directly onto the wall. But sgexstiol managed to open it .

I'm thinking about what someone suggested up thread . With slotting wood into 4 batons . It seems most simple