How to teach dog not to go upstairs

[TheBigMacDougal]

Has anyone had success with teaching a dog not to access upstairs?

Our 9 month old loves to bomb it up there any chance he gets to retrieve something and bring it back down. Socks mostly .

He then drops them when we say ‘dead’ or swap for a treat.

I expect it’s quite a fun game for him.

We either keep doors shut or have a gate across to keep him downstairs but with 2 small children it’s impossible to not occasionally slip up.

I’m not keen to just ignore what he finds and leave him with it as he will then chew and destroy which is then self rewarding for him.

I know it's not what you want to hear, but prevention is the answer here.

Either use a babygate or shut all the doors upstairs so he only has access to the "boring" hallway where he can't steal anything.

It has become a game for him and best of all he gets a reward for doing something you ultimately don't want him to. I'd be more inclined to teach him to leave socks alone. Dogs just want to be part of the family unit.

You’ve taught him to do this. He can’t break down the parts of the behaviour. All he knows is that you want him to go upstairs and get a sock because you treat him for doing so.
The only way to stop is to put a physical barrier up or ignore the behaviour so it becomes a futile activity (this might take a while to achieve).

Our old dog was taught this. No baby gates or barriers, just never allowed upstairs from the start though.

It worked when visiting other houses too which was very useful. He wouldn't go up even if you wafted a roast chicken from the top.

I think we taught him by goin up and praising him when he didn't and then just physically taking him back down if he tried to come up. We got him at 4yrs and he was a terrier so not the easiest thing to train.

"He then drops them when we say ‘dead’ or swap for a treat"

You're rewarding him with a treat when he goes upstairs?

Surely you can just ignore him when he brings a sock or whatever?

Quietly remove the sock without fuss, ignore dog. Then redirect a few minutes later?

Tbh if you are finding it hard to shut the doors and gate then you can see how hard it is to change habits .

It is way harder and you will need to be 100% consisitent if you want to train your dog not to go upstairs without gates. Certainly doable but more time consuming than using gates.

So the easy option is to shut gates

Thanks for the comment.

Quite aware we’re not doing the right thing currently. But also not willing to let him destroy and guard what he finds as he was starting to resource guard, which if it comes to it, is a bigger problem for us than him wandering upstairs.

We have a gate across the hall. Sometimes the kids don’t close it.

I was more looking for ways we can reinforce him not coming up as well as using the physical barrier as prevention.

Teaching him to leave socks is a good idea. He will leave if we give the command before he picks something up, pretty hard to get there in time if he’s bolted upstairs ahead of us

Mine doesn't go upstairs at all.
As a puppy she was in a cage if unattended.
When out of her cage a firm uhuh to stop her from going upstsrs, my children were older we didn't have a stairgate.
Site was also taught to stay in her bed so sure was put there if she was trying to go upstairs.

OP you are not doing the wrong thing in swopping a treat for the sock. That is the perfect thing to do. You are not rewarding him for stealing the sock you are rewarding him for giving it up.

I would work hard to keep the door shut but if he has a sock (not meant in a bad way you have messed up , we all do it!) and take it as a training opportunity to work on excellent retrieve and recall. I possible may even put it on a cue if he loves doing it so pop a sock downstairs send him to "get it" and reward when he brings it back to you. At least then if he does pick up a sock you have control of the situation and a happy dog.

So carry on doing just what you are doing and swop sock for a treat. - excellent training

Sock-swallowing ddogs make for costly vet bills.
Stop that game ASAP.

^ Hence the swopping with treat! reward is better than the item........

Dog is happy to give up the sock , no need to gulp it down as they are worried it will be taken off them, but happy to bring sock to owner for reward.

Apart from the stair gate, surely one of the obvious things is to make sure there aren't any socks left in places he can access.

We have the same issues - cocker spaniel with resource guarding tendencies so can't just take stolen items off him. We swap for treats, or use a distraction (going out into the garden for example) to safely remove items as otherwise he destroys them.

We use a stairgate but DC not yet born so don't have the issue of small children aiding his escapades! It is frustrating.

I use this to stop my 2 going upstairs. www.amazon.co.uk/Flexipanel-Portable-Flexible-Foldable-Outdoors/dp/B07PM8D4M5?psc=1&pf_rd_p=1766d520-315b-4154-9077-1551fa7bab99&pf_rd_r=ZFR24J8YHD3347FHMZ78&pd_rd_wg=4om4Y&pd_rd_i=B07PM8D4M5&ref_=pd_bap_d_rp_17_i&pd_rd_w=tMkdK&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&pd_rd_r=8384b2c5-8733-40e8-92cf-d2c7e6cd5f95

When we moved to our latest property one of the conditions was that the dogs didn't go upstairs but obviously we could fix a gate to the walls. This fence goes across the hall so blocks access to the front door as well. Even though they could knock it over, as they're quite large, they have never tried.

I was more looking for ways we can reinforce him not coming up as well as using the physical barrier as prevention.

Stop upstairs from being appealing.

So if he runs up to steal socks, stop leaving socks out (I appreciate that's easier said than done with small children). Shut all the bedroom doors as standard so he only has access to the "boring" hallway with nothing to steal and where there's nothing to do.

Basically, if nothing exciting happens upstairs, he won't feel the need to go up there as much. Make downstairs fun and exciting. So downstairs is where the treats, toys, meals, fuss and play happen - never upstairs.

We trained ours not to go upstairs. We never had a stair gate we just said 'no' and removed him every time he put a paw on the bottom step.

You can have a go at teaching "threshold boundaries". This means training your doggo to automatically wait at doors and gates before going through (only when you give permission). If you search Google and YouTube for terms like "teach dog not to run out of door", you'll find lots of articles/videos on how to do it.

It takes a lot of time and patience. Realistically can take a year / until he's a more mature adult.

I'm working on it with my dog right now, as we have a gate blocking off the hallway to the bedrooms (as yes, he loves to go in and steal socks out of the laundry bin haha). He's actually started to hesitate when we walk through the gate without closing it. It can be done, just not overnight.

Basically - you start by teaching a "sit" and "wait" or "stay" command. If your dog already knows this, you simply use that command as you open the gate. You may have to start by just opening the gate a touch. Then a bit more. Until you can walk through the gate and back again, without him moving.

If he moves, you just return him to his sit and wait position and try again.

It won't happen in a day. So just aim for little moments of success.

Use really high value rewards for this, which you don't use anywhere else. Cooked chicken, mature cheese, hot dogs, that kind of thing. Or a ball/toy, if he loves that.

Meanwhile, do what you can to make the upstairs as unappealing as possible.

Another thing you could consider is a double gate system, which will remind your kids.

So, you'd have a gate at the bottom of the stairs, then another gate at the top of the stairs. Once the kids hit the second gate, it should remind them to go back and close the first gate - or at least prevent the dog from getting all the way up the stairs.

I hope that helps!

We had this. Then we got one of these for Etsy and she doesn't even attempt to go around it.

OK so just tried to make a game of it with AwkwardPup. We've had the same issue but it's been low priority, & you've prompted me to have a go at tackling it!

Shut all upstairs doors.
Cut a hotdog into 70 million tiny pieces.
Asked for a sit-stay at base of stairs.

Totally ignored me and barrelled upstairs, only to return a moment later with furrowed eyebrows and a look that said "Mum! Where's all the fun places gone!?"

Came downstairs and tried again. He hovered for a millisecond before running so I chucked a piece of hotdog at him. He inhaled it and belted upstairs again.

Repeat x5 until he realised that if he bloody well stayed put, more hotdogs rained from the sky. Hallelujah.

I went upstairs myself, including out of sight, and threw treats down to him. Walked into the kitchen, back to the hall and opened the stairgate 20-odd times. He did run upstairs a couple of times, in which case he was met with super boring closed doors and no hotdog.

So, this is our new game for the next few weeks. I'm hoping it works!

Blahpup is 100% not allowed upstairs. DC is 7 and the thought of the damage should he get into her room with tiny toys to choke on and lovely books to chomp on gives me the fear!! Socks are the least of my worries. 😂
Not sure if it’ll help but I’ve been using the “wait” command when going upstairs. So basically he has to sit and wait at the bottom of the stairs, same as he would for his food, a treat, etc. Sometimes he will hop onto step 1 or 2 but generally he waits at the bottom with his paws on the first step. Lots of praise when I come back down if he has waited nicely and quietly. If he is on 2nd step I say a firm “No” bring him down and once he has all 4 paws down/sits he gets a “good boy”.
It’s hard doing it every time but worth getting kids to do it too.

We kept all upstairs doors closed until Ddog realised that upstairs was pretty pointless
We also blocked the stairs for a bit
Now he’s not interested in going up there at all