Is a baby gate effective in stopping dog going upstairs?

zaksmum

They would be effective if you don't want the dog upstairs for safety reasons - mine sleep upstairs in their baskets so they do pretty much have the run of the house, nowhere inside is off limits to them.

AND they are allowed on the sofa...!

POPPYOSCAR

Would it not be possible to train him not to go up the stairs?

When we first got our two Westies they did go up the stairs but we taught them it was out of bounds and now they are very good and just stay downstairs all the time.

If not then a stair gate is a good idea.

zaksmum

My neighbour had a wooden stair gate and her dog spent a happy afternoon chomping his way through it, so by the time she got home the dog had reduced it to matchwood and was zonked out on her bed, exhausted by all his hard work!

valkirn

We have a babygate on the stairs, but it is for both the baby and the dog, and stops the pair of them going up the stairs.

I think my old boy has decided now though that the stairs are more trouble than they are worth and seems more than happy with his bed downstairs

the_devil_made_me_do_it

I wouldn't have had a problem with him going upstairs, however, I've only had him for a short time & he has already hurt his back leg. I really don't want him to hurt himself again by going upstairs.

Going to take him to the vet tomorrow & hopefully his leg recovers ok.

He is 8 years old, so the last thing I want is for him to break a leg or something, when it could've been easily avoided.

Helen2k8

How big is he?
I've a babygate on my kitchen door, but mounted it an inch or so too high - if in the mood my dog can squeeze under!
It's a pretty common thing to have one a couple of stairs up - as said earlier it makes the gate look higher!

the_devil_made_me_do_it

He is a medium size dog & weighs 18kg. I don't think he would be able to squeeze underneath the gate.

I've been looking at safety gates & just need to find one that's wide enough for my stairs.

krlyr

There is a huge range of gates available now, from slimline to extra wide, you can even get ones that are like rollerblinds flipped the other way so that they retract into the wall or stretch out blocking the way. You might want to maybe look at one without the bottom bar for safety on the stairs, but you do soon get used to automatically stepping over it, we have with the gate between the living room and kitchen.

con1888

We have one on our livingroom door, so that Logan

a) can't try go upstairs and potentially hurt himself
b) can't run out the front door if someone doesn't shut it in time/expect a dog to be there and we can chat at the front door without worrying about him running out.

When he is big enough he will be able to jump it but hopefully will have learned it's a 'no-go' area.

lostinrates

I love baby gates. They are so effective with our large dogs that when planning new doors for our house i asked for all stable doors, to make this an even easier arrangement.

The great thing is the cats can get through a baby gate (or over a stable door) but my dogs (huge things that do not like to leap) don't try. It means we can often be next door to them, but still within comfortable ear shot and often eyeline, so we are not 'separate'.