It's going to be difficult because she is so big - but have you tried just forcing her to go?? Put her on the leash and go up the stairs??

If you coddle her, or coo at her, or give in - it's going to reinforce her fear. Now I'm not saying you have to drag her up the stairs like a cave woman with no regard to her flailing behind you. But try to keep going slowly when she gives resistance and see if you can slowly and gradually get her to go up.

Another good thing to try is get her playing pretty hard in the house, run around, hide behind things, get her focused on coming after you and playing with you - then bolt up the stairs. If she's focused enough, she might follow without realizing. This is what eventually worked with our beagle.

We didn't do it on purpose, either - we were going to let her do the stairs when she wanted to - but we ran up one day not thinking and she followed!

We have a small, four month old puppy. We have a winding staircase and we had carried him up and down the stairs the first month. That got old fast. The dog trainer suggested leaving him in the middle of the staircase and he'd figure it out. She was correct. This was approximately a month ago. Since then, he has had no problems going upstairs including initiating the climb. As munkos suggested his first initiation with no help from us was to access us as we were upstairs. We were out of site and talking, and he just wanted to get to us.

Down is a different story. We had to start slowly with down. I first placed him on the third step (and I had to block access to going up), and put a treat on each stair just out of reach so he'd have to go down in order to get the treat. I showed him how to put his front paws down, and exactly what I wanted him to do. After three stairs down were mastered, I went to five, then seven stairs, nine stairs, etc., until eventually it was from the top. He now will go down the entire staircase with no problems, but he will not initiate down yet. I still have to prompt him to go down the stairs.

Someday I will rue the day I taught him stairs, but for now he only uses it to access us.

scardey cat dogs are hard to train, no 2 ways about it. I suggest you start skk eeerg - sorry start slow and start by playing around the stairs like tossing a ball against them or placing bits of food on the first step - walk away...let your dog take its time, dont force anything....,make the stairs a not so scary place to be...little by little put treats on the middle stairs etc...always end on a positive note-good luck

Maybe offer a treat. start walking her upstairs, and give her treat after treat. This should work.

These are good ideas (except for the one to carry her up a few stairs). I can't even lift the front end of her! Treats aren't working and I don't have her leash-trained yet. I think once I do, it will be an easier process.

I only tried once with the leash and she just jumps up trying to eat it -- to her it is a game. This week I am sitting for my daughter's two large dogs and mine just watches them run up and down the stairs. Sigh.

Carmen with your daughter's two dogs running around I'm surprised your pup hasn't joined in.

Have you tried giving all three dogs treats at the bottom of the stairs? Then work your way up the stairs with treats as the payoff. Obviously it has to be something really tasty. Usually a dog doesn't want to lose out and will spend more energy trying to make sure that they get their share than noticing if they are in a strange environment.

I've used the treat method, with another dog to eat the goodies if she didn't do her trick. Basically I was babysitting a hard headed doxie who didn't want to "roll-over". She didn't like losing out to my dog and actually learned pretty fast. (The hound "love of food" always can work to your advantage.) The only down side, is she still won't do the trick for her master. But she remembers, because she will do it for me when she comes and visits.

Are your stairs carpeted or hardwood? If they're hardwood, is there a chance your dogs nails are too long and she has no control on solid surfaces?

I would first work on leash training and obedience before tackling the stairs. At a year of age she shouldn't be treating the leash as a game.