[SugarBob62]

So I need suggestions. It is hard to explain without a picture, but tomorrow I will take a picture and post it.

We are having a really hard time keeping Nelson off the steps. Andy never learned to go up the steps and we never taught him. When we got Andy my cat moved upstairs. Which worked out well because the cat got the upstairs (though after a few years he eventually moved downstairs again haha) and Andy was downstairs. The cat litter and food was upstairs...good, no problems!

Well Nelson on the other hand is adament about going upstairs. We have a different cat now, but all the cat stuff is still up here, and Spencer needs his peace up here. So Nelson we want to stay downstairs. The problem however is Spencer wants to go up and down freely. So we can't put a high gate, Spencer can't get over it. I've put a carboard barrier near the bottom of the steps, Nelson eats it. I put a baby gate propped up on the bottom step with a gap for the cat to get around, Nelson gets around it and we are all tripping over it. I'm waiting for someone to go flying through the front door one of these days...

What does everyone else do about steps? And/or people with cats?? He was going straight for the litter box the one day he managed to get all the way up the steps. So I don't know what else to do for a barrier, the current situation isn't working out. Baby gates are TOO high. My own makeshift cardboard gates he eats. What else can I do??? :huh:

 

[theboyz]

I will not let the Boyz or rescues or guest dogs upstairs. We have a piece of 1/4" thick x 15" high, cheap Luan paneling slightly wider than the stair step width and placed on an angle. We can sue the right side of the step to go up and down. It is in the middle of the stairs and the "kids" don't even venture up there. If I am up they wait on the landing for me. Works great!

 

[EmmasMommy]

I don't have steps/stairs but I do have a laundry room with a litter box (actually 2 litter boxes next to each other) and years ago- Pre-Maltese I had a Yorkie who was **** bend on getting into the cat litter "gems & nuggets".

After much discussion we found a peice of plywood to block dogs but not cats

its about 18 inches high and as wide as the walkway plus. Its next to my washer and the utilitysink and blocks the dogs from the litterboxes but the cats can easily scale it and I can step over it easily too.

My 2 persian cats are 8 and 9 years old and still able to "hop the fence"

Maybe you can make a wooden gate thats low?

 

[cyndrae]

Lilly was too small to get up and down the stairs. While trying to get up once she slipped (wood steps), we put some of those carpet treads down. Now she will go up but not down which is fine.

 

[The A Team]

I will not let the Boyz or rescues or guest dogs upstairs. We have a piece of 1/4" thick x 15" high, cheap Luan paneling slightly wider than the stair step width and placed on an angle. We can sue the right side of the step to go up and down. It is in the middle of the stairs and the "kids" don't even venture up there. If I am up they wait on the landing for me. Works great!

I use a window screen that I got from Home Depot. It's the kind that's about 12 inches high and is expandable. I expand the screen and sit it on the second step at an angle....Ava can't go up with that in place. She runs up stairs very easily...it's the coming down part that she can't do so naturally while I'm not home I need to make sure she doesn't go up there.

When I had a cat, I put the food up on the washing machine - cats are pretty good at jumping. And when I had a strictly indoor cat, I put all her stuff in one room and gated that one room with the same window screen. I put velcro on the door frame and on the wooden edges of the screen.

 

[Dora's Mom]

We prop a baby gate on the bottom stair. The cat just jumps over it. I worried about him for a while but he's 10 years old and no problems yet. He nudged the gate over juuust a little and he squeezes through when he doesn't want to jump but Dora can't get through it without making a racket (and she hasn't tried in months).

Pat's idea of the window screen is a good idea if the cat isn't a good jumper...12 inches is nothing for them but I think it would be very hard for a puppy.

 

[SugarBob62]

Well I would be worried about the wood too because I'm pretty sure whatever we use he will chew on it, I guess he thinks he can chew his way through. As we use a baby gate to close off the kitchen when we go out, and it is wooden and has chew marks all over it! So we have to get some other kind of gate for that too.

The screen might be a good idea. I've laid down an ironing board and Nelson jumped right over it. I don't want anything too high because I don't want Spencer to have to jump up and down everywhere. He too is older now. And within the last 6 months he has somehow broken his canine tooth in half and will probably eventually need it taken out. So the vet said probaby from jumping somewhere and he hit it, they don't just typically break. So I don't want him to have to keep jumping. We already seperate the dining room with a baby gate and chairs on each side like a "bridge" for him to get across :HistericalSmiley:

It's just the stairs are driving us nuts. Anything too inconvenient you end up tripping over going up and down them. Can't totally block it off because of the cat. But atleast he isn't jumping baby gates yet, his breeder has 1 dog that literally climbs OVER baby gates :HistericalSmiley:

 

[Cosy]

Have you tried spraying the cardboard with Bitter Apple? Really saturated it and let it dry. That may be a way to keep him from chewing.

 

[maltlovereileen]

Some great suggestions here...hope you find something that works!

 

[SugarBob62]

Yes!! The bitter apple stuff, we use Fooey, doesn't bother him at all. He'll still chew on it. Our first dog was like that too haha.
Now I've gotten it on MY fingers, and accidentally in my mouth. OMG :blink: :blink: :blink: Dogs must not have tastebuds like us... lol