Old Dogs and Stairs

[loitering]

I looked at a rental house last night that is pretty great. It has basically everything we want, and we have to submit our application today. But I'm a bit worried about how we'll manage the stairs in the house with my 24lb, old dog.

He may go blind soon, and he's already incredibly careful walking up or down the six steps from our back door to the yard. In the new house, the main floor is the upper level. So every time he needed to go out, he would have to go down a full flight of stairs. Has anyone been in that situation, and just carried their dog every time? It seems like it would be a big pain, but maybe it's normal? I've never lived in a house with an upper main floor.

I could really use some peoples' experiences! TIA.

[lonegirl]

You can either carry or they have stairs that fit over othe stairs that basically halve the steps so they aren't as high. I am on my iPhone or I would find a link for you.

[bartleby]

For the last year of her life (if not longer), we did indeed have to carry our old beagle down the stairs to the back door, then down a few more stairs to the yard. If we ignored her quiet whimpers at the top of the steps (because maybe we were asleep!), she'd go pee in the bathroom on the bath mat. Very rarely, she would manage to get down the stairs herself, but she often needed help getting back up the stairs.

I'm sorry I don't know of other options. In a strange way, though, now that she is gone, I kind of miss picking her up and carrying her. She would always give a sweet twirl of her tail when I picked her up, that I always interpreted to mean "thank you."

Still, it was definitely work on our part, so I can sympathize. We seriously considered getting an indoor pee mat for her (I saw them online) so she wouldn't have to go up and down so much.

Good luck!

[rhiOrion]

If she still has some mobility, you can also use a sheet as a sort of sling to help her get up and down the stairs. They also make slings specifically for that purpose.