by As anyone who has a dog knows, hardwood stairs are just not canine-friendly. They can be slippery and dangerous to navigate and many dogs look at the stairs with trepidation. When this pet parent noticed his sweet little dog grew fearful of the stairs, he set out to find a solution that would put her fears to rest.
The tiny dog didn’t want to go down the stairs after her nails grew a bit long and her canine sibling playfully tackled her while she was trying to go down. Her confidence disappeared after that and her humans had to carry her down the stairs for 3 months. That’s when her dad set to work and this is what he came up with.
Note: photos below may take a few seconds to load.
The cute dog could still go up the stairs without problem, but wouldn’t go down. “Whenever she goes down her paws slip and she can’t get traction and she panics and eventually stopped all together,” her human wrote on Imgur.
“I needed a solution that wouldn’t ruin the floor, looked okay, and would stick to the floor well enough because adorable dog kicks with such force that she would slide out anything not firmly attached.”
“First part of the solution: Sponge Neoprene, 1/8th an inch thick. This would go between the carpet layer and the floor to allow the carpet to stick to the wood floor, not slide, and not damage the wood floor. $20 a roll, needed 2 rolls for the 16 steps.”
“Template, razor blade, cut cut cut. Super easy to work with.”
“I used carpet we had from when we moved in, a bit left over from when we replaced two rooms when we moved in. So all I had to buy was the neoprene and the adhesive.”
“Here we go. Rubber spray adhesive, neoprene, carpet.”
“Gluing everything then slapping it together. Glue worked perfectly, everything attached like a charm.”
“The finished product! Not glamorous, but what I love is that it’s temporary, if we have guests over and we don’t want to appear like lunatics with 1 foot of carpeted stairs, we can pick it up and hide it and place it back down.”
“Our first attempt. Adorable dog was not grasping the concept and just standing on one stair, in fear for her life. Unable to move even with the offering of treats. This was our life for the past three months.”
Her sibling watched on, amused by it all.
Then came the time to try it! “‘Maybe if I lick my lips he’ll just pick me up.’” No. No I won’t. Use the damn stairs I just built you. Can’t you see all the trouble I went through?! They’re carpet, you have traction now! GO!”
“After a few tense minutes we finally made it down the first half with some (alot) of pushing. Perhaps we’re grasping the concept! Halfway to go!”
“Wait…”
“No….”
What?
“And there you go. She immediately lost her fear of the stairs and just went down them like the last three months hadn’t happened, and didn’t use one of the carpet pads. $50 & 2 hours apparently wasted on a dog that just trolled me for 3 months.”
I can’t believe she suddenly overcame her fear after all that work. Dogs do the funniest things sometimes!
Share this cute do-it-yourself project with your friends and family.
