Pet Lovers

[monicakm]

Our Dingo hasn't been able to get on our beds for a long time altho I did find him on DH's bed when I came home from seeing him (DH) in the hospital in March.  He must have really missed his daddy   Tonight we looked at ramps and bought this one from Amazon.  DH wondered about stairs but I said I thought stairs would be more painful than walking up a ramp.  He is 13 years old (we think) and has problems with his hind legs.  The supplements he gets help but his pain is progressing.  We're going to increase his supplement dosage.  It will so great to have him be able to get on the bed again even if it's just once.  In the past, we've muzzled him and "scooped" him under his belly.  DH feels it stresses him out too much so we bought the ramp.  If your older dog has used one, was it easy for them to use it and get used to it? 

Thanks

ps...this is the size of our dog except for the coat color and thickness.

[Jk9]

Having doxies, we have dog ramps (purchased from In the Company of Dogs) for all of our beds.   All the dogs use them, even the big coon hound and English bulldog.  We also built  a small ramp off our lower deck for the dogs to come up on the deck and built a connector between the decks so they have access to both the lower and upper decks.

We had a ramp in the den up to the sofa for many years until all the dogs that wanted to use it passed.  Our dogs didn't like steps so those that I bought to try were donated.

[cindyNC]

So glad you found something to work for your senior @monicakm 

[drizzellla]

@monicakm Good Luck!

It looks like it should do well.

We had a collie. He was also 13 - we were told. His back legs were also not handling steps or getting into a vehicle well. So we bought a ramp. We tried and tried and he would not go near the ramp. We got on it, placed him on it - you name it we tried.

Ended up donating the ramp to Collie Rescue.

Hope you have better luck than we did.

[monicakm]

Thank you @Jk9 

I love coon hounds 🐕

My favorite dog when I was growing up was Irish Setters. Great dogs but not terribly smart. I can't tell you how many times that dog was snake bit.

[monicakm]

@drizzellla 

Aw I'm sorry he would never use the ramp. He doesn't know what he was missing out on. I can't wait for Howie to get on the beds. He's not big on cuddling but Frankie has taught him to be more of a people dog than he was. When he could jump on the beds, he would give us about 10 minutes of his time and then jump down LOL

[CamilleP]

@Jk9   I always had Scotties, so ditto on the ramps!  DH built some custom ones for the couch and my bed, and I bought a resin/rubber one for my mini-van.  All the Rescued terriers learned to use the ramps from watching my last Scottie use it, even the Manchester, who didn't actually need them.  After the last two dogs, a 12.5 year old Scottie and 16.5 year old Cairn, died last summer, I thought about donating what I had, but then DH talked me into adopting, and home came my little mongrel, who is part Dachshund, but leaps like a gazelle.  He is *terrified* of the ramp, but bounds right up a set of stairs I bought for the mini-van, so he must have seen something liike them at some point in his previous years of life  So you just never know which one a dog might use, I guess.

@monicakm  I hope your Dingo will use the ramp, but if he doesn't want to try it, you can use the "Hansel and Gretl" trick of making a trail of tiny treats for him to eat/follow up the slope, with a "jackpot" of them when he gets to the top.  Also, I'll bet your Doodle girl will figure it out quickly, so your Dingo can learn from her.  Since the Dingo will bite, maybe it will be safer to train the Doodle first, and let him get jealous of the treats, and offer the behaviour on his own, then reward him.  Good luck, I hope you have much better luck teaching your old guy then I did trying to convince my Scottie to use collapsable steps to get in the mini-van!

[monicakm]

@CamilleP 

I'm not having any success yet with Howie.  Frankie (Doodle) ran up it right away.  She doesn't need it tho since she's still young and jumps on the bed.  We've used her to show Howie what to do.  We've put treats up the ramp and on the bed.  We've positioned the ramp parallel with the bed and at a 90-degree angle.  We are both hesitant to force him to use it because of his age and health.  He's not big on eating so using snacks aren't a big incentive.  Frankie is a totally different story.  Hopefully, it's just a matter of time.

[CamilleP]

I think it will be a matter of time, @monicakm .  I think your Howie is at least as stubborn as all my terriers used to be, so he is just going to resist change.  Some day, though, he will decide it was all HIS IDEA in the first place, amble up that ramp, settle down on the bed, and look at you like "What are you looking at?!?"  

[monicakm]

@CamilleP

I think you are probably right. We found a food that got him interested in climbing the ramp... chicken. Dog treats didn't cut it. He made it up on the bed once so far and then before I could help him down, he jumped 🫥 Back to the grocery store tomorrow for another rotisserie chicken and some more coaxing 🐕