How to Stop Puppies From Going Upstairs

Puppies can be a lot of fun, but getting them to do what you want can be a lot of work, too. While an older dog might recognize certain areas of the home as off-limits, puppies need to be trained and taught where they can and can't go. In some cases, young puppies need to be physically kept away from areas like upstairs. This protects them from falling and injuring themselves and your house from an accidental puppy mess.

Things You'll Need

  • Baby gate
  • Motion detector
  • Crate
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Instructions

    • 1

      Be consistent. If you plan to keep your puppies from going upstairs, don't allow them to sometimes go up and restrict them at other times. If you give them inconsistent signals, they won't learn that it is truly off-limits.

    • 2

      Put a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs when the puppies are young. As they get older and become large enough to jump, this may not work as well. However, for smaller breeds this may be all that you need to keep them downstairs even into adulthood.

    • 3

      Attend a puppy obedience class to teach your puppies how to listen to your commands and follow your rules. Use the techniques your learn in the class to teach your puppies to not go through forbidden doorways and up or down stairs without your command. One such technique is to spend a few hours leaving the room to watch from a hidden location and re-entering the room to issue a stern "No" whenever they start to sneak upstairs.

    • 4

      Train your puppies to sleep in a crate. Establish the crate as the home for dogs and you can even close and lock the crates at night so that the puppies won't sneak up the stairs while you are sleeping.

    • 5

      Set up a motion detector on your stairs to catch puppies that try to sneak up when no one is looking. Set it to make a loud sound whenever a puppy goes past so that your puppies will develop a negative association with going up the steps.