Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on September 17, 2012 at 5:56am

Hi Pam, would you mind posting a few pics to illustrate your situation?

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Permalink Reply by Pamela on September 17, 2012 at 11:39am

 Hi Sam,

    I will take pics  and show you.

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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on September 19, 2012 at 6:58am

Thank you Pam, you can put something solid / heavy to block those openings, generally pups are too scared to try, but you just never know :) As far as gates goes, don't waste your money on accordion wooden baby gates, my dog chewed through 3, in the end we used human plastic baby gates, you can get them new at walmart or used at salvation army for cheap. If you don't mind spending a little more, metal swing arm ones are great too.

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Permalink Reply by Julia on September 20, 2012 at 12:54am

I wasn't ready for my little Lilliput when she first came home. My other dogs were all adults and larger breeds. So we put this 12-week old corgi pup in our wonderfully fenced yard and immediately discovered all the gaps that were large enough for a corgi puppy to squeeze through. We grabbed some chicken wire and a staple gun and followed her around the yard blocking the holes. Then we realized that there were steep wooden stairs leading down six feet to the back door. Then there was the rock wall surrounding that big pit, and the opening from the back deck to the steps, etc, etc. We grabbed all the scraps of border fencing, rabbit fencing, even a wooden trellis off the wall to block off all these hazards. Lilliput happily led us around showing us all the places we had missed.

That done, we took the baby inside and found ... the basement stairs. The opening to below was surrounded by upright wood rails that were way too far apart. For that I dismantled a laundry drying rack and used zip ties to fasten them to the rails. Try to imagine now how my house looked. All we needed was a rusting bathtub in the front lawn to complete the look.

She's bigger now, and we've improved on the landscaping. Looking at your stairs, I hate to say it, but something along the lines of our zip-tied laundry rack shelves might be what you need. If you could fasten some sort of barrier, maybe even garden fencing, on the outside of the railings those lower gaps would be covered. Not very pretty, though. But not for very long, either. Puppies soon get big.

I agree with Sam. Plastic baby gates or corrals. Those items on the stairs are just sitting their waiting to be pushed out and broken.

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Permalink Reply by Cindi & Twinkie on September 20, 2012 at 8:46am

I know you are talking about indoors but our experience was outdoors. Twinkie did fall through the deck stairs when she was a puppy! Over five feet! I freaked out. The next day I purchased plastic rabbit fencing from Home Depot (it is green colored). We used it as is on the deck and cut it in half to stapled it to the under side of the stairs. When she was big enough, we took it down and saved it. We put it back up when Logan came to live with us.

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Permalink Reply by John Wolff on September 20, 2012 at 7:51pm

Looks like you mean "3 small FLIGHTS of stairs"?  Looks like a pup could go over or under the bottom rail.  You might fill that lower gap by securing long 1x1 or 1x2 wood strips with zip-ties (I thought about "tied cords", but soon thought, "strangulation hazard").  Place the strips parallel to the bottom rail.  Beware creating gaps that pup might get its head stuck in!  Most places have building codes governing the size of such gaps;  don't laugh, it's to keep children from getting their heads stuck in them.  It happens.

Smooth floors are not the most dog-friendly surface.  Before dogs, I spent a lot of time & money ripping out the horrible old shag carpet, installing hardwood oak (myself), and having it refinished.  After dogs, we've covered much of the smooth wood with nonskid throw-rugs at takeoff and landing zones.  Do no encourage pup to do a lot of jumping to/from smooth surfaces, can slip and tweak a leg.

My dogs have seen a lot of cliffs and such.  I've eventually come to trust them, but it took a long time, and they were experienced adults by then.

Those wood stairs look slippery.  I'd consider some nonskid adhesive strips or something, for human safety.  When I painted the basement stairs, I added a lot of nonskid sand to the paint; hard-to-clean, but beats a broken hip.

One more thing for your Anxiety Closet:

http://mycorgi.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-save-your-dog-s-life

Babyproof the house, get rid of all snack food bags, lock up all garbage, watch your guests.

Safety Sam signing out.

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Permalink Reply by Jane T. (& Griffin) on September 21, 2012 at 9:50pm

We live in a second floor condo with a deck.  First thing Griffin did when we took him out there was stick his head (and shoulders) through the railing.  Yikes!  We ended up fastening chicken wire with plastic ties around the railing.  It wasn't noticeable and kept the puppy safe.

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