6
votes
How can I teach my dog to not be afraid of heights?
So my girlfriend has this dog, a miniatura Schnauzer. He's 5 years old and in perfect health. For some reason, he fears even the slightest elevation. The dog is quite athletic but behaves as if he was much older. He does know how to get on things, like sofas that are not very high, but if we forget to "rescue" him he will literally never go down. Which is cute but also a bother. I wanna make him a bit braver and more independent. Any ideas?
I'm not an expert in this area, but 2 things I've found that usually help are treats and baby steps (both figuratively and literally in this case!).
I would try putting the dog on the couch and set his favorite treats on the floor. If he doesn't voluntarily jump down to get them, you can give the command "get down" and then put him on the floor. If you use clicker training, then when you set him down click the clicker and he'll eat the treat. After doing this a dozen or more times, try giving the command but not setting him down yourself. If he's motivated enough by the treats, he should jump down to get them.
If that doesn't work, you can try the same thing with a small set of stairs or a ramp. (I have something similar to this set for our dog, but with a different cover.) Put the dog on the couch, put the stairs next to the couch and put a treat on each step. Tell the dog "get down" and let them go for the treats. Click each time they take a step down. Eventually they should associate "get down" with going down the stairs and being rewarded.
Also, you might want the stairs anyway. Dogs can injure themselves even jumping off small pieces of furniture. It's more likely as they age, and more likely with some breeds (particularly dachshunds with their long backs). Maybe just having steps would be enough to make it a non-issue?
Do you think you could build up his confidence by placing treats on a variable height platform? Start with some height he's confident jumping up to and down from and add an inch of height every day.