My Guy

4/29/2016

Time for a Bisous update, isn't it? He's growing into a fine, young man! At 5 1/2 months and 18 pounds (Pipi's weight on a good day), I think I'm going to end up having a big boy. Bisous' father is 25 pounds, so I'm assuming that Mr. B will end up somewhere around that number.
I'm good with a big Frenchie. One reason I got a male and a pied is, I wanted a French Bulldog that was the total opposite of Pipi. I needed my new puppy to be different because there could never be another Pipi and I didn't want comparisons (by me). Pipi was also very small, between 18 and 20 pounds. Because of her size, I carried Pipi a lot. And I needed to because she was not a walker. We'd get two blocks from home and she would refuse to walk, which meant she was carried. My concern with Bisous is, he will be bigger and heavier; not the carrying size. But he is also terrified of stairs. Everything I've tried to lure him up or down steps has not worked. If anyone has suggestions, please let me know. I see back pain in my future if we can't get this figured out.

3 Comments

Robin

4/29/2016 11:44:03 am

To help with the stair problem I suggest you have some high quality treats (bits of steak, cheese, chicken) and place that treat on the 2nd or 3rd stair. When Bisou reaches that stair lots of praise another treat. If he will stay on the step try to lure him up one more step with a treat. Take it slow. Dogs can only stay engaged for 5-10 minutes at a time. Try doing this 5 minute training 3 times a day. Make sure he has traction on the stairs. Good luck.

Eileen

4/29/2016 05:24:00 pm

Thanks, Robin. I think the consensus is treats on the stairs. We've gotten him up as far as 6 steps, but you can just see how afraid he is. Poor little guy... My daughter's Frenchie is very similar. Midge is almost 3, but there are still very few stairs she will walk up or down. I've read that it actually isn't good for Frenchies to walk stairs because of their backs, but I think as long as they aren't tearing up or down them, it's fine.

Marcia link

4/30/2016 01:11:06 pm

Hi Eileen,

Reggie has a bad back. We taught him the command "Slow!" The behavior is to walk up the steps very slow, one step at a time, vs bounding up them, which he did before. He has done the "Slow" command so many times, he now just climbs the stairs slow every time. He's not had a back problem since (it has been several years now). Hello to Bisous!!

My Guy

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