Gundog Training Forum

I have an eight week old springer pup who can get up and down three nine inch steps to the garden but he does struggle a little and I was wondering if it might be doing his young joints some damage.
He throws himself at the first step and them scrambles up the other two.
Any thoughts?

I would be more worried that the pup will injury itself more than future joint damage, so no, I wouldn't let the pup have access to the steps!

Is this the way out for toilet training? If it is, the pup will be hopping up and down several times per day so any thing that you can do to make the steps less steep without being a hazard to humans would help - it depends on how much foot room there is on the step.

For future joint issues, you should not overly protect a pup from normal situations nor expose it to extreme ones - for instance prolonged walking at heel on a hard surface such as pavement will cause more issues than a bit of scrambling up steps.

So if you can alleviate the situation, safely, then do. If you can't, don't worry about it as the pup will have grown sufficiently in the next two weeks for the steps to be no longer a difficulty. I've just been through exactly the same situation with Axy (now three months and homing on Saturday). There is an access ramp to the utility door and three steps on the other side. She comes out of the door, looks at the ramp and heads off down the steps - if she falls off the edge of the ramp, its a bigger drop than falling from one step to the other. She's learning how to make her own risk assessments and the steps are so much more fun!

The steps are two feet wide so plenty of space,I will put some extra slabs down today yo make it a seven inch step.

I was more worried about his shoulders being jolted going down,thanks

Similar in my backyard - pup would literally launch himself off the top step sometimes... he is 16 months now and seems fine.

The latest research suggests it's hard to make genetically good joints bad but easy to make genetically poor joints bad. Too much of any type of 'exercise' can cause strains and increase the risk of future problems.

That makes sense thanks