- Location
- Sydney, Australia
Maxx is pretty bomb-proof and confident, except every now and then he gets the heebie-jeebies about a certain surface or area - namely:
1. If he has a slip on our wooden floorboards he might refuse to walk across that area for a while. We put down mats, encourage gently and the problem will be gone in a few days
2. A bit worse is the last few steps of our indoor carpeted stairs. He happily waddles down the first 10 to the landing but sometimes he then baulks against about going down the last 5. It is a bit dark down there and I think the shadows sometimes scares him. He stands on the landing moving his head around a bit like Stevie Wonder. - almost like he is seeing ghosts. Again we know exactly what to do, put his collar and lead on and stand next to him and walk him down with a hand on his shoulder. He will take a few days but eventually do one step, then another until he has forgotten about it and thundering down in his usual, exuberant manner
However now we have a much bigger problem. He goes to the toilet on the side deck that is very well drained and we don't have any problem with smell as we hose it and it drains away (we don't have grass). Maxx now has the heebie jeebies about going onto the deck and is toileting on the path that has no drainage and. it. stinks. To high heaven. I'm not sure but I think what freaked him out was one night about 2 weeks ago I took him for a last wee and there was a loud crashing in the tree and along the bushes at the back of the pool. It had to be the worlds biggest possum, I can't think of anything else. He was already hesitating a bit and that seemed to finish him off
We have managed to get him to go up onto the deck with food lures and Steve got him to wee up there once last week but mostly while he will happily run after scattered food, once we stop he immediately runs off or if we are blocking the exit he just stands there frozen refusing to wee. Once he runs off he stands at the bottom of the two steps looking at us as if to say 'this is where I wee now Mum and Dad, ok?'
He got Steve up in the middle of the night last week and ran straight up onto the deck for a poo, clearly forgetting about his fright as he was still half asleep
We are at our wits end. I suggested a behaviourist but at more than $1,000 and no guarantee we just can't do it. He is spending 2 weeks in the kennels over Christmas so perhaps he will forget.
Any thoughts dear friends? Here is a picture of the two steps up to the deck. We have moved the plants, moved the table, cleared everything and anything we can find but it hasn't helped. There is even no-slip tape on the steps (like we have everywhere outside)
1. If he has a slip on our wooden floorboards he might refuse to walk across that area for a while. We put down mats, encourage gently and the problem will be gone in a few days
2. A bit worse is the last few steps of our indoor carpeted stairs. He happily waddles down the first 10 to the landing but sometimes he then baulks against about going down the last 5. It is a bit dark down there and I think the shadows sometimes scares him. He stands on the landing moving his head around a bit like Stevie Wonder. - almost like he is seeing ghosts. Again we know exactly what to do, put his collar and lead on and stand next to him and walk him down with a hand on his shoulder. He will take a few days but eventually do one step, then another until he has forgotten about it and thundering down in his usual, exuberant manner
However now we have a much bigger problem. He goes to the toilet on the side deck that is very well drained and we don't have any problem with smell as we hose it and it drains away (we don't have grass). Maxx now has the heebie jeebies about going onto the deck and is toileting on the path that has no drainage and. it. stinks. To high heaven. I'm not sure but I think what freaked him out was one night about 2 weeks ago I took him for a last wee and there was a loud crashing in the tree and along the bushes at the back of the pool. It had to be the worlds biggest possum, I can't think of anything else. He was already hesitating a bit and that seemed to finish him off
We have managed to get him to go up onto the deck with food lures and Steve got him to wee up there once last week but mostly while he will happily run after scattered food, once we stop he immediately runs off or if we are blocking the exit he just stands there frozen refusing to wee. Once he runs off he stands at the bottom of the two steps looking at us as if to say 'this is where I wee now Mum and Dad, ok?'
He got Steve up in the middle of the night last week and ran straight up onto the deck for a poo, clearly forgetting about his fright as he was still half asleep
We are at our wits end. I suggested a behaviourist but at more than $1,000 and no guarantee we just can't do it. He is spending 2 weeks in the kennels over Christmas so perhaps he will forget.
Any thoughts dear friends? Here is a picture of the two steps up to the deck. We have moved the plants, moved the table, cleared everything and anything we can find but it hasn't helped. There is even no-slip tape on the steps (like we have everywhere outside)
), other than with the cleaners, I would just double check how ‘pet safe’ they are as when I was looking into them I found a lot of them stated they were but only when dry, which isn’t always that useful depending on the weather at the time.