Question
One of my Chihuahuas has small problems with her balance so she's afraid of walking on wooden floors. She will walk on carpets, grass, stone and snow just fine, but she won't go on wooden surfaces with all four legs. She will very rarely walk back to the carpet if left stranded in the middle of the wooden surface. Once she starts walking, she will usually walk till the end. The longer she stands still, the more her legs spread out and soon she will be lying on her stomach.
How could I make her more confident in her ability to walk on wooden (and other slippery) surfaces?
Answer
We had this problem with both of our Labrador Retrievers when they were young, but fortunately we didn't have much wood except in 2 rooms that they rarely visited. What was even more confusing is they didn't have any problems with the tile or vinyl flooring, just the wood. And they would usually walk into the room just fine, but leaving was another problem.
When they did venture into those rooms, they would get themselves stranded on the area rug in the middle of the room and would stand there trying to figure out how to get out without stepping on the floor, and their solution would usually involve trying to jump to the surface they were more comfortable with. but since the span was usually too far to jump, it would usually end up with them landing on the wood and result in a crash landing, which would make them more nervous on the floor and eventually would leave them barking from the room when they were stuck.
So what worked for us was encouraging them to walk across the floor with us nearby.
- We'd place a treat near them on the floor, close enough that they could reach it without stepping on the floor.
- We'd then repeat, slowly moving the treat further away and encourage them to reach for it any way they wanted to.
- When the treat was far enough away that they needed to step onto the floor, we'd offer some support (physically help support them) while encourage them to walk slowly.
- Eventually, they learned to take small steps to keep their weight centered and they would be confident enough to walk across the floor.
This was not a quick process (I think it took 3-6 months for each of them), but we'd only do it a few times each session a couple of times a week. We also tried to end on a success so we cut a few session short if they had a couple of positive results in a row.
Answered By - psubsee2003