Dear Alecia,
My dog Mickey is a 9-year-old Yellow Labrador Retriever. At night, Mickey sleeps either on the floor next to my bed or in his dog bed a few feet away. Mickey is a heavy dog and is getting up in age. That said, he recently began refusing to come upstairs to the bedroom, and for the last two nights has stayed at the bottom of the stairs barking. The first night Mickey barked for four (4) hours until I came down and slept on the couch. Last night it was three and a half hours (3.5) of barking, also resulting in me relenting and coming down to sleep on the couch.
My living room is carpeted and this is where Mickey stays all day while my wife and I are at work. It’s comfortable for him, so I’m not concerned about him spending the night there. As much as I would rather have him in the bedroom with us, it appears that this is no longer an option.
How can I get Mickey to remain in the living room without barking after we have gone upstairs to sleep for the night? Other than this barking issue at night, Mickey is a very well behaved, very obedient, very loyal and loving family dog. – Jason
Dear Jason,
I can understand Mickey’s dilemma and yours. Mickey is simply stressed out he can’t do what he used to and wants you to be with him to soothe him. Understandable and here’s some things you can do to assist Mickey in making it back up the stairs that will allow you both to sleep better at night.
The first thing I would like to address is Mickey’s physical issue of being 9 and feeling like he can’t get up the stairs. I have successfully used and highly recommend animal chiropractors and acupuncturists for the last 15 years and seen some incredible results for dogs getting up in age.
So my first recommendation is going to be for a chiropractor to make sure Mickey’s spine and joints are aligned so he can move with ease and prevent any further deterioration. Then based on the results of that I will recommend an animal acupuncturist to use needles to increase the flow of energy through Mickey’s body and help him feel more ease in getting up and down the stairs. A great resource to locate practitioners in your area is www.AHVMA.org. This is the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association.
The next thing I will suggest is a simple diet change that I have seen produce incredible results in just days. If Mickey is on a dry diet, start adding in at least 1/2 a can of canned wet food per meal. Start slow perhaps with a tablespoon per meal but work up to one can a day and you will see a dramatic shift in his movement abilites. I also highly recommend a supplement called BioNutrition. It works wonders on joint health and performs far better than Glucosamine. www.bioage.com
The last thing I can suggest would be a harness sling that you can put under Mickey’s back end to assist him up the stairs.
My sense is that Mickey still has alot of life left in him and his preference is to be back upstairs with you which is why I suggested some things that will not only allow for him to be where he really wants to be ( upstairs with you) it will put a lot of quality years back into his life.
If you are able to do the above for him and it does not work do contact me back and we can find other solutions.
Paws Up! Alecia Evans, HDT, Inventor
Alecia Evans is the inventor of The Walk In Sync™ Humane Dog Walking and Training System with her exclusive 5 Minute Manners Makeovers using the Walk In Sync™ Harness and Accu-Grip Leash, along with her Walk In Sync™ 3 Easy Steps to teach any human/dog duos to Walk In Sync in just minutes.
The former host of the award-winning GrassRoots Aspen TV Series, The Whole Animal-An Alternative Approach to Animal Care, Alecia takes a natural approach to dog training and health care. Her work has been featured on Fox and Friends, The Sandra Glosser Show, NY 1, and in Aspen Magazine, DogTipper.com, The New York Daily News and Woof Report.
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