Long flight of stairs

[Elizabeth Giraud]

When are doodle puppies hips/joints mature enough to go up and down a long flight of stairs? This would be with a leash for safety.
I would appreciate your input!!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We got Ned at 3 1/2 months and he used stairs with no problem (our house is two story and our RV has steps at the entry). We carried him some, but I actually never thought that he might not be able to climb stairs. He jumped on and off furniture  2 1/2 feet without assistance.

[Elizabeth Giraud]

Thanks. I think I may be overly cautious, worrying about hip or joint stress at an early age - I must have read it somewhere! Thanks for your input!

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Luna had no trouble going UP stairs from about 10 weeks.. but down was scary until about 5 months old!  

She is a mini/medium GD so the steps looked extra big to her ;)  She had no trouble doing it, she was just very cautious (still is!)

I'd say try a few steps at a time..and if those look fine then go for it.  I'd say do it without the leash though, because it could turn into a tripping hazard.

[Elizabeth Giraud]

I appreciate your input. As I said in my reply to Nancy, Ned and Clancy, I am probably unnecessarily

concerned about joint and hip problems. He is a medium doodle, 3 months and about 17 pounds now so it

should be ok to let him start slowly. Thanks again!

[Jen W]

My breeder said no stairs for 8 months (!) but I had to balance that against what the trainer told me about their fear imprinting and if I didn't get her used to stairs before 4 months she might always be afraid of them.  I carried her up and down the stairs until 3 1/2 months, then trained her to do it alone.  I tried to keep her from running up/down to protect her bones and joints, but once she got the hang of those stairs, there was no stopping her.

[Sarah Bennett]

I never even thought about this...  hmmm...

I've been playing fetch on the stairs with Salvador for multiple months now (to help wear that little boy out!) and he runs up and down the steps all the time...  he'll be 24 weeks old tomorrow.  He is a standard, and a big boy on top of that (last week he weighed 54.4lbs).  He's never had an issue with the stairs...