If you've ever watched a dog slip down the stairs, you know how both sad and hilarious it can be. The poor dog loses their footing and slips face first down the steps.
However, the dog usually bounces back moments later, ready to run again. You might notice that your dog slips more often if you have tiled or wooden floors — they just get so excited they can't plant their paws firmly on the ground.
I always try to calm my puppy down before she runs down some steps, but just last week she tumbled over our wooden stairs.
When I saw what the clever man below did for his dog, I immediately thought it would be perfect for so many dogs out there.
This sweet little pup used to be confident going up and down the steps, but after her nails got longer and her doggy brother played too roughly with her on the stairs, she got too scared.
He uploaded photos to Imgur, explaining why his poor dog needed the stair makeover.
He wrote:
So here’s the problem.
This adorable little dog can't go down our wooden stairs.
She was fine at first, but a mix of her nails getting too long one day and our terrorist dog (play) attacking her while she was going down ruined all down-the-stairs confidence.
So for the last 3 months we’ve had to carry her down the stairs.
The problem stairs. Hard wood/laminate/whatever you wanna call it…
The adorable dog did fine and can still go up, but can't go down.
Whenever she goes down her paws slip and she can't get traction and she panics and eventually stopped all together.
I needed a solution that wouldn’t ruin the floor, looked okay, and would stick to the floor well enough because adorable dog kicks with such force that she would slide out anything not firmly attached.
First part of the solution: Sponge Neoprene, 1/8th an inch thick.
This would go between the carpet layer and the floor to allow the carpet to stick to the floor, not slide, and not damage the wood floor.
$20 a roll, needed 2 rolls for the 16 steps.
Template, razor blade, cut cut cut. Super easy to work with.
I used carpet we had from when we moved in, a bit left over from when we replaced two rooms when we moved in.
So all I had to buy was the neoprene and the adhesive.
Once he had all the supplies gathered up, it was time to start attaching the neoprene squares to the carpet squares.
Using rubber spray adhesive, he sprayed down the foam neoprene, then attached it to the back of the carpet pieces.
He found that the fastest method was spraying all of the pieces of foam first, then attaching them one by one to the carpet.
He wrote, "Gluing everything then slapping it together. Glue worked perfectly, everything attached like a charm."
Next, he placed the carpet squares on the side of the stairs.
He explained:
The finished product!
Not glamorous, but what I love is that it's temporary, if we have guests over and we don't want to appear like lunatics with 1 foot of carpeted stairs, we can pick it up and hide it and place it back down.
Our first attempt.
Adorable dog was not grasping the concept and just standing on one stair, in fear for her life.
Unable to move even with the offering of treats.
This was our life for the past three months.
“Maybe if I lick my lips he’ll just pick me up.”
No. No I won't. Use the stairs I just built you.
Can't you see all the trouble I went through?!
They're carpet, you have traction now! GO!
After a few tense minutes we finally made it down the first half with some (a lot) of pushing.
Perhaps we're grasping the concept. Halfway to go!
Just as he was starting to feel hopeful, the sweet little dog took off down the stairs.
He snapped a quick photo as she made her way down the first few steps.
But what she did next definitely surprised her owner.
Instead of running down the carpeted part, she just ran straight down the wooden stairs, not slipping or pausing at all.
He wrote:
And there you go.
She immediately lost her fear of the stairs and just went down them like the last three months hadn't happened, and didn't use one of the carpet pads.
$50 & 2 hours apparently wasted on a dog that just trolled me for 3 months.
What do you think of this funny little dog? Would you make carpet squares like this for your dog?
If you love clever DIY hacks like this one, please SHARE it with your friends and family!
