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Moxxi · 04-21-2018, 10:09 PM

I put weather coating on these last night. I’m glad that I did, because that gave it a good, long time to dry. This afternoon, we got a pretty good amount of rain.

Also, if you look at the orientation of the way the door opens, that made it difficult for DW & me to enter or exit together. There is another door at the other end (that opens the same way), so I rotated the steps 180°, & placed them at the other door.

USMCRET · 04-22-2018, 05:29 AM

OP here. Kinda surprised to see this thread still has life.

Quick update...we got thru our snowbirding this year with our son’s dog as planned. Our boy stayed at the S&B with our son and did fine.

We have a good friend who is a former military working dog handler coming out to the house this week to work with our dog to get him to go into the MH. If you believe in the power of positive thoughts, send some our way. All donations accepted.

USMCRET · 04-24-2018, 03:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Windtalker

I watched a Caesar episode where a Great Dane was terrified to walk through a patio door onto the kitchen floor. Cesar put that dog on a leash and with chest out and head held high drug that dog through the door. He was displaying dominance and assuming the pack leader role. Too often people baby their dogs and impose their feelings on their dogs. When you coddle them it reinforces their behavior (scared or shy). I witnessed this at an obedience class. The dog was scared, sat down and refused to move. The obedience trainer walked over grabbed the leash and firmly pulled that dog until it submitted. In 5 minutes that dog was calmly walking on the leash. When the dog was given back to the owner, the dog went back to its behavior and you know what the owner did. Coddle coddle coddle. Putting the the blocking on the stairs should help too.

Final update: Our dog is now going in and out of the motorhome as if he was born to do it. Our friend the dog handler worked with him for about an hour building up his confidence doing other things, then turned to the motorhome. The dog hesitated a couple of times, but our friend took charge and led him thru the steps. He is now going up and down the steps just like he used to. We are so relieved.

Windtalker’s post above was pretty much spot on. It was all about how we were reacting to the dog’s behavior. Both my wife and I were getting frustrated and that translated to the dog as “My behavior is upsetting my humans and I need to stay away from this.” Once his confidence (and ours) was restored and we were behaving properly ourselves, things just fell into place.

FWIW, handling Marines is much more intuitive.

tnedator · 04-24-2018, 04:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by USMCRET

Final update: Our dog is now going in and out of the motorhome as if he was born to do it. Our friend the dog handler worked with him for about an hour building up his confidence doing other things, then turned to the motorhome. The dog hesitated a couple of times, but our friend took charge and led him thru the steps. He is now going up and down the steps just like he used to. We are so relieved.

Windtalker’s post above was pretty much spot on. It was all about how we were reacting to the dog’s behavior. Both my wife and I were getting frustrated and that translated to the dog as “My behavior is upsetting my humans and I need to stay away from this.” Once his confidence (and ours) was restored and we were behaving properly ourselves, things just fell into place.

FWIW, handling Marines is much more intuitive.

Good to know, as well as what to avoid. I have one go anywhere dog and one skittish one who was initially pretty hesitant to get in my Thor, and I think the nature of the Ventana is going to be more difficult with it being steeper with taller steps and having what will almost look like a tunnel between the dash and passenger seat.

I'll need to make sure when I work with him I don't show any frustration and maybe to some other stuff first.

What kind of stuff did he do to build his confidence?

USMCRET · 04-26-2018, 10:49 AM

Mainly working with commands the dog already knows and praising him up in spades. The objective was to create a happy experience and continue that on thru to the MH steps. Everything was upbeat and happy without even a hint of negativity. I learned a lot.

rlott2k · 04-30-2018, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by USMCRET

Mainly working with commands the dog already knows and praising him up in spades. The objective was to create a happy experience and continue that on thru to the MH steps. Everything was upbeat and happy without even a hint of negativity. I learned a lot.

Yes, glad it worked out for you. Sometimes it’s just being a bit forceful and gently pushing them past their fear. I was going to mention rumble strips. If I hit them with the tires, our dog would shake for a long time. He definitely hated them.

Coarsegold · 04-30-2018, 11:54 AM

Maybe you need to step up to a Provost..................

Oldmso54 · 04-30-2018, 12:28 PM

As a fellow pet owner I'm glad to hear you got the issue resolved are able to travel with your dog again!

For us (well me anyway), it's one of the main reasons we are getting into RVing

Nildecaf · 11-16-2018, 06:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by USMCRET

I really appreciate all of the comments I’ve received to my post. My wife and I have been discussing this this evening and I’m going to try a couple of things mentioned here: the dark background for the lower two steps and the rope lighting for the stairwell. Those are about the only things we haven’t tried.

I’m going to post a pic of the ramp I built to demonstrate the lengths we have gone to try to address this issue. It’s about 10’ long and very sturdy. (I never did figure out how I would transport it)

As you can see, the ramp eliminated the issue of the two floating steps at the bottom.

We’ve tried just about everything with the treats. We’ve left a “breadcrumb trail” on the ramp into the coach. He eats them up to the doorway and then hops off.

I like the doggie ramp you showed in your post. I have an old rescue dog that I expect will have problems getting up and down the steps when we transition from S&B to full time in the spring. I have several questions on the ramp: How did you build it or where did you buy it? How much does it weigh and where do you store it when traveling? TIA

Ed

Ahh - never mind. Kept reading and realized that there are multiple commercial products available. (duh)

pmaen · 05-25-2019, 01:31 PM

Thank you for posting! My dogs are used to steps but we have a brand new TT and they don't want to go in. I will try this

Mojim · 05-25-2019, 01:34 PM

next time rv shopping … TAKE THE DOG WITH YOU!

stratoguy · 05-25-2019, 05:48 PM

My new puppies were also afraid of going up the stairs into the RV. I looked online at several sites to research it, and discovered, in many cases, dogs are afraid to walk up perforated metal stairs. Obviously there can be other factors as mentioned previously including the temperature on the stairs as well as the openings behind them. I ordered from Amazon a set of three carpeted step covers for RVs and it came as a set. The ones I ordered fit my slightly curved steps perfectly. Since carpeting the steps, my two Labradoodle‘s eagerly run up the stairs into the RV.