Adler and the Stairs

When we first were looking for a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy, breeders cautioned against having too many stairs for the puppy to climb. Too much stress on their growing hips. So we carried Adler up the three flights of stairs to our condo until she was 6 months old and too heavy!

When Adler was 2 1/2, we moved to the first floor with minimal stairs. Well, it was a duplex so there were carpeted stairs down and she seemed to do okay with those. Fast forward five more years and we move to a multi level house with hardwood stairs. Never mind that she is nine years old and the arthritis has started to set in. The back stairs aren't as polished and a little easier for her. The front stairs are a total hazard not just for her but anyone with socks on their feet.

In fact, Adler would once again come to bed with us and in the middle of the night try to go back down the stairs. Her loud nails and slipping on the hardwood floors as she struggled to go down them in the dark made me bolt upright in the middle of the night in case I needed to rescue her. After a couple of these incidents and us determining it was just a matter of time before she fell and really hurt herself, we did two things. One, we decided to carpet our beautiful hardwood front stairs. We did this not only for Adler's safety but the safety of our kids, their friends and all other visitors to our house. Second, we started closing the door to our bedroom at night so Adler couldn't wander and decide she wanted to go down the stairs in the middle of the night.

She too has also become smarter and sometimes now decides to greet us at the top of our lower level stairs when we come home...well, at least if we have only  been gone a short while!