I’m having trouble finding out where tonight’s World Cup match between England and Mexico is being shown. Does anyone have any suggestions? It would be much more fun to root for Mexico in a crowd!
In his nearly six years of life, Finnegan has always been afraid of climbing the stairs in our house. He’s afraid of slippery floors generally, and we travel with rubber mats to help him get around. Multiple vets cleared him in terms of pain. We’ve tried everything, including trainers and dog PT, but he’s had this mental block. Over the years, he started getting better about climbing *other* stairs— outdoors when we’re hiking, at hotels on trips, at the dog-friendly brewery— but our home stairs were a no-go. You couldn’t ever get him close to them with a leash on.
Last weekend, we were traveling and noticed that his mobility was really great the whole time, so when we got home, we tried the stairs again. For some reason, he actually did it! He’s been going up the stairs multiple times a day since! He still needs us to climb with him, but this is a complete miracle as far as we are concerned. Especially because our only bathtub is upstairs!
The only thing we can think of is that last summer we finally got Finnegan on Apoquel, and the right diet after allergy testing revealed he was allergic to basically everything (every protein but beef and venison, wheat, yeast, etc). Perhaps the irritation in his paws made him more cautious about slipping? And perhaps it took the better part of a year for the mental stigma to subside? Who knows! All we know is that he suddenly loves going up the stairs that made him cower in terror for nearly six years. Big, intractable problems can change overnight. Let Finnegan be the hope you need!