How to train to not go upstairs

We have a one year old collie cross bitch, who wants to follow me around the house most of the time. She is becoming more independent downstairs often playing outside or spending time in her crate of her own volition. we have lived with stairgates since we got her but I would ideally like to remove the one on the stairs. I have to be honest and say that we have been inconsistent over the past year with allowing her upstairs if she is with someone.

I would however in an ideal world love to remove the stair gate and only have her upstairs if she is invited. How do people think I could go about this?

When we first got Kip (but he was much older) we decided that we didn't want him to go upstairs so that the cat could have somewhere to retreat to if they didn't get on.

The first time he tried to follow us up we just said no. He tried once or twice afterwards, was always told no & that was it. (but then we did relent after a couple of months & he is now allowed upstairs whenever).

Both of mine know 'upstairs' and 'downstairs'.

I would have thought that you are going to have far more difficulty if you let her do something sometimes but not others, but presumably it can be done as long as she fully understands what is expected of her.

Others will probably be able to give better suggestions, but
I would start by not letting her up at all. "Downstair's" command everytime she tries to come up and praise etc. when she stays downstairs.

Once she has cracked this, you could start inviting her, but I would think that you should use a special command (e.g. rather than just 'come' something like 'upstairs'). Might also be better if she doesn't have too much fun/praise when she is upstairs as this will make it even more difficult to enforce the 'downstairs' when you want her to stay downstairs.

Good luck - will be interested to hear what others suggest & how you get on.

I personally use the wait command everytime I go upstairs from thier young puppys and the gate is up, so when its removed when they are older a simple wait normally suffices. Well unless your my JRT Milo who suffers from selective deafness . It has worked ok with all my other dogs though.

Bev

Hi Fugley have you taught Fudge to stay? If so let her follow you to the foot of the stairs and with the gate still in place tell her to stay, go upstairs and return after a minute and reward with a tip bit and praise, gradually withdraw the tip bit but always praise .

Do this for a few days then move the gate, tell Fudge to stay and go upstairs leaving her for only a moment, praise and reward on your return and gradually increase the time she is left, again withdraw the tip bit after a few times but always praise.

Fudge should soon get the idea that it is ok to stay downstairs and you will pleased with her when you return.
Here is how to teach the stay if Fudge doesn't know it already ..

http://www.dogsey.com/dog-articles.php?t=14526