Cat afraid of stairs?

[cmshap]

While reading another thread about harness training, I posted that it made me want to harness-train my 10-year-old cat, Willy, just to walk him around the hallways of my apartment building (because outside is a busy, hectic city with a ton of traffic... people, cars, bicycles, dogs, you name it).

I since tried taking him on a few walks around the halls with no harness... just by leading the way and walking down the hallway. He faithfully stays by my side or right behind me, and has never yet ventured more than 6 feet or so away from me before turning back towards me.

I feel safe doing this, because there are two closed doors between the hallway and outside. And I have been doing this late at night when there is nobody else out there. I wanted to try doing this with him right before bed, so he gets exercise while he has his nightly energy boost, and then will hopefully sleep better.

On the first walk, we just went to the end of the hall and back. But on subsequent walks, I tried to go down the stairs at the end of the hall to the first floor, and let him explore the lobby area. But he seems to be afraid to follow me down the stairs.

The first home he lived in was a house with a main floor and finished basement, and he regularly ran up/down the stairs between the two floors. But he only lived there for ~4 months, and hasn't lived anywhere with stairs since.

Anyway, this isn't like a serious problem or anything, but I'm wondering how to approach this when I do start him with a harness (even though he will freely walk with me, I agree with what others said in the thread I linked above -- that it's a good idea to harness-train any cat, if they tolerate it, in the event of emergencies or to make vet trips, etc. potentially easier).

 

[Alldara]

You've got two options really..carry him, which likely youll do during an emergency as you won't want him stepped on.

Or lure him. He's food focused if I remember from other posts so that would be easy as well.

Remember during the initial period of an emergency that will cause you to leave your home, your neighbours will all be leaving too. It will be chaotic. There will be children and other animals. This isn't really the point where the harness comes in. You don't want your pet(s) hurt during phase 1.

The harness comes in phase 2 of emergency.....staying somewhere that may not be enclosed, or needing to pause and let him stretch his legs somewhere that may not be fully enclosed.


For example I have had to evacuate with Magnus and Nobel. They went into their carriers. We arrived at my in-laws but Magnus is a young cat who gets in to things. The space was not suitable for him to walk around unattended (lit woodstove, etc). We had a dog crate to store him, but used the harness for him to stretch his legs and play.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Know what? I'd try carrying him DOWN the steps, then Iuring him up the first few times. Cats have insaneIy good depth perception, and "down" in generaI seems far more threatening than "up." If for no other reason than one seIdom faIIs up anything. Once he knows preciseIy how stairs work, he may figure out the "down" part on his on.

 

[neely]

Awhile back we had an 8-10 month old kitty that was also afraid of stairs. He was kept in a basement and never ventured out of there. We were able to eventually get him down our stairs basically by coaxing him since he was food motivated. He would be at the top of the stairs looking down and I would be a few steps below at first then increase it a few more steps at a time until he came down the whole flight of stairs. It helped to shake his food container and I think he expected food every time he came down the stairs.