Doggie stairs?

[Freedom]

Crystal, make your own! Very inexpensive, and quite easy. I posted plans and made some which Tasha uses constantly, here:

http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthre...ghlight=stairs

[Scooter's Mom]

Did you end up covering yours with fabric or anything?

[Karen]

You may be able to get carpet scraps free or inexpensively if there's a big carpet place nearby, and as she's pretty light, maybe even stacking some cardboard boxes and fixing them together (duct tape!) and covering the tops with the carpet scraps will work.

[robinh]

We tried stairs for ours and they wouldn't use them. My SO built ramps up to the beds. They use them like a raceway and love them.

[Freedom]

I never did cover mine, no. I do find a few bits now and then, nothing major.

I don't think a cardboard box will work; once the dog gets used to the stairs, they really jump and bounce, bounding up and down rapidly! Tasha is 15 pounds and no way I'd trust her on cardboard. Not sure how much Jadie is.

[Karen]

The good thing about corrugated cardboard is it is very sturdy when used the right way. And of course, it's often free! People discard boxes all the time! If you get cardboard boxes you can reinforce the height by just cutting pieces to stand on end with the "ribs" perpendicular to the floor. Even the trays that come underneath bottled water, etc, can be used for this. Set pieces in, a few inches apart, across the width of the box, and it will be much sturdier.

My least favorite class and instructor in college was a 3d design class, and the final project was to make a chair out of corrugated cardboard that would support an adult's weight. I not only made the chair, I made a rocking chair, and it worked. I got great pleasure in throwing it away afterwards, though, as I wanted no reminders that class ever happened, and I had a pretty small room with no place for it anyway at the time.

[Scooter's Mom]

DH put a box by the bed and she won't go near it. The cats LOVE it though.
Thanks for some good ideas!