My little pomeranian loves to cuddle up next to me at night, but at seven pounds he’s just too small to get on and off the bed by himself. So I decided to get him some dog stairs for small dogs.

After doing a bit of research, I found these Solvit PupSteps Plus Pet Stairs. I really like that they don’t take up a lot of space and can be folded for storage. An added bonus is they’re made in the USA.

Getting my dog Koda to use the steps was easier than I thought. I’ll share how I did it later on in this article.

Here’s what it looks like straight out of the box

No assembly required

When folded up, these steps can easily fit under a bed or in a closet.

All the contents of the Solvit Pet Stairs

This shows the stairs in the open position, along with the remaining contents of the box: an instruction sheet, four stair treads and four nonslip feet.

The stairs only weigh five pounds and measure 23.5″ long, 19.5″ high and 15″ wide. Each step measures 15″ wide x 5.5″ deep.

Peel off the backing from stair treads and apply to steps

Nonskid feet applied to the bottom keeps steps from sliding around on slippery floors

Stairs can be closed by pressing the small buttons at the top of the back leg

Properly positioned against the bed, the pet steps are quite stable

Training my dog to use his new stairs

Although Koda goes up and down the porch steps with ease, when faced with his new doggy steps he wasn’t too sure about them. I placed him on there and he just looked at me like “oh, HELL no,” then he scurried down. More persuasive tactics were in order.

Training with treats

I got out the chicken jerky and placed little pieces on each step. He hesitated at first, trying to figure out how to get the treats without going up the stairs. But he got the idea and carefully made his way over the steps.

I did this a couple of times, putting jerky on each step. Then I did it with a treat on every other step. Finally I just put one treat on the bed and nothing on the stairs. When he was on the bed, I put a single treat at the foot of the stairs.

By this time he was practically running up and down the steps, all his misgivings forgotten in the quest for goodies. It was fun for both of us! And it took ten minutes tops.

Dog stairs for small dogs