I had to board my "kids" the first 2 weeks of December. They did fine and got home and acted normally after the initial excitement wore off. But now, 2 weeks later, Gus (2.5 y/o male) is very fearful of coming down my stairs--something he has never had a problem with before (and the stairs are carpeted). I know that he had no stairs to deal with at the kennel. He will run up them without any difficulty, but when he wants to come down he will stand at the top of the stairs and whine and bark until I go up the stairs to stand behind him. He will then go down them, but very slowly. Occassionally his back left foot will knuckle under as he is trying to come down the stairs and this seems to really confuse him. I have never seen him knuckle under when he is walking and it is difficult to test his response when I put him in a knuckle under as he wants to play.
Do you think this is a behavior problem and/or a medical problem? And if it is behavior, what do I do to help him lose his fright of coming down the stairs? Right now, I am trying to not make a big deal of it, but am praising him when he gets to the bottom of the stairs.