DIY Suggestions? Canine access to loft bed. . .

In My Humble Opinion
1

Celtdog is an 18 pound Kerry Blue Terrier mix. He desperately needs access to his girl’s loft bed, and Mommy has so many ideas she can’t seem to settle down and get it done.

The rise from floor to top of guardrail is 80"
The width of the bed is 55" (it’s a full)
The bed is 36" from the corner of the wall
The perpendicular wall (parallel to bed) is only 27" due to bathroom doorway. (Door opens in, no conflict there.)

So, the 80" rise needs to occur within the space of a “U” of bed/wall space 55"x36"x27"

Plan A: My original plan was to use Ikea Trofast bookcases to create a stairway, but the numbers just aren’t working. The staircase trofast only gets us up to 35". Because each step is 14" wide, there’s no room to stack another one next to it (on top of another bookcase and attached to the metal bedframe for stability) as originally intended.

The next Trofast bookcase is 56" tall, and 35" to 56" is too tall a jump for safety at this height. I’d say I’m comfortable with up to about 15" per rise at the most.

Plan B: I’m thinking maybe just a series of bracketed wall shelves, leading up the wall and around the corner. We’d also need a safety rail as he likes to jump, and can’t be allowed to jump down from a height. (He is terrified of the drop from the bed, and I’m not concerned about that at all, but he will leap from the 35" Trofast step.) Thesemight make a good guardrail?

Plan C: Stacked clear plastic storage bins. They’d need to be about 3.5 to 4 feet long. Cut half the bottom out of each, and stack with the openings down and attach securely to each other and to the bed pole. So he’d walk into the first like a doghouse with a hole in the roof; then jump up to the next one, turn around, and go up into the next opening. This is probably the safest idea, and takes up the least space, but the number and size of bins we’d need make it crazy expensive.

Plan D: Make a spiral staircase out of 2x4 - like a cat tree. My carpentry skills are pretty good, but I worry about him falling. He doesn’t have claws to grab the carpet like cats do.

I don’t know why I worry about falling, he’s very coordinated and an excellent climber and jumper; but thee you go. I don’t want something I’m going to worry about.

I won’t list the 75 other ideas I’ve discarded, but I’d love to hear any others you all can come up with. Also pros and cons for the above ideas, or tips and tricks to make them safer-cheaper-easier to make. Hacks involving the existing bookcases would be great as well, but they can go into the castle playhouse and don’t need to take up that space.

So. Wadda’ya think? :cool:

2

The real problem may be getting him to use a ramp, bounce pads, teleporter, whatever. I had a Golden whose idea of heaven was to sleep curled by my feet. When she got too creaky to climb onto the bed, I tried two or three ramp and step ideas, some terribly inconvenient for the two-legs, and could never get her to use any of them. You might want to test very cheap versions of your ideas before investing a lot in a sturdy long-term one.

(I lifted her onto the bed whenever I could, and it made her so happy it was tear-jerking. I had to keep her from jumping down, though, too, because it obviously hurt her hips. We had a good nap together the day she later didn’t come home from the vet.)

3

Spiral ramp or staircase, carpeted, and with no openings in the railings or risers for him to get his head stuck. Also, a sufficiently enclosed & high railing on the bed so that he’s not tempted to jump. Once he gets used to the idea, the main thing will be making sure he doesn’t try to exit fast if he’s excited. The sides could be made of canvas, maybe, if you don’t want to build them.

4

What about a manually-operated elevator? Would just need some pulleys, ropes, and a sturdy wooden box.

5

And power it with a little treadmill. :smiley:

Why is this making me think of Little Rascals or Harold Lloyd?

6

Sounds like a fun project.
What about a L shaped ramp butted up against the walls going up to the bed ?

You’d need:
4x4’s for the frame
2x4’s and 2x2’s for the railing
Plywood for the ramp
Material to carpet the ramp for the dog, astro turf, carpet, rubber matting etc.
Paint to jazz it up.
150-200$

7

I had to build a ramp so my chihuahua could get down from the 36" tall bed. He could jump up using an 18" Parson’s table next to it, but when he aged he started yelping jumping off. He’s gone now, and my new terrier-Maltese mix uses it both ways now. The ramp is 76" long with a landing at the top and two 9" steps. The first step is off the floor, and the second is midway up the ramp. The ramp was too steep without them. It’s 12" wide and I covered the climbing surface with cheap roll carpet from the auto-parts department.

Teaching the chihuahua to use it required bribing him up and down it a few with cheese shreds. I also had to staple cardboard walls on the sides temporarily. After I did that, he caught on really quickly. I only had to show the new dog how to use it once, no sides needed.

8

Dog stilts.

9

Or saw the legs off the loft bed.

10

Hi TruCelt, I loved your post. I too have a miniature schnauzer (stationed over here in Singaore) and frantically trying to piece-out a way to get access, for him, up to a loft. Same height as yours.

Did you figure out how to build yours? I’d really appreciate any final-builds you managed to put together.

Thanks

11

I’m not a pet person, but I’d be suggest you think about what happens when the clumsy half asleep dog falls out of the bed. Which will happen.

12

If a kid’s not going to fall out of it, a dog won’t. I’ve had dogs mis-judge the landing when jumping on a bed, but they’re pretty good about not subsequently falling out. They’d push a kid out before they felt unsteady themselves! (There is also probably a railing)

13

I never did end up building it, but I did come up with a good plan. I got a tall plastic bookshelf, like this. the idea was to cut holes in the shelves, alternating sides, so that he could have room to hop up from one to the next from the inside.

One large side would have gone next to (and been attached to ) the wall, and the other was to be covered with a plastic garden trellis like this.

The short ends would have been between the wall on one side and the bedpost on the other. Plan was to attach to the bedpost with twist ties for stability.

LSL - Zipper is right. They don’t “fall” out, and most lofts have good railings. A chihuahua might be small enough to fall through the rails though. the danger is that they will try to jump off if stuck, which is why the safe access is important.