Ellie is my dog with the incredible vertical leap. She’s also the dog who accidentally got her rear right leg broken when she was five months old. She’d snagged a dog bone and ran with Nikki chasing when she abruptly screeched to a halt. 45 pound puppy was hit full speed by 75 pound adult dog equaled snapped leg.

After nine years of watching her rocket into the back of my SUV with room to spare I was shocked when she started missing (not quite making it in) and getting progressively more and more frightened of the effort. All the while I’m watching my eleven year old lab, who never had that great of a vertical leap, jump into the vehicle with ease.

For the last year Ellie has been becoming more and more skittish. She’ll be sound asleep and suddenly jump up like someone has poked her with a cattle prod. I’ve seriously wondered if it’s some kind of canine dementia since Nikki’s personality was staying completely the same.

All to say – I don’t know if Ellie can’t jump into my SUV or if she’d gotten spooked and convinced herself she can’t. Bottom line – it doesn’t really matter. She’s scared to death to jump in my vehicle.

Failed efforts

I tried helping her by putting her front paws on the bumper so I could then pick up her rear and help her in. Oh my god – she’s terrified of that and hates it so it’s been a complete disaster.

Figuring both Labs would end up needing one, I built a really nice ramp that Nikki would go up and down. Ellie wouldn’t even consider it. No amount of treats, begging, pleading, cajoling, or ordering was going to make her try it. Great.

I have always kept the back seat folded down so the dogs would have the entire back of my Xterra to move around in. I put up the back seat to see if she’s climb up on the floor and then jump on the seat. Same round of  treats, begging, pleading, cajoling, or ordering. Forget it. She wasn’t having any of that either.

I tried picking her up (questionable I could wrestle a struggling 75 pound dog) but she fought me every inch of the way on that too. Sheesh. I was getting really desperate since she hates being stuck at home and was terrified of jumping in the vehicle.

Step for receiver hitch 

Looking online there were a lot of dog steps in various configurations. I didn’t see her being willing to try any of them because they were so foreign to what she was accustomed to. Most particularly I didn’t want anything that would move and scare her to death.

I then found the Otto Step. Nice dog step, but at $80 and having no way to secure in the receiver hitch (no hole for a pin) I was afraid it would move or even come out and freak Ellie out.

I then found the Twist Step. Wow – awesome idea, but $250??? You’ve got to be kidding me.

I was sure I could come up with something for less. I continued my research and found the Bully AS-551 trailer hitch step for people at $39. $40 was more palatable for an experiment that she might turn her nose up at. My plan was to attach a carpet covered board to provide a larger platform for her to use as an interim step into the back of the vehicle.

Modifying the Bully AS-551

The Bully AS-551 is a nice step. As you can see in the picture below it has a 2″ pivoting bar with a stainless steel platform that is about 9″ x 6″. You can see the releasing pin so the platform arm can be swung perpendicular to the vehicle and tucked underneath when not in use.

It was, however, more problematic than expected to add a larger platform board. I had planned on the screws going in from the top, but the nuts couldn’t go on the bottom because the outside row of holes were too close to the steel post. I put the screws through large washers from the bottom and tightened the nuts on the top of the board hoping they wouldn’t bother Ellie.

The picture below shows the step inserted into my receiver hitch.

I put her front paws on it one time (which she hates me doing) and she bounded up. She jumped down not using the step, but jumped back into the SUV using it four more times. I took her to the park for a walk. She happily used the step to get back into the vehicle. Success at last.

I tried it again today and she’s in and out of the SUV in a heartbeat. She isn’t frightened of the step, it’s big enough she has room to maneuver, and it makes life easy for her. Hallelujah.

FYI – I do not drive with the step in place. I store it in the back of the SUV and put it in place when she needs to jump up. The board isn’t weatherproof and I didn’t want someone to inadvertently hit it because it kind of blends into the bumper.

$39 for the Bully AS-551, $4 for bolts, washers, and nuts. I had a piece of carpet and piece of board here so that was free. I used contact cement to attach the carpet to the board. Great dog step for a lot less than $250. And Ellie likes it 🙂