Most people teach weight at the front door, but another valuable and often overlooked place to use it is on the stairs. Stairs can be dangerous for both of you. They're narrow, echoey, and easy to slip on. So my rule is simple. My dog can go before me or after me, but not with me. When I start teaching weight at the stairs, I begin at the bottom of the staircase. I cue weight one time, just once at the very beginning. Even if my dog breaks, I don't repeat the cue. From that point forward, my body does all the talking. If I keep saying wait, wait, wait, wait, I'm just going to add too much excitement to the situation. So I cue weight and I take one slow step up. If my dog tries to step up with me, I simply move and stand right in front of him, right in his path. That's called a body block. I don't step back down to the floor, but I don't talk to him, I don't correct him verbally, I don't even look at him, I watch him in my peripheral vision. But I just calmly hold my ground until he steps back down to the floor. Then I see if I can make it to the second step before I release him. If he breaks again, meaning he tries to walk up the stairs with me, I silently and quickly step back down to the first step and block his path. And then once he backs off, I'll step back up on the second step. When I can stand on the second step and he remains on the floor for four to five seconds, that's a good enough weight to begin with. And I will immediately release him to go up the stairs. And my release word is free, although some people use the word okay. The key is to stay quiet and consistent. If you throw your hands up and laugh it off, your dog learns that it's a game. Beat the human before the release cue. That's why it's important to increase the number of steps slowly. If your dog breaks and gets past you even once, it reinforces that racing up the stairs works, and they'll try it again next time. Once your dog can wait and you go up two steps before releasing him, next time go five steps, and then seven, and then the full flight of stairs. But just keep building gradually so your dog's successes outweigh the mistakes. And when it's time to come down the stairs, the process is exactly the same, just in reverse. Cue weight once, face your dog, and come down the stairs backwards at first until you're confident in your reaction time. This way you can watch him and know the moment that he tries to step down the stairs with you. This version of weight builds patience, control, and safety, not through words, but through clear, calm body language. And before long, your dog will understand that the stairs are no longer a race, they're a teamwork exercise.