Oh my gosh, this has made such a difference in our lives. We have ‘oodles' of toy poodles, who are older now and some have special needs. They sleep on the bed with me. We have used the steps but they were not high enough for my extra thick Tempupedic mattress with a pillow top. Several have hip problems, so jumping from that top and too narrow step to the bed, was not an option. I was constantly having to pick them up and put them down. My eldest dog, Digbe, a diabetic, had gotten so fat because his hips are bad and he could hardly walk and get exercise. Strange thing happened. After getting this ramp, he began slowly going up and down it and has now lost lots of weight and is much faster going up and down, than when we first set it up. He is healthier, as well! He use to wake me up in the night, to put him down, then I would have to wait and put him up again. I was sleep deprived. No more! It has been so good for all our little guys and a life changer for me too! Even my tiny, totally blind poodle, Sambo, has figured out how to go up the ramp, to the bed, after I put him down on his potty pad, to 'do his thing'. He use to come up the steps and jump on the bed, amazingly, but never learned to go down the steps. When we got this, but when we got this, he was so confused and I had to put him up and down all the time. He sleeps all night, so it did not disrupt my sleep. Last week, he learned on his own, how to get up the steps to the bed! He has not figured out how to get down on his own yet, or maybe, the down part is just too scary for him. This ramp comes high enough on the bed, so they just have a tiny jump, to get up. The price is excellent! I reviewed about every ramp of this type made before buying this one. It is a heavier plastic and has pieces of carpet attached with velcro, so you can wash them when needed. I also carefully measured to know exactly what I was getting and how it would fit, how long and how high. It is not too heavy, yet extremely sturdy, unlike many of the doggy steps we have used that were so unstable. I can lift and move it, easily. Nearly all of them had too narrow depth steps, as well. At first, I thought it might not work, since most seemed afraid of it since it was little steep and they would slip a little, when walking up. More on that issue, below. We just kept showing them, putting them on the bottom portion, then calling them from the top to come up. It did take a couple of days for some of them to get use to using it securely. One got it right away. (There’s always one!) My dogs are small, so it is a little too steep for some of them, especially. (others almost run up and down it, now) so my son put cardboard pieces under the foot of it, to lift it a little, so now, it is not as steep, folds a blanket at the very bottom, so easy for them to climb onto it. That was easily resolved. If the Manufacturer made it longer, it would stick out, too much in the room and didn’t want that. I did find one ramp made longer and less steep, but more expensive. I use it parallel, next to the bed, to make it less scary and reduce the likelihood of one of them falling off and getting injured, as two of them may go down it right next to each other. So, to them, one side is solid wall (my bed) and gives them a sense of security. I have plenty of room to get in and out of my bed. The top of it comes to about the middle of my bed. The bottom end goes beyond the end of my bed, a little bit. This ramp is almost perfect. I have two suggestions which I hope the Manufacturer will consider adapting, to make it perfect for all sizes and ages of dogs. Here they are: 1. Use thicker carpeting with some “nub” to it. The carpet on it is very low pile to begin with and the tight packaging causes it to go more flat and therefore, not enough grip for little feet. They were sliding and struggling to get up. Steaming it causes it to stand up again, but still too low of pile for some of my guys. We tried covering it with a blanket first, but that was not quite right and problems with that. We went to Target to look for a long nubby rug to put on the top. We couldn’t find that, but ended up buying two nice, thick, bath rugs, 100% cotton, very nubby, with pronounced higher, nubby rows every couple of inches. We bought two (40$) which fit almost exactly. The rows of nubs are horizontal to them walking up and down and give them more security. My son taped the two together on the back, with duct tape and taped the top one to the plastic part of the ramp at the top. The higher nubby rows every two inches or so, help them to balance and feel secure, walking up and down, kind of like teeny tiny cotton steps. Now, it is just perfect! 2. Please make the top landing step, or level place at the top, wider with a short sidewall around the high end of the ramp. Really. Even most of the steps for dogs have that narrow top step. My dogs have their entire bodies on that top place and I see some of them struggling to balance on it before jumping on the bed. One dog, the fatter one, Digbe, seems afraid he is going to fall off the steep end and has a little trouble balancing there, before jumping to the bed. Just a little wider, please? I think, it would good idea, especially for small dogs, to design it with a plastic wall coming up at the end of the ramp, maybe 5 or 6 inches high, to ensure they never lose their step and fall off there, or get pushed off by another dog hurrying to get past them. I know that would certainly make my dogs and me feel a little more secure about that. Before I bought this ramp, one of my poodles, one of the most agile and sure footed, fell off my bed accidentally and landed so that she broke her hip. She no longer has the use of one back leg. Freak accident, but it can happen. Even she, manages to get up and down this ramp now. None of my dogs have fallen off the ramp and only one of my dogs has jumped down from there, one of the taller ones, with no injuries. Still, I worry a little, since they are so small. Even if I had the top portion perpendicular to my bed, they still could fall off at the very top exposed edges, so maybe that wall could be extended around the edges 6 inches or so to the sides, for those who use it that way, for more security. For people with only one dog, the threat of falling would maybe, not be an issue. Sorry so long folks! Hope this helps someone out there! This is a great product-buy it!
