The first time Maple stood at the top of the back steps and just looked down at them, I pretended not to notice. She is a twelve year old spayed yellow Labrador mix, seventy four pounds, and in February my vet found arthritis in both hips and the left elbow. Steps she used to take at a trot she started taking one at a time, hind end first, with a pause that got longer every week.
By August I had bought four things to help her, and the fifth was the one I put off longest. The PetSafe Happy Ride Folding Dog Ramp folds in half, weighs ten pounds, and now sits against the wall by my back door. I set it on the three wooden steps for the morning and evening yard trips, and against the rear hatch of my 2018 Outback when we go to the vet. Here are ten reasons it earned that spot, in the order they mattered to me.
If your dog is hesitating at the tailgate, this is the ten-pound answer
The PetSafe Happy Ride Folding Dog Ramp is 62 inches long and 16 inches wide, rated to hold up to 150 pounds, and folds flat enough to stand against a wall. It has high-traction treads, side rails and four rubber feet.
Amazon Check Today's Price on Amazon →It takes the two-person lift out of the Outback
Before August, Walt and I lifted her into the Outback together, one of us at the front end and one at the back. Seventy four pounds is not a bad lift for two people. It is a bad lift for a dog with two bad hips, because she cannot help you, and you can feel her bracing the whole way up. The ramp is rated to 150 pounds and she walks it herself now. No hands under the belly. Vet visits used to start with her anxious and end with my shoulder aching.
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The three back steps stop being a negotiation
My house is a single-story ranch, but the back door still has three wooden steps down to the fenced yard, and those three steps were the hardest part of her day. Twice a day, every day. Before the ramp, that was a LOOBANI sling job, a padded sling under the belly with handles, and I still keep it. Since the ramp came, the ramp handles the steps and the sling only comes out on her stiff days. That is maybe two mornings a month now instead of fourteen.
The treads give her feet something to push against
The ramp has textured high-traction treads running its length, and that matters more than I expected on a wet morning. Dew on the grass, a little rain on the wooden steps, and her feet still had something to grip instead of skating. I will be honest about what the ramp did not do. Her one real slip happened indoors on the oak hall floor in April, months before the ramp arrived, and that was a TigerToes problem, not a ramp problem.
The side rails give her a line to walk between
There are low rails down both sides of the ramp, and they do a quiet job. Maple's back end wanders a little when she is tired, the way an arthritic dog's back end does, and the rails give her something to feel her way along instead of guessing where the edge is. She bumped one once in the first week and has not bumped it since. I would not buy a ramp without them now.
Ten pounds means I move it, not my husband
The ramp weighs ten pounds. I am sixty five and I carry it one-handed from the wall to the steps and back, twice a day, without thinking about it. That sounds like a small thing and it is the reason the ramp actually gets used. Anything heavy enough to be a chore gets left in the garage by the second week. A mobility aid that lives in the garage helps nobody.
It folds flat and stands against the wall
Folded, the ramp is about four inches thick at the edge, so it stands on its side against the wall beside the back door like a folded ironing board. It is not propped in the yard, it is not a thing I have to step over, and it does not get rained on. When we go out to the car, I carry it out folded and open it against the hatch. Fifty eight seconds of work, start to finish, and I timed myself once out of curiosity.
The four rubber feet keep it planted
The ramp comes with four rubber feet, and on the wooden deck step and against the tailgate they have done their job. In three months I have not once had it slide out from under her or walk away from the step while she was on it. That was my main worry before I bought it, honestly. A ramp that shifts is worse than no ramp, because it teaches a nervous dog not to trust the thing.
The safety release latch means it opens when I say so
There is a latch on the ramp that holds it folded until you release it. What that means in practice is that it stays shut while I am carrying it across the yard with one hand and holding the door with the other, and it opens when I set it down and mean it. Small detail. It is the kind of small detail that decides whether you use a thing twice a day or give up on it.
Sixteen inches wide means she does not have to aim
The ramp is sixteen inches wide. A seventy four pound Labrador mix fits on it with room to spare, and she does not have to line herself up like she is walking a plank. It took about two weeks of treats, laid a few inches apart up the surface, before she walked it without hesitating. If your dog is the type who bolts at the sight of anything new, budget more than two weeks and do not push.
It protects the joints by removing the landing, not by treating anything
Let me be plain about what this ramp is and is not. It is not medicine and it does not treat arthritis. I am not a veterinarian, and nothing here is a diagnosis or a dose. What the ramp does is remove the part where a seventy four pound body lands on two bad hips, twice a day, every day. The Cosequin is the supplement, the bed is sleep, the TigerToes are traction on my oak floors, and the LOOBANI is lifting. The ramp is the jump. Ask your own vet which of those your dog needs first.
Ten pounds of ramp by the back door replaced a two-person lift. That is the whole review.
What I'd Skip
I looked at dog stairs before I bought the ramp, and I did not buy them, so I am judging them from their listings and from what I know about a dog who cannot lift her own back end onto a step. A stair requires her to lift each hind leg to a height and place it. The ramp asks her to walk a slope instead. For a dog with hip arthritis, that slope is the whole point. I would also skip anything that only handles the car and not the back steps, since the steps happen twice a day and the car happens twice a month. And I would skip the idea that any of this is a substitute for your vet. It is not. It is a piece of equipment that makes the ordinary parts of a day easier while your vet handles the medical side.
Three steps and a tailgate. Twice a day, every day.
The PetSafe Happy Ride Folding Dog Ramp is 62 inches long, 16 inches wide, four inches high folded, and weighs ten pounds. Rated to 150 pounds, with high-traction treads, side rails, four rubber feet and a safety release latch.
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