The mind of a Puli

Bela, our Puli dog, won't go down the back stairs anymore. I just don't get it.

For 10 years he's gone down the back stairs just fine. Those stairs are carpeted and have a turn in them and should be much easier to go down than the front stairs--bare wood and straight down. In fact he often slips going down the front stairs but never did on the back ones.

Before our cat, Luke, died, I used the think I'd like to be in Bela's brain for a while but never Lukie's. The brain of a cat, I imagine, is such a complex labyrinth that you could never escape. But a Puli brain, that I thought would be simple--food, pet, bark, poop, pee, sleep. Nothing more complicated than that.

But, I can't for the life of me fathom why he should, all of a sudden, decide he won't go down the back stairs. I've tried to force him several time to no avail. He just won't, for reasons only he knows.

Why would a dog like Bela, a creature entirely dependent on 'habit' and 'routine'--up and out to bathroom/eat/out again to bathroom and walk/sleep/bark/sleep/follow me everywhere/sleep/eat/out to bathroom/sleep and hang out/one last pee/sleep for the night--change his mind about going down stairs which, to my knowledge, have never caused him any problems?

So, I'm no longer sure I'd like to hang out for a while in his brain.

Who knows what I'd stop doing that I have always done?