Distraction / Entertainment for active dog who is confined to quarters!

greengold9999

My Lab has been confined for the week by the vet because of a suspected strain in her cruciate. Her normal play involves tugs - balls - chasing etc. on repeat! She is a real boisterous active dog and I can see this getting difficult especially as the pain killers have kicked in and she is moving easier. Any ideas for ways to entertain or distract her would be greatly appreciately

yellowlabrador

a kitten. My lab is totally fascinated and gentle as a lamb with her kitten. It brought out her motherly side.

greengold9999

I would love a kitten but my better half is severely cat allergic - my best friend has cats and he has to overdose on antihistamine if we are visiting her!

Nody

greengold9999 wrote: »

My Lab has been confined for the week by the vet because of a suspected strain in her cruciate. Her normal play involves tugs - balls - chasing etc. on repeat! She is a real boisterous active dog and I can see this getting difficult especially as the pain killers have kicked in and she is moving easier. Any ideas for ways to entertain or distract her would be greatly appreciately

Frozen kongs, kibble in a wobbler (bat around to get kibble out),working on new tricks (give paw, sit, lay down, bark, stop, release etc.) etc. Basically try to work her brain rather than physical to keep her entertained and sort of tired

ACD

Is she on crate rest, or just limited activity home rest OP? There is a nice video for tricks that you could do with her, I used quite a few for my puppy when he was on crate rest for a month with a broken leg, it kept him somewhat entertained. Have a look, in the description you find links on how to teach each of the tricks shown. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfL99xcEpXc

greengold9999

She is not confined to a crate thankfully, just limited to 5 minute walk a day on lead and home resting for the rest of the time. Thanks for the link to the video, will study later, not sure about the two of us fitting in the crate together though!

ACD

If she's not on strict crate rest, you can do the exercises pretty much anywhere, our pup had to be crated 24/7 (with toilet breaks) so when I played with him I sat in front of the crate with the door open and did the tricks that he could do when sitting or lying in the crate. Hope your girl will get better soon!

Cows Go µ

Definitely lots of tricks! I swear learning a trick will tire a dog out far more than any walk and they are something that you can keep up afterwards as well. Use her food at dinner time as she's not getting as much exercise so you don't want to be giving her lots of treats on top of her dinner

tk123

My dog had operations on both back legs and was restricted for 3 months each time - 4-6 weeks in the crate and then gradually building up excercise. A clicker and shaping would be the way to go - loads of videos on YouTube. If you don't have a clicker you can just mark with eg 'yes!'. Shaping is say getting the dog to interact with an object so say you start with rewarding them for looking at it and build up to putting toys away, ringing a bell etc etc. I'd feed kongs but wouldn't be using the likes of a wobbler/dispenser if you're trying to keep the dog restricted.

Vira Knysh

I would advise to make some games involved dog's "nose".. Dogs have amazing ability to see world in different way than human beings. It definitely very interesting for dogs and something new for the owner. Google "dog nose work".