Adult dog, how often should he toilet?

Whispered

I have a dog here with a leg injury. I've been told by the vet that crate rest is necessary and to keep him on lead when bringing him out to toilet.

Because he's crated he can't go to the door to let me know he wants out. Plus with his meds he is sleeping a lot anyway. I don't know how often he usually goes in a day because he's in and out and he's a clean adult dog so I've never had to take note.

He's eating and drinking as normal. Keeping in mind he's to rest as much as possible, how often Should I be bringing him out?

tk123

When Bailey was on crate rest we were told to take him out 3 times a day but ended up taking him out a few more times some days - if he got distracted and say didn't poop we'd take him in and try again later. So say first thing in the morning, lunchtime and then I'd bring him out after work and again before bed. We ended up changing his dinner time and bringing it forward a few hours so we'd have a better success rate of him pooping when I took him out in the evening lol!... and he still get's an early dinner years later lol

snoman

Also when my girl was crated during recuperation after surgery I cut down slightly on her food as I figured she was less active.

tk123

For food I fed it in Kongs to keep him busy and we did lots of clicker games too. Does he have a dressing - if not count yourself lucky because keeping it clean is half the battle lol!! Bailey used to balance the kong on his bandaged leg and mess it up - we had socks to cover it lol!

Whispered

No dressing thankfully. It's a muscle tear so No visible injury.

He's getting his treats in kongs but I can't click as he gets super excited. Once he's up and about I'll start hiding treats etc. he was out for 10 mins this morning and went back to his crate voluntarily and has been asleep since.

tk123

Could you maybe mark it with 'yes' etc? There was a program on TV yesterday where they were clicker training chimps - my two were getting very confused wondering why the TV was clicking them and kept asking me for their reward lol!!

seamus

Thing is that dogs can and will hold it for 12-18 hours if they have to, so it's really about making sure they're comfortable as opposed to avoiding accidents. Certainly first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and then I'd say twice more during the day minimum (dinner & lunchtime maybe?).

Whispered

tk123 wrote: »

Could you maybe mark it with 'yes' etc? There was a program on TV yesterday where they were clicker training chimps - my two were getting very confused wondering why the TV was clicking them and kept asking me for their reward lol!!

This morning I took a cherry tomato out of the fruit bowl and said to the baby "I'm going to give this to Harley". Harley tried to roll over for it! My fecking heart. Even a sit it uncomfortable for him as his leg pokes out and he finds it hard to get back up.

If you know of any clicker games I can play with him while he's confined in the crate that'd be handy! Although it's only 5 days crate rest and he's sleeping much of the day. Won't be long until I can start doing stuff out of the crate again (I really hope!)

So 4-5 times a day should be sufficient then? I'd been doing 4 but wasn't sure.

Thanks guys!

tk123

Whispered wrote: »

If you know of any clicker games I can play with him while he's confined in the crate that'd be handy! !

Touching a target stick/wooden spoon with their nose is a good one!

ACD

When our pup was on crate rest, we used to bring him out about 5-6 times a day, he would whine/get restless in his crate if he occasionally needed to go in between his regular toilet breaks. He was only 7 months at the time, so needed to go a bit more often than adult dogs. As for entertainment check this video, some of the tricks could be done while he's lying in the crate or you could adjust them to suit your dog's needs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfL99xcEpXc