Doggy ideas, anyone?

[hippychick253]

Hello,

I have a very intelligent (ie naughty when bored!), lively Staffy-Boxer cross, Stanley.
He is a rescue, and I've had him about 18 months now. He's about 2 1/2 years and very, very food orientated.
He's quite well trained in obedience and agility and lives happily with my Rottie rescue dog.

5 days ago, the poor little blighter had to have his cruciate ligament rebuilt in his right knee. His pain seems to have subsided a bit and he's on a shed load of pain killers. The stitches are due to be removed in 7 days.
The vets told me no exercise at all for 6 weeks, then very gentle exercise in very small amounts, gently increasing in intensity, for approx 7 months.....

My reason for this posting is by day 3 after the op, he has been desperate to go on his walks. We carry him in and out for him to mooch about the grass and wee and poo, as the vets told us to do, but he is already climbing the walls, desperate to get some stimulation....he must be bored stiff, poor boy :-(

Does anyone have any ideas how I can mentally stimulate him without being too physical, as he's not allowed any exercise? Maybe someone else has 'been here' with their pooch?

I already place doggy treats on his paws and get him to 'leave it', before letting him have them, I have a 'Kong Wobbler' and a 'Buster Food Cube', but both of these require quite a bit of the dog moving about.....

Any ideas very gladly received

Many thanks, Claire

[boosmummy]

I have no advice but he sounds much more well behaved than my two stupid dogs!! I have a labrador - it would be fair to say, he has a brain the size of a baby potato and I have a staffie/akita cross - it would be fair to say i do not like him, but he was here before me, so i tolerate him. He did move in with my father in law for a while but he passed away on christmas day so he's back.

Could you not hide things around the house for him, then let him go and find them, we used to have a dog we did this with and he was good at finding stuff, eventually we used to bury things on the beach for him and let him find them.

xx

[OverWyreGrower]

Have you looked at Nina Ottoson dog toys - they are puzzles that they have to solve to get treats out etc... I think they can be done with front paws, lying down...

Or... get a clicker and train him using that - you can train all sorts of behaviours/tricks etc - including touching the right toy etc...

Also - if you are using food as a distraction, remember to reduce his main meals, to compensate for lack of exercise...

[VirginVegGrower]

In order for soft tissue to heal - takes longer than bone - you have got to keep him off it. Even if he is as miserable as sin. Any stimulation will cause him a problem. Try giving him a pigs ear or knuckle bone to clean his teeth and spend lie down time instead of play.

[Creemteez]

Beau's always exhausted after "rumping" away all afternoon on a good old fashioned marrow bone from the butchers. I cut excess fat off as it can give him a runny tummy - and dig out most of the marrow for the same reason.
Non-impact exercise - ie swimming - would be a good way to get him back on track after his six weeks of none at all. See if there is a Canine Hydrotherapy establishment near you (check with your vet) - It may be expensive if you haven't got him insured, but if you have it can be claimed for.

[Strawberry delight]

Our dog is very food orientated and we found it very easy to teach him little tricks and games. A good one, which they can do lying down is putting a treat under a plastic jelly mould or beaker and letting them guess which one it is in and nudging it with his nose. There are a few games you could play with him without him doingtoo much exercise.

[mothhawk]

I assume Stanley pootles around the house after you, even if he can't be allowed to run free, so how about teaching him new stuff to stimulate his mind?

See if you can get hold of a book by Hazel Carter, called "a dog in a million, my life with connie" from your local library - it is full of great ideas for training your dog to do useful things around the house, like pick up the washing out of the basket, pick up and pass to you things you've dropped, fetch/put away his own food dish.

And I agree about the marrowbone idea. It's distractions he needs, poor chap. Hope he's soon tip top again.

[hippychick253]

Well, he had a bone today, and he's pooped now, sleeping like a baby :-)

I will try and find the book, Mothhawk, many thanks for that.
I am trying to teach him new 'calm' tricks with the clicker, I'm just running out of ideas! Still, 1 week down....5 weeks to go, maybe I can get some tranquilisers for me ;-))

[kfan]

First of all: don't feed him too much! The weight that he will put on will make the rehab a lot more difficult because of the increased weight bearing and will mean you can not recover him (ie walk him) for a much longer period!! So if you do any food treat games, use vegetables (sugar snaps/ carrot... anything he likes). And try to not compensate his lack of exercise with food, no matter how hard this is.

Then I would freeze some stock, so he can lick this slowly. Gives him mental stimulation trying to get it out and also the slow intake of fluids means that he will be less desperate for the loo and makes your job easier to let him out.

A good thing to do game wise (I think briefly mentioned here before) when you have a dog that can't move for your type of dog (I imagine he is not a good sniffer) is name identification. You start with 3 toys and ask him to point at one, once he does, reward him (again, with veg or something like that). It can take quite a while for them to link the name with the right toy, so you have to be very patient. Let them figure it out themselves and only reward when they get it right.

I would also do gentle massages around the knee joint. Use soft pressure, and circular movements which often also helps to calm then down generally.

Good luck!