Intermittent Pain means no exercise for Lab! Help!

Hello,

My problems seem completely pathetic compared to some of yours, but I would be really grateful for your advice.

We have a lovely rescue labrador that recently pulled a muscle (vet thinks but can't be sure). He pulls his leg up and drops to the floor very intermittently, in obvious discomfort, the rest of the time he is flying around seemingly pain free.

The vet advised no walks for a week (v frustrating as hubby took week off to go on long walks with us).

My question is, HOW DO I ENTERTAIN A DOG THAT COULD RUN ALL DAY AND EAT ALL DAY? He's chewed through his new toys and looks so fed up. HELP!

Thank you
Angie x

Hi there

Count your blessings that it is hopefully only a week - following two seperate knee ops on my girl, I've spent the best part of 2x 2 months trying to entertain her without her running around.

So, here are some suggestions

Trick training.

Because her movement was very limited at first, I did lots of things which required no movement at all. She became an expert at 'stay', 'leave', 'paw', 'other paw', 'cross' when lying down, putting one paw across the other).

As your OH is off all week, why not have a mini competition - you both have to teach your dog one new trick by the end of the week.

Keep the sessions short (5 minutes each to start with and not one straight after the other) but you can do them several times a day.

'Find it'
as her movement improved we played a lot of this. Me hiding objects - sometimes her toys which she had to bring back, sometimes objects which I just wanted her to 'show me' where they were rather than pick them up (e.g. golf balls, keys..anything which wasn't hers).

'destruction derby'
I went to local charity shops and bought cheap soft toys and a supply of squeekers (as she's not interested in a soft toy unless it squeeks). I sewed the squeeker into the toy and then just let her rip it to pieces (and then I'd restuff it, stitch it back up and we'd start again). So it took me longer to stitch them up then for her to unstuff them, but she enjoyed it

Bought 'mind games'
I didn't buy any of these, but there are some good games you can get - not to be left with the dog unsupervised, but fun for you and him.

Here's an example http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/dogs/d...ce_games/72374

Kongs
evidently without doing any exercise you'll have to watch how much he eats and all the training treats should come out of his daily food 'allowance'.

However, as an 'extra' I used to buy some low fat yoghurt, fill a kong full of it and then freeze it. That should keep them entertained for awhile and shouldn't expand his wasteline too much.


Good luck, I hope your lad is soon back to being able to enjoy his walks....mind you, even when he does, there's no reason why you can't keep up with some of the other things too


ETA I forgot to say, if you want further explanation of anything (e.g. if you've never played 'find it' before) just let me know

Excellent post Hali

The trick training is a great idea and will certainly tire him out because he'll be using his brain instead of his legs.

Certainly a frozen Kong will keep him out of mischief - and being a typical foodie-loving Lab, it was the first thing I thought of but Hali beat me to it!

Do you have a crate? If so, I would recommend crating him for some period of the day to ensure he does totally rest. I had to do this with Ozzy (my previous Rottie) after he'd had to have a cruciate op. He needed total rest for several weeks after and it is very difficult when they just want to be out and about.

Does he like TV? I used to leave Animal Planet on for Ozzy, he loved it and daft as it sounds, did keep him occupied for a while.