Help please. Ideas to amuse a housebound dog

orlao

Hi

My 17 year old JRT has managed to damage her back quite badly. You'd think she would have given up chasing foxes by now, wouldn't you?

Anyway, she's had two weeks of house rest and metacam and while she's a lot better than she was the vet says that she needs at least another 4 weeks at home....no walks, no jumping on sofas (suggestions gratefully received on that please) but as she feels better she's really getting the hump about not going out. At the moment I'm taking the other two dogs out one at the time so she's not left on her own but she just sits at the door waiting for me to come back and then makes a break for freedom. I tried taking her in the car when I just pop out but it's far too hot for that now and she has never liked been carried......also worried about the damage she'd do to herself if she wriggled if you know what I mean.

She's also put on weight already as she usually gets 2 long walks (about 2 hours total) a day so I need to avoid food style treats and of course the other dogs are missing out as I don't have 4 hours a day spare to exercise them seperately to the level they're used, not a big deal at the moment as it's so hot they don't want loads of walks TBH.

The only idea I've had so far is a dog stroller/buggy type of thing....anybody know anything about them? price? where you'd get one? are they a good idea?

TIA

O x

Joyful

I'm interested in any replies too especially the no jumping on sofas! My Dog came home today after an operation on her cruciate joint. For 4 weeks she is to have no excercise, jumping , bouncing etc. The first thing she did when brought home was jump on the sofa when I turned my back. She is usually a very energetic 7 year old. I have put boxes in front of the sofas just now but think I will have to overturn them when I go out.:eek:.

I have also ordered a dog ramp. Has anyone any experience of getting a dog used to jumping onto sofas to use this instead?

smileypigface

Hi, sorry to hear about your poor girl - but wow 17 years is a great age for a dog to be still wanting to leap around - good on her

Not sure if this helps - as I don't know much about JRTs and what makes them 'tick'! But with our Springer we find that wearing him out mentally is just as exhausting for him as having a good walk. We do things like:

Hiding a few bits of kibble or smelly sausage treat inside a box inside a box inside a box .. such as a small oxo cube box inside a stuffing mix box inside a popcorn box inside a cereal packet. It makes a great mess (so we don't do it too often!) but he loves ripping his way through the lot and then shredding all the bits of box once he's found his prize in the middle.

Hiding bits of kibble or treat around the living room while he's in another room - we then encourage him to "find it" and give him some hand signals to give him clues if he's missed any of the hiding places. He's obvioulsy a 'sniffy' breed so he particularly loves this game.

Send a small boy off to hide with a bonio - then send the dog off to find him - double bonus here as it also keeps a small boy amused (he's 9) always gets the pair of them giggling (if a springer can giggle!!!!)

Frozen kong stuffed with tasty stuff - kibble etc in bio yogurt always goes down well and takes a while to lick out!

Teaching a trick - although maybe you can't teach an old dog ...

Hope she makes a quick recovery and is back to full fitness soon :j

orlao

Thanks for that Smileypigface

I'll give the treat in many boxes a go as she is a shredder and will love that:beer:

She's always been very active "working" type terrier, the only way you can tell her age is that where as she was once a black dog with a little white bib, she's now a very grey dog with white hairs rapidly overtaking the black:D and she won't tolerate OTT bouncy dogs without telling them off.

Can't do the kong thing as she just buries anything like that and she's not meant to be digging at the mo.....