Ideas for entertaining house-bound whirlwind!

Wellyboots6

LS has managed to rip a claw being a pillock on his walk the other day.

He is now smartly dressed in the Cone of Shame and wearing his Special Shoe.

(actually gobsmacked at how well behaved he was at the vets!!)

He is to be kept indoors for a week until the exposed quick has dried out and is less sore, although he is allowed out for toilet breaks as long as he wears his special shoe.

Bearing in mind he is also on his winter diet, how on earth do I keep him entertained for a week?! Most things usually involve food, which isn't going to work too well for a week with limited exercise.

Ideas for non-food-related indoor entertainment please!

krlyr

I would work my way through new tricks and commands to tire him out. Personally, I'd head to Kikopup's and Pamelamarxsen's channels and work through their videos
http://www.youtube.com/kikopup
http://www.youtube.com/pamelamarxsen

I would also watch Kikopup's "capturing calmness". You can reward him in the times you do find him settled, and he will learn that being settled is a rewarding state of mind.

Some commands you may find quite useful for this situation too - e.g. getting him used to having his paws well handled, if he's a bit reluctant, will let you keep an eye on how well the nail is healing.


I'd also use food but slightly modify for the lowered exercise. For example, mine are used to frozen Kongs but if they weren't, I would slowly build up from a regular stuffed Kong to a frozen one - they last longer so the same amount of food will occupy him for longer.

I'd also bulk out his food to create a larger volume with less calories. I raw feed so my typical "light" Kongs would be something like two cups of mixed frozen veg mixed with a small frozen white fish fillet, or an egg, or a small amount of meat. Blitz in the blender (mine love raw veg if it's been blended, can be hit and miss if it's whole), stuff in a Kong and freeze.

If you don't raw feed then one thing I've done before is soak kibble in warm water until soft, and then blitz that in the blender. Resulting 'kibble soup' goes in a Kong to be frozen. You're "bulking" the kibble with water - greater volume, less calories.

I also feed meaty bones - if they've not got tons of meat on then it's just bone which mostly passes through anyway. Bones require a different approach to a Kong, dogs have to work out the best angle to hold them at, spin them around to access meat off different parts and so on - so a great mental workout as well as physical. I normally feed bones outside, but you could use an old towel or blanket to feed indoors.

Scattering food, using treat dispendors and so on can help too.


If you want to lose the cone, but find he bothers his foot, I've had good success keeping Casper from making lick granulomas on his legs using regular crepe bandages but 'sealing' the ends with cohesive bandage (Vetwrap - pound shops sell a human version far cheaper though). For his feet, you could pop a sock over (not too tight but not too baggy either - imagine a fairly new, unstretched ladies sock would do) and use some micropore tape to hold it up, and maybe the cohesive bandage as some extra security (done this when Casper broke a nail, he would rip the tape by pulling the sock, but the cohesive stuff prevented that). May be easier for him to settle without a cone.

joansgirl

Thank god for dogs like LS. It makes me feel better knowing that I'm not the only one with a nutty mutt.:rotfl:


Sorry about his claw though. I bet it's really sore. Been there and done that with the last disaster I had. He had a claw hanging off for ages and it got infected but the vet wouldn't pull it off as he said it would be too sore. In the end I took him out and threw a ball for him. He went tearing off through the grass after it and came back minus the offending claw. He never bothered with it, didn't lick it or anything.

Sorry, no advice to offer, I just love your posts (and your nutty dog).


Good luck.

Wellyboots6

I have tried doing a bit of training with him, but its just trying to find a way of rewarding without using too much food. He loves raw carrot so I have been giving him little bits of that, but don't want to give him too much as the consequences can be less than pleasant!

At the moment he seems content to just carry his 'baby' around with him a lot, which sounds lovely and probably would be if it wasn't the skin of a gutted soggy teddy bear! It will be tomorrow that the lack of exercise kicks in, and that combined with New Year fireworks is going to be a challenge!

krlyr

There's nothing to stop you using his daily meal allowance as training rewards. Not sure what you feed, but you can raise the value of kibble by mixing a bit of hot dog, cut up cheese, etc. (only small amounts in this instance) with kibble in a bag, so the kibble adopts some of the smell/flavour of the higher value treats, then feed eat different treat in a random order so sometimes he gets the jackpot of the hotdog/cheese and sometimes the kibble.

Wellyboots6

He is on kibble for sensitive tums. I would love to raw feed but living in a teeny cottage I just don't have the freezer space or reliable electricity supply to risk keeping large amounts

I have been using some of his kibble as training treats (no need to mix with other stuff, as food is food as far as he is concerned!) but I don't want to use too much, as when I feed him his main meal it is done in a treat-ball to give him something to keep him occupied. Want to make sure I have enough to put in that to give him a good play with it.

I did like the idea of blended vegetables though to put in his kong. He'd like that as he loves any sort of veg!