Boondoggle Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 Well, for the second time in a month, Emma (aprox. 13ish months old) is on a restricted activity regiment due to injury. The first time it was an unexplained stomach blockage and severe GI inflamation that required surgery, weeks of antibiotics and the dreaded cone head. This time she has a soft tissue injury to her left front shoulder and is on anti inflamitories and is supposed to be kept quiet with on-leash walks only for two weeks so it can heal. Banned from agility, banned from the park, and even banned from playing with my other dog, June. Emma, a recent adoption, is the type of girl who will not just walk down the two steps from the deck to the back yard, but will instead do a leap and dive including a half nelson and a twist as part of her normal egress. She won't walk around the retaining wall to the upper yard, but will instead leap up or down the 4 feet just for fun. Aditionally, she has a lot of issues with pacing relentlessly if not totally exercised (previous post) and sometimes that doesn't stop it. We have been working really hard to get her out of that habbit with some success. Unfortunately that small success is entirely dependent on getting her out to run run run. To keep us both sane, I've started teaching her a "trick" a day to try and work her brain and we work on obediece too. I'm also planning on getting some food dispening toys to feed her with so that should probably take up about 3 seconds of her life twice a day. Does any body have some other suggestions to keep her busy? I'm sure they could help on other occations too when for whatever reason we didn't get to do park/walk/agility or all three in the same day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bo Peep Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 restricted activity - how much does the vet say that is? Restricted for border collies is quite different than other dogs LOL. I have managed my dogs to be semi-restricted. No jump, little run....that's about it. I'd say long walks with a leash- forget the frisbee and toys- OH VEY- for awhile and kinda cuddle. MOST of my BC's (except the famous Usher) quieted down after 9-12 months. He is great now. Worth every moment of torture LOL. MEN!!! Yours will soon realize the term "nap time" and really enjoy it. Mine do. A trick a day? Give me your booklet! I'd just do some semi-obedience around the house. Some sit-stay commands, mix it up, do some heel and turns, that'll keep her busy. Always fun for both. I like to do the heel and do the quarter turns. It's kind of fun and makes the dog "think" and not too much exercise. Teach her crawl.......... great trick for a limited activity dog. Very easy once you have a solid down and a come/down...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sleeping Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 When I have to restrict char to let his nail regrow I keep him in a small room with me. When he has less room he seems to calm down pretty quick. I have to put up with his whining, but I pretty much just tell him to be quite. It's no fun for me to be cooped up in a room either, but I'm not the one who just had to run on the concrete all day. That and I crate him when I can't keep him in a room with me. Don't worry though Char gets his fair share of exercise, currently he's passed out from out 2.5ish mile walk and 2+ hours of fetch, not to mention the car ride, and whatever my brother did with him while I picked up my car from the detailer. He's one tuckered out pup. EDIT ha ha after posting that I had to throw his ball to see how asleep he is... no movement. human 1 BC 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alaska Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 Ideas for entertaining dogs whose activity is restricted (it's a link - click on it) P.S. to "sleeping": I recognize that pose! It's one of my favorites, the "tuckered pup" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boondoggle Posted January 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 restricted activity - how much does the vet say that is?Restricted for border collies is quite different than other dogs LOL. I have managed my dogs to be semi-restricted. No jump, little run....that's about it. I'd say long walks with a leash- forget the frisbee and toys- OH VEY- for awhile and kinda cuddle. MOST of my BC's (except the famous Usher) quieted down after 9-12 months. He is great now. Worth every moment of torture LOL. MEN!!! Yours will soon realize the term "nap time" and really enjoy it. Mine do. A trick a day? Give me your booklet! I'd just do some semi-obedience around the house. Some sit-stay commands, mix it up, do some heel and turns, that'll keep her busy. Always fun for both. I like to do the heel and do the quarter turns. It's kind of fun and makes the dog "think" and not too much exercise. Teach her crawl.......... great trick for a limited activity dog. Very easy once you have a solid down and a come/down...... The vet says totally quiet! I gave her the most pitiful look and she lowered the time down to a week minimum, but she really wants two weeks. Truthfully I have been letting the girls play as long as they are not getting totally crazy fake killing each other and body slamming. I think the real issue that will continue the problem is the 'tackle frisbee' with lots of herding behavior on Emma's part, including dodges, dashes, 180* turns and crashes. I have to get this dog on sheep! I think the crawl is an wonderful idea. I think I have a good idea of how to train it since her down and come are good as long as you include liver treats. The book I'm using is just this silly thing I got for Christmas from a friend. It's from Petsmart I think and is called Dog Tricks by Haggerty and Benjamin and came with a cheesy frisbee. Most of the tricks are ok and the how to teach them part is lacking, but it gives you good ideas and you can come up with your own, more effective way to teach it if you have trained anything before. So far we have learned "Play Dead" including the "Bang" with the index finger cue. This one is esspecially good when your dog is driving you nuts because you can not only get a small amout of revenge by 'shooting' them, but it actually stops them from what ever insane activity they are doing and effectively drops them in their tracks We are also learning to jump over my leg (stepping at this point so as not to hurt injured dog). Make no mistake, I love this dog! But OMG I can not wait until the crazy adolecent maniac stuff is a little bit temperd. Actually it's not even that. I just hope I can get her through some of the OCD stuff that she has picked up some where along her very unstable life before we adopted. Small steps! P.S. While I was writing this the little darling just brought me a DEAD RAT from the back yard! She was out for two minutes, holy **** I think it was dead already... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maralynn Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 Kipp is in the second week of very restricted activity for a soft tissue injury. Thankfully for me he settles very nicely in his crate, even though he does try to act like a crazy dog out of it. It was funny and pitiful to see him try to burrow in the snow last week while on a 4' leash. Didn't help that my other dog was trying to initiate a game of chase as well. Truthfully I have been letting the girls play as long as they are not getting totally crazy fake killing each other and body slamming. This can be a bad idea. You want a soft tissue injury to heal properly the first time and not become a reoccurring injury. Kipp is going to continue to be restricted until he goes a couple days with no limping. I hate it, he hates it, but I want him to be healthy and sound in the long run. I gave Kipp anti-inflammatory and pain meds the first few days, but now he is just getting one homeopathic remedy my vet recommended. I didn't want him to feel too good because of the pain meds and therefore try to do even more ( a 30# BC on three legs can still pull like a sled dog...) Tricks are a very good idea and you may want to look into getting her a buster cube or some other interactive toy. Frozen kongs will also give her something to do in her crate. Taking my dogs for car rides also seems to help them to chill out and a little bit of something to do. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bailey44 Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 I second the buster cube and interactive toys along with kongs. I have given my dog rinsed milk jugs or water bottles and that buys me time and wears her out. My dog loves to chew and shred the plastic--BUT--not a good idea if your dog would EAT the plastic. She bats them around and seems to enjoy the noise they make. My dog likes to destroy things like this, but not eat the bits. I, of course, supervise this. The recycling guys probably wonder what the heck is going on with the gnarled up milk jugs in the bin Charlene Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boondoggle Posted January 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 Ha ha, I do the "101things to do with a box" also, and use two liter soda bottles with the labels and plastic ring cut off. The recycling guy doesn't worry me as much as when guests come over to see our living room looking like we kicked over the bin and just left it out! It's amazing what a mess one small box can make when ripped into 50 small pieces, always the last chapter of the 101 things... You're right about letting the girls play, I should stop them. I guess the choices boil down to them playing or Emma pacing the halls which could also hurt her as she is a very serious pacer (habit I'm trying break also) or crating her for longer periods of time when I can't watch her like a hawk. Ack! So frusterating to finally be getting some where with this dog and have an injury set us back! She's so fast though and could do something to herself in an instant. Last night I took my eyes off of her for a few seconds to finnish writing the last sentence of a post and hit send while she was out. In that time she some how found a dead rat and brought it to me. Shape shifter. If she could do that she could definetly hurt herself too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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