Crate activities

[KYE]

My 5 month pup Kye, fractured his left front shoulder on Friday and as a consequence is confined to his crate. I have been browsing the message boards today and have found a couple of tips of crate activities which I have tried, but Kye has not been overly impressed.

 

Firstly we tried a couple of food activities. He loved his chew, but holding it in between his front paws seemed to cause discomfort as he wimpered the whole way through. So we tried stuffing his kong with food but hes never really has liked his kong, so that went down like the proverable and the food went uneaten.

 

Another suggestion was teaching him to count/math. In order to do this I starteed out by trying to teach him to bark on command, but he seems to be getting over-excited or anxious or something and everytime I try he starts jumping up, clawing and chewing at his cage.

 

If you have any suggestions for crate activities I can do with Kye we would be grateful. The more ideas the merrier as I'm sure we will try all of them at some point.

[MaggieDog]

What about a treat ball? He can pus it with his nose instead of a foot so that might be more comfortable for him.

 

Have you clicker trained him? This might help prevent the overexcitement/jumping but still allow for trick training and such. You can clicker train all sorts of tricks using just the dog's head and hindquarters and thus not messing with the injured area.

 

HTH

[SincereArtisan]

Maybe this will make your buddies Kong more enjoyable:

 

http://www.takingthelead.co.uk/2/Health/kong_stuffing.htm

 

And Maybe try getting the baby kongs, that are softer, so he doesn't have to strain a bunch to get the good stuff out? I also second the idea of a treat ball. I considered making my own treat balls, by taking pretty tough/indestructable toys and getting a tool pro to riddle them with holes for food to tumble out of....

 

Since he has to be somewhat confined, can you give him space to stretch his legs by maybe getting one of those playpens? That way you could set it up outside, and be in thee with him for some one on one time outdoors, meanwhile work on keeping him calm...this could work in a variety of situations, too, I guess, by bringing him places to get him used to sights and sounds and such. But i don't know how transportable he would be....I was just thinking that it may be a little less boring and more mentally stimulating to get to view the outside world while having to keep confined...

[Alaska]

Lots of suggestions here

[Barb Scott]

Sorry to hear about your Kye! We have a two year old black and white named Kye. Yours is the only other I've heard of with that name.

Barb S

[Jennifer Glen]

My Bob dog had a littermate named Kye! What I found so funny was that my Grandfather was also named Kye.

Jenny

PS Speaking is an "exciteable" behavior. What about "on your side" or "head down"?

[Kat's Dogs]

tricks are always good (calm ones). Here is a topic about things to teach.

 

http://www.bordercollie.org/cgi-bin/ultima...t=009963#000003

[KYE]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. They will keep us going for a while. We have started with nodding and shakeing of the head as he can do this completly off his feet.

 

i have added Kye's pic. Hope it works :eek:

 

Please feel free to keep posting your ideas, suggestions and experiences as I'm sure alot of you have either been through this or will experience it at some point during your dogs lifetime. And there are lots of people out there who will feel as useless and anxious as I do when their little one is hurt and distressed and really appreciate your help and support in this manner.