Games that keep the puppy still?

[JacqueZ]

So with a hop skip and a jump on Friday, Honey managed to tear a ligament in her knee

After a lot of limping, and a trip to the vet, she's on a month of short leashing and crating. The past two days it hurt her enough that she was spending most of her time laying down, but the pain killers and anti inflammatories are working well, and she has her energy back. I'm happy to see this, but it does make keeping her still harder.

Does anyone have any ideas on tricks we can train or games we can play that will keep her entertained without making her move much?

Thanks!

[BarbV]

I can't think of games to keep her still....but a really high quality chew bone (not rawhide) might keep her still for long periods. Some people have had success with deer antlers. Look for one as big as possible (more marrow) and one with lots of ridges.

It will keep her occupied and also help her teeht as well.

[corbinam]

That's tough. I tend to like the Nina Ottosson games, but depending on your dog they can get pretty excited about them.

When my busy girl was on crate rest we gave a lot of bones and frozen kongs with different ingredients (yogurt, peanut butter, banana) and fed less at dinner time.

I also got an ex-pen and my husband and I took turns sitting in there with her. She is not a particularly calm dog, but she learned to enjoy that time and would crawl into our laps.

[Ann]

We've had some threads in the past on this so you might try a search for them. In the meantime, here are some websites with great games for dogs recovering from injuries:
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~may/activ

http://alexadry.hubpages.com/hub/How...n-Injury-Heals

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/28/living...mnn/index.html

[Psalms]

Bentley's Bully Stick. Sammy will chew on it for an hour or more! I gave one to my daughter for her pup, and they had to take it away from him because he would not stop chewing on that thing and they wanted to play with him. Now for some reason (don't ask me why) Sammy only likes the brand Bentley's. They have them at Pet Smart. Janet

[mbfrench]

Lots of great ideas from everyone,and I would do all of them. If you do not have an x-pen,I would certainly invest in one. I cannot be without ours.

We have 2. And are a nessassary thing around here. It keeps them in a safe place,still has room for them to motivate,but still keeps them confined.

[JacqueZ]

Thank you for all the great suggestions and links. Honey and I are working on learning to pick up dirty socks and put them in a laundry basket and on scent training.

She's been eating a lot of frozen bananas and carrots as well, I'd love to get her some antlers, but I am waiting until one of my cousins goes hunting this year, all the ones in the stores that I see are dried and splitting.

She's feeling much better, there's no limp while walking and she's finished her round of anti inflammatories. Unfortunately she seems to be throwing up from the zoom chews we got at the vets, so we need to find a different joint supplement to give her.

[*Caro]

I'd be making her work for every meal, if you can't keep the limbs active then focus on stimulating the nose and ears.

Puzzle type games are good - althouth I did find Deska became an adept hand at solving them quickly after weeks of crating. The trusty treat bottle became our biggest friend - that's just a water bottle with kibble sized holes cut it in that they roll or throw around to get the kibble out. I used to hide a old sock with a treat or kibble in it around the house for him to go looking for. And for an extra treat we would drive to different places where he could sniff out different smells. Immediately after surgery he would often just sit in the back of the car and watch things or I'd take a blanket to the oval and we would just sit together.

Plus Deska got a lot of grooming in that time (even with half his fur shaved off).

And one other thing we did - I have a relaxation CD that has a lot of seaside sounds and whales and dolphins and he would listen really closely to the sounds. He seemed to enjoy it (was esp fascinated with the whale sounds), and it had the added bonus of relaxing me from tryin to keep an infirm sheepdog entertained!

Something for the joints too - fresh green mussels/green lipped muscles are fantastic for joints. Get them from the human supermarket and they are much less likely to upset their stomach.