Entertainment for a dog on "bedrest" for 10 days - well, cage rest of course!!

[loveyouradvice]

Hi

Because of back issues, our 5 year old dog is on 10 days cage rest - just allowed to potter round to eat and drink in old puppy playpen...... and we carry outside to wee and poo.

4 days in, understandably quite bored and more active!

Any tips for entertainment? So far I've only thought of soothing food type things - a new bone, frozen food/yogourt mini kongs.

Extra tough for him as he's extremely sociable - anytime someone new comes into the room, lots of tail wagging and a longing to say hello. Just being in the room doing stuff - like cooking, or working at the table, seems to help a bit

But another 6 days of this - HELP!!!!!

[ineedaholidaynow]

Can you teach him new tricks, like taking a treat off his paw, learning left and right paw?

[ineedaholidaynow]

There are dog toys you can buy which dispense treats if they slide or press something

[SutterCane]

Have a look at the Canine Enrichment FB group.

Enrichment ideas specifically for dogs with injuries or post surgery are requested and shared quite often.

[BiteyShark]

We have had to rest our dog for 2 weeks after severely injuring his back.

Technically it was cage rest but what we did was clear out a room of things for him to jump on and we put a mattress on the floor. I sat with our dog for the majority of the time in the day and at night on the mattress and found that the less I did the less he wanted to do. Simply put, I kept the environment as calm and unstimulating as I could which helped. It sounds counter intuitive but actually the more boring the environment the more he would simply sleep, even being a working cocker who was used to running about all the time.

[loveyouradvice]

Great advice - thank you!

Yes Bitey that doesn't surprise me at all and really glad that it lasted most of the two weeks for you, this give me real hope - lying beside him as i read a book seems to comfort and sooth him. He's quite happy doing this for a long while... until he's not!

And Canine Enrichment looks fab - I've just bought a lickimat having seen it featured there.

Definitely looking for things to sooth him rather than those that encourage him to move a lot ... or even a bit, since it's his back that needs to rest

[BiteyShark]

He's quite happy doing this for a long while... until he's not!

Yes I used to get the nose bumps, stares, sad face etc a lot. Even worse was the indignation of being on a lead to toilet so he couldn't chase the birds outside

[AmelieTaylor]

Teach him to read?

Poor fella. It’s so hard when you can’t explain why or that it’s only temporary & not the new normal! He might find it easier when there’s no one home.