Games I can play with my dog whilst he is in his crate

[Karcheer]

He had a tplo op 3 weeks ago and is still mostly in his crate.
He however now thinks he is fine. He is bored stiff and barking at me.

I’ve run out of ideas of games to play with him to use his brain. He is now overweight as he has been living in a crate for pretty much 3 months, so not too many treats please.
He’s a spaniel normally very active, but a real foody.
Thank you

“He is now overweight as he has been living in a crate for pretty much 3 months, so not too many treats please.”

Most things you can do are going to involve food tbh, I stopped giving mine normal meals on crate rest and used his food as entertainment too.

What have you done with him already? That might be easier to start from

Agree it would be good to know what you've already covered. What sort of food does he eat? Try playing games with his dinner. If he's on kibble then I would suggest sniffy type games e.g. choose which hand the food is in, find the food under the cups etc. If wet or raw then a licky mat or slow feeder would be good so he has to work to get the food. Otherwise you could work on tricks - watch me, chin rest, nose target, treats on nose, tail wag, speak, sing, look over shoulder (left and right), wait, leave, hold etc are all tricks which can be done lying down which you could work on together.

A kong toy?
Weight gain isn’t going to help a TPLO, can you keep him in one room of the house on a carpeted floor for some freedom or is he bonkers...

If you're feeding meals, I would stop and just use his food as part of the training and games. You can spread kibble out throughout the day in games and mental stimulation.

What have you tried so far?