Activity ideas with hard restrictions

[tabulahrasa]

I’m currently on crutches and having to spend a fair amount of time just laying down, DP is walking the dog, but much later than normal and he’s clearly feeling like he’s bored because he’s being a pain, lol.

The issue is, I can’t do much standing or walking about and anything involving food is a waste of time because he’s just not that interested in it.

So what on Earth does that leave that I can do with him? Lol

Teach him the names of his toys?
Teach him to tidy up?
How to close doors?

Or I would be teaching him "silly" tricks like roll over, play dead, spin in both directions, weave etc.

I’d usually do a bit of trick training with him, that would be my go to with a housebound dog.

The issue is that it’s me that’s housebound, lol, I have no real plan for that.

I’m not mobile enough to do a lot, walking, bending, standing all problematic and even sitting is a bit limited.

That’s why I’m stumped, I’d usually do training and lots of food enrichment stuff, but I can’t move enough to lure him into doing stuff and if you make food hard to get he just won’t eat it.

He has things to chew, he will watch tv for half an hour or so, lol, but he’s definitely feeling like I’m not doing enough with him - because I usually do and I suddenly can’t.

Oh Tabulahrasa you poor thing - get better soon

Tricks are hard to do lying down but I guess really good proofing exercise

I would not up the activity too much but let your dog get used to a quieter life for a while. They can learn the walk time has changed and hopefully learn to wait that bit longer.

If you do find things to do when you are lying down you are likely to be hassled even when you need some peace to recover.

Can you get a dog walker in for an extra walk?

Otherwise natural chews (but they last about 5 mins!) but if not a foody maybe no good.

My insurance covers if I am unable to care for my dogs (dont need to be hospitalised) for up to three weeks - maybe look and see if they will pay for extra care.

Dog Walker not an option, he takes a very long time to warm up to new people, in a weird coincidence I’d been in touch with one a wee while ago and am planning a slow introduction over the summer just so we had back up for stuff as he’s not great with strangers.

And it’s not that his walks are lacking, just after work instead of through the day and - I disappeared into hospital for 4 days and now I’m not doing usual stuff, so while he is being annoying I actually feel sorry for the him really.

But stuffed if I can think of much to do with him.

I had been thinking he might like agility, spose I can wait till I can stand a bit longer and do weave between my crutches, rofl

Weaving through your crutches may lengthen your recovery G carefully . Extreme weaving for the trainer.

Would now be a time to carry on introductions to the dog walker so when you are at home, they could come and do stuff with him at home whilst you are there. So at his pace and just getting used to the walker. Initially they may just be in the garden ignoring him etc.

Licky mat, stuffed kong?

Can DP take him on longer walks?

“Would now be a time to carry on introductions to the dog walker so when you are at home, they could come and do stuff with him at home whilst you are there.”

When I say he takes a long time to warm up to people, I’m minimising, lol, meeting new people inside is hard work when I’m ok, never mind now.

I got him at 5 months from a rescue, but he’s originally from abroad and has some issues we’re still working through.

“Licky mat, stuffed kong?“
We have those, he likes them, just if you do anything like freeze them to make them last longer he just goes, pfft, not worth it.

He’s not big on food, he’ll even refuse certain types of meat, wee weirdo that he is, lol

He’s getting decent walks btw, we’re fairly rural so lots of offlead in interestingly sniffy places and I know my DP does things like play hide and seek with him, lol

He’s not deprived, just thinks he is because I usually do stuff with him and suddenly I’m not.

It’s not a huge issue, as in, I’m not overly worried about him, just kind of thinking, hmm, I can’t think of much else to do, wonder if anyone else can?

No idea if this is practical with your dog, but some years ago we adopted a dog which had previously belonged to someone who was bedridden with heart disease. He (the dog) had been taught to chase a torch beam, and as the house had a garden that sloped up from the house he could even chase it outdoors while his human lay in bed using a powerful torch through the window

You could teach him CPR

On a serious note, you could teach him to target your hand or a target stick or start muzzle training him (if he's not already muzzle trained).

You could whistle train him by pairing the noise with food.

If there are any noises that he's scared of, you could spend some time desensitizing him to them by playing a recording on your phone (at low volume initially) whilst giving him treats.

You could read out loud to him.

@BrownOwlknowsbest

No idea if this is practical with your dog, but some years ago we adopted a dog which had previously belonged to someone who was bedridden with heart disease. He (the dog) had been taught to chase a torch beam, and as the house had a garden that sloped up from the house he could even chase it outdoors while his human lay in bed using a powerful torch through the window

That’s actually hilarious... but he’s used to torches and not particularly interested, potentially I could get the cat to go after a laser pointer and him after the cat, but I put a lot of work into ignoring the cat, lol.

“ On a serious note, you could teach him to target your hand or a target stick or start muzzle training him (if he's not already muzzle trained).

You could whistle train him by pairing the noise with food.”

Done all those, noises... hmm, there’s maybe a couple I could do, mostly we’ve done that too because he’d not lived in a house when we got him we spent a lot of time doing that sort of stuff early on.

It’d actually be easier to do the stuff I’ve already done with him, lol, because we’re now working on stuff like people coming in the house (or garden), loose lead walking and dealing with his hyper attachment to me - all of which need me mobile.

He’s too small to use as a walking or getting up aid, I tried that, lol

When I can’t get out I throw a ball up the stairs for my dog , he’s not usually allowed balls indoors so it has quite a novelty factor - not suitable for dogs that can’t do stairs though .

@Floralnomad

When I can’t get out I throw a ball up the stairs for my dog , he’s not usually allowed balls indoors so it has quite a novelty factor - not suitable for dogs that can’t do stairs though .

He loves to play on the stairs... though it’s being chased with a tickling hand motion he likes and then he can hide halfway up and pounce on you, like a cat, lol

Obviously I can’t do that just now and there’s nowhere I can sit or lie that’s near the stairs

We do play fetch, because I can do that but it’s not something he’ll do for that long

He’s a funny wee thing, I say wee, he’s about collie sized, lol.

Loves his flirt pole, being chased and ripping things up but not overly fussed by balls or food. He’ll take food if you’re training him, but half the time he spits it back out as if he was only taking it to be polite, lol, he does like being told he’s good and getting a fuss as a reward though. Those ball type toys you get that they knock about to get food out of, he’ll knock all the food out, but not eat it, rofl.

To be fair, I could give him endless amounts of cardboard to shred, but I currently can’t pick it up, so it wouldn’t be long before the house was just filled with it, lol.