Crate rest for puppy - help!

[dinkydino123]

Hi everyone - our gorgeous 13 week golden puppy tripped in the garden and has hurt her leg. She doesn't need surgery but she has been prescribed 10 days of crate rest. It's going to be tough as she doesn't like the crate at all (despite the fact that she has been fed in there and kept in there overnight since we brought her home at 8 weeks). Trying to think of ways to make the next 10 days bearable for her and keep boredom at bay - any ideas? She's very unhappy in the crate and it's distressing for her and us!

We had many extended periods of forced rest as a young dog due to accidents and after surgery.

The easiest way we found to manage it was to empty a room of anything he could jump on. We then put a mattress on the floor and one of us would sit and stay with him in that room. The more boring we made it the calmer he was and would settle beside us.

I know some people swear by them but I don't like crates. Won't use them. If your pup hates it and isn't comfortable, then the risk is that frustration will lead to more damage. One of my previous pups ( before crates were really a thing) broke his leg and had it in plaster with instructions to rest. We did it by keeping him close and mind games for exercise. Mostly. When he wasn't hitting the other collie over the head with his plastered leg!

He had a long and healthy life until 16.5 years, so I guess it didn't do him too much harm.

could you try a pen rather than a crate?

if it not try having someone sat near the crate being totally boring (and not engaging with dpup)
lots of frozen kongs to keep them busy

Thanks for all the comments. I asked the vet about using a small pen instead and he was adamant that we should crate her. I am worried about her doing more damage in the crate, but it's hard to go against vet advice and have her out. She's 13 weeks and full of beans, so hard to keep her from walking around too much if she's out of her crate. We did have her in the garden earlier and she just say in the grass chewing a plant which was nice for her. I am counting down the days already, I'm not cut out to be her jailer...

I had a pup in a pen with a leg in plaster, she vaulted it.

Our dog broke his leg as 10-week-old puppy and had to have surgery. He was prescribed 8 weeks of strict crate-rest. Well, he didn't last 2 days in the crate. He was jumping on his hind legs trying to get out of there, which defeated the whole purpose of crate rest! We let him out, but kept him on a lead inside the house to make sure he doesn't run or jump up on furniture and we carried him around a lot! He recovered fully and is now 18 months and super fast chasing much bigger dogs than him 😅