I guess you could say I’m about ready to pull my hair out, we have 2 of our crazy high drive dogs currently on crate rest for unrelated shoulder injuries. And the 2 dogs in question just happen to be the youngest, nuttiest dogs in our house. I had been trying to just limit their activity, giving them a few days of rest, not letting them romp in the yard with their buds – but the darn lameness kept creeping back in. So finally, on the recommendation of our vet, we went to a full 4 weeks of crate rest for both doggies. WHOA. 4 weeks. For poor Bolt, our 7 month old heeler puppy that will literally be 1/8th of his life when this is all said and done.
The hardest thing about crate rest is not letting our human emotions of guilt sink in; afterall, these poor dogs don’t know why the heck their once fun-filled lives have turned so boring and blah. We promptly went to Petsmart and spent about $150 on interactive toys, food dispensing thingys, and many many chewies. Finally, I went to some of my favorite dog training friends for some thoughts and advice on low movement games and shaping ideas; afterall, my dogs aren’t supposed to move around much, but they can certainly exercise their brains!
I was completely overwhelmed with the great responses and advice I got………………here’s a list of some of the fun things we hope to play around with:
Crate Games (via Susan Garrett’s dvd), Go to Mat work, Nose targeting objects/body parts by name, Paw targeting objects/body parts by name, Sit/Down stay proofing, The Name Game (teaching names of everyday objects/toys), Get It (picking up and bringing everyday objects like gloves, keys, a soda/beer), Opening cabinet/fridge, Stimulus Control work (leave its, working around treats/toys on the ground, etc), Basic leash work (Side/heel/fronts/swing to finish/around to finish/slow/fast), Shaking head no
For now, we are tackling leash work (Bolt is becoming quite a master at this! maybe some competitive obedience will be in his future?), Go to Mat, and picking up soft objects like gloves or a hat. We do 2-4 short sessions each day, no more than 10 minutes apiece, working alone in various places around Purina Farm. It’s definitely helping Bolt and Rampage to deal with their inactivity, and in the end we will be creating an even better foundation and hopefully create some fun party tricks, too.
One week down, 3 more to go…………….!
