The Kalidor Diary – When Doggies Get Sick or Injured
“YELP!” Limp, Limp! Across the yard I see Kalidor limping after I hear that unordinary sound as my other dogs play gleefully in the backyard. A trip to the vet reveals he has a broken toe which translates to me four to six weeks of quiet and leash walking! I think to myself, “This is an 8 month old puppy full of himself, energy, and summer coming which is time for lots of hikes and outdoor learning!” I’ve been through sick dogs many times – knee surgeries, spays, neuters, gastropexy’s, torsion, broken leg, extraordinary complex surgeries that include a urinary tube, heart disease, to name a few conditions that have blessed my household over the years. All of them required keeping that precious doggie QUIET, regardless of their age. It is especially difficult for an energetic teenage puppy – Kalidor!
My plan is to keep him MENTALLY occupied, since he can’t run off his excess steam. It’s easy to forget that mental exercise can be as strenuous as physical exercise, so this avenue becomes a really effective means to keeping him happy and keep destructive behaviors at bay.
It also becomes a time when I can be teaching him new behaviors. One of my favorites is “touch.” Touch is when the dog uses his nose to touch an object – a hand, a stick, or a target of some sort. Touch can be a foundation tool for so many things. I use touch to teach ringing a bell to go outside, to heel, and “come”. In fact, it is the building block for teaching dog guides for the visually impaired how to identify a curb or other obstacle. With hearing assistance dogs, “touch” is how the dog “shows” the hearing impaired what is making the noise like a phone or the water running. For Kalidor, teaching him “touch” will help him to identify an article on the tracking course.
“Touch” can help teach tricks like how to sit up, spin, and to do physical therapy or even eventually agility.
Other things I can do to keep Kalidor’s mind busy is to use food puzzles easily found everywhere, or even homemade puzzles. One of my favorites is to put his daily kibble in an empty and rinsed out plastic soda bottle. With its narrow neck, it takes lots of pushing around to get the food through the small whole so it is edible. When the bottle gets mashed, just toss it in the recycle. There are other food dispensing toys on the market that work just as well. Raw bones will take us hours of energy and provide healthy chewing to clean teeth. If you worry about feeding raw bones, try some that you get at the pet store that are sterilized. These bones can be stuffed over and over again with cheese, cream cheese or peanut butter depending on your dog’s interest and tolerance.
Leash walks are great, too. Even the same places provide new scents to smell and stimulate every day. Other scent games include hiding food around the living room, or backyard. On a leash, I will allow Kalidor to go explore and use his nose around the yard to find the treats. Scenting takes HUGE energy and thought process for a dog. I can even put old boxes in the backyard and hide food in only a few letting him figure out which one has the treat in it. It’s sort of like the Easter Egg hunt!
My favorite of all is to take Kalidor tracking or following the scent on the ground where someone has walked. It’s a competitive version of a search and rescue skill. Since he is on a leash and following each footstep, one by one, this is another great way to take his energy edge off! It’s just harder than a leash walk!
With forethought and creativity, having an injured dog can be a lot of fun for both of us! It does require some work on my part to stay ahead of him with new ideas. But, it saves me so much in headache from destructive frustration Kalidor is feeling!
