Our pup is 11 months old last week whilst playing in the garden landed awkwardly and broke his back leg. One week after his op we are having trouble keeping him quiet hates the crate(wasn’t in one before) and now have to try and stop him licking wound. Won’t tolerate plastic cone and inflatable one doesn’t stop him reaching his leg! Really stressed any help greatly appreciated. Thanks
Hi @Jayneg a difficult one. I'm sorry to hear about your dog's leg. Presumably you have to reduce the amount of his movement so that the bone will knit. It seems to me you have only one feasible solution. Teach him to love the crate. There are many threads on this site about crate training. In the interim while you do so, use a house line so that you can restrain his movement. Clearly you can't do that all day, so crate training has to be your priority. Have you tried desensitising him to the plastic cone? Use the same procedure one would use to get a dog used to a head halti or muzzle. My one experience with a muzzle was that my dog pushed her tongue through the gaps so that she could get to her sutured paw. Consequently the cone seems to be the better solution. I can understand your stress. There are not many solutions, and your dog will be frustrated. But crate training does not take a long time. Good luck.
This is a really sucky situation for you, and I feel for you. But try to tell yourselves that it's actually much better this has happened now - at 11 months - than when he was a little pup within the socialisation period. He'd then be missing out on lots of important socialisation. I would recommend this book, with lots of ideas for keeping dogs' minds busy: http://amzn.eu/d/h4ncODy With the plastic cone, that really is the only option for many dogs. Most dogs appear to completely hate it for a day or two and then adjust to it and accept it. It is much better to keep it on all the time, than to risk him chewing his stitches or staples and needing further surgery to sort that out. With the crate rest, this is just one of the many, many reasons to be sure you always crate train a puppy or new dog - it will make events like this far easier to deal with, and when dogs go to the vet they are crated in cages there as well - and will be much less stressed if already used to it. I would suggest spending a lot of time sitting next to the crate with your laptop or iPad or book, so that he associates it as a place where he spends time with you - and not a place which separates him from you. You can occasionally 'post' him treats through the crate bars if having a Kong means too much activity for his leg.
I know this is a few years old now but wondered how you got on and how long you needed to keep your pup immobile for?
