I look after my son’s 9 month old Labrador several days a week. His training was going really well until he fractured his elbow six weeks ago and was put on crate rest for four weeks. He is now allowed only very short lead walks for a further four weeks. This has meant that all the off lead exercise and the heel work that was going so well has had to go by the board as it is obviously unreasonable to keep him at heel every time we do a lead walk - such walks have been his only outside the house and garden pleasure and he has started to use his nose to track interesting scents On walks he has now started to pull really badly especially if he sees another dog as he wants to go and play. He’s not had a free run for over six weeks now and we’re all (especially Dee-Jay absolutely no doubt!!!) longing for the time when we can let him off to run, swim and enjoy himself and we can restart heel and stay exercises at a distance. Retrieving will be banned for the next three months unfortunately. He’s always had good recall – but after all this time we don’t even know if this will now work! My question is whether he has missed a critical training time age-wise. Will re-training work?
You have my sympathies having had a pup underwent surgery at a young age followed by crate rest and restricted exercise. From my experience it had no long term effect on training. There is no age limit as to when a dog can learn something, in fact learning should be a lifelong activity. I just took a few steps backwards on my training and carried on from there. Be aware though that following the crate rest and restricted exercise the pup will need time to build up his exercise levels before being allowed lots of off lead running and zooming around. Has the vet suggested any hydrotherapy? It is a great way to exercise and regain muscle tone and fitness.
#Jojo83 Thanks so much for your reply. It's very reassuring. We did ask about hydrotherapy but the vet didn't seem that keen although he would have referred DeeJay if we insisted. DeeJay - like most labs no doubt! - is an excellent swimmer and used to love retrieving from water. We weren't sure whether having to wear a life jacket and being higher up on the water would affect that so, in the end, we decided not to go ahead. The fracture, sustained when jumping down while retrieving a dummy, has mended well - the short walks are to build up his muscles. We can't wait to see him running around again, though we appreciate we'll have to build it up slowly to get him back to the two hours a day he had prior to the injury. He's back to doing mad runs in the garden which is great, though it's a bit worrying when he suddenly puts the brakes on! Thanks again for replying.
Poor chap. I would second @Jojo83 's advice. There are a few members around who have been in this exact same situation. Just take it slowly and build things up. Off lead with other dogs will definitely need to wait a while. Sounds like you have been doing good so far, the worst should be over for you. jac
@ drjs@5 Jac, Many thanks for the reply. We let him off the lead for 5 minutes in a quiet area today. He loved it - and recall was fine!
It's a pity @Alessa that you didn'the have the hydrotherapy as I found it great in building up after the enforced rest. My physio was also great in guiding me with a rehab plan for walks/exercise in general. We extended exercise a few minutes at a time on one walk at a time so it took us around 6 weeks to get back to the pre-op exercise level and each additional couple of minutes was only after ensuring no reaction.
