As dog owners, we know what a nightmare crate rest or restricted exercise can be. We head home to follow our vets advice and very quickly realise it might not be as simple as we'd hoped!
Crate rest can be quite stressful for our dogs - the restriction and change to their routine can be frustrating, and being separated from their owner when they're normally free to follow you round can cause a lot of anxiety, not to mention any pain or discomfort they may be experiencing. When all these things add up we start to see changes in behaviour with things like barking and crying, destructive behaviour such as chewing and digging, hyperactivity and restlessness, leaving both dog and owner really stressed!
The good news is there are lots of things we can do to help relieve their stress for a calm, happy recovery.
The Crate
The first and most important stage of keeping your dog happy during their recovery is ensuring they're happy in their crate. If you know your dog is going to need crate rest in the future it's definitely worth getting them used to the crate as far in advance as you can. But if you need to suddenly crate your dog, and they've never been in a crate before then there's still a lot we can do to help.
Start off by leaving the crate door open - we want to make the crate as inviting as possible so comfy bedding and some tasty treats will certainly help. Initially you just want to reward your dog for any interaction with the crate, even if that's just looking at it. You can then gradually build up to them freely going in and out of it. It's important not to shut the door too soon so they don't feel trapped or panic - initially just shut the door for a few minutes and gradually build up to longer times, constantly alternating between longer and shorter periods. We want to make sure that the dog sees the crate as a place where good things happen, not as somewhere they're trapped.
Make the most of their food
If you normally feed your dog once or twice a day from a bowl, crate rest is the perfect time to get more creative with how you feed!
While they're not able to exercise as normal it's important to keep an eye on their weight and so using their daily food in some fun activities is a great way to avoid giving too many treats. Making activities from their food is also a great way to reduce boredom and have some fun together.
So what can we do?
Scatter feeding - as simple as scattering their food around the floor and letting the find it! Dogs have an incredible sense of smell and love to scavenge so it's a great work out for their brains too.
Kings and Food Puzzles - their are lots of food dispensing and puzzle toys on the market that are brilliant boredom busters. The key with any of these toys is to start simple and gradually increase difficulty to help stop your dog becoming frustrated and losing interest - we want to make the activities fun rather than difficult. For example if your dog is new to Kongs, you could start off loosely packing the food so it falls out easily, and gradually build up the difficulty so eventually you freeze the food in the Kong.
Training - this is a brilliant way to really build a bond with your dog, while preventing boredom at the same time. There are so many things we can do here (depending on your dogs condition), from simple commands such as sit to teaching more complicated tricks like the names of different toys.
For some more activity ideas you can download our free enrichment guide here. You can also order The Recovery Box - everything you need for a calm and happy recovery from our favourite enrichment products to expert advice and a huge range of activities! You can find out more about The Recovery Box here.
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What To Do If Your Dog is Struggling with Crate Rest