What to do when you cant do your normal things!

Often I get asked by people with injured dogs about ideas for activities that they can do with their dogs. And with Flori not being at full activity level, it's even more relevant! Here are my thoughts on what to do with your dog when they are sick, or injured, and what you need to think about doing with your non-sick or injured dog just in case this happens.

What do you need to be doing now, with your well dog? 

• Crating. 

I now follow Sarah Stremming 'Happy Crating' protocol, over crate games. It's really important to me that a crate is a happy, quiet, relaxed space, and not a working space. 

• Separation in the house

I think it's important that all dogs in a household are used too, and happy with, being in separate parts of the house. At the moment Flori is at the end of the house that is fully carpeted, and by herself a lot because she plays really hard with Deo and Evo. But she's had alone time her whole life, so being separated now isn't a huge deal. 

• Meeting, and being checked / handled by healthcare professionals

My dog's regularly visit, and are handled and checked by vets, hydrotherapists, physios, and more. It's important to me to keep them sound and comfortable and these regular checks are part of this. This becomes even more important if they become unwell or injured as these checks might be more frequent, or when the dog is sore or not feeling well. I want to have 'money in the bank' for happy and great visits. 

• Putting weird things on

• Basic cooperative care training

If you can train weave poles, you should be able to train some basic cooperative care such as handling for examination, restraint, teeth checking and more. These are also great things to train on miserable winter nights where you don't want to leave the house. 

• Fitness foundations

Not only is fitness essential for a performance dog, but having taught the basic fitness skills are really valuable if you ever have to rehab your dog. 

• A wide base of foundation training

Because you know what? Things happen, and there is also the chance that the dog you got to do agility is not able to do agility. So it's important that you both have other options. 

So what are some ideas for your unwell or injured dog? 

Enrichment is a normal part of my dogs. And when life gets in the way and I don't get to do as much walking or training as I would like, I up my other enrichment activities. 

I've made a document here with some enrichment ideas for dogs that are under restricted activities. This document is read-only, so if you want to share it with anyone please share this blog post. 

If you have questions or want lessons training anything discussed on this blog email me on hybriddogtraining@gmail.com