Having a very active dog who is suddenly confined to a crate/pen and no walking is hard. My arms muscles have never been bigger from carrying her places! We have three other dogs who required lots of exercise and that made it harder as Brooke was not happy being left hone alone knowing that the others were out having fun! We have tried to make her rest as varied as possible so that she still gets to use her brain and feel included in things we do. One of the most important things in Brookes opinion was that she had sofa time! Obviously she was lifted up and down as jumping off could have ruined any chances of recovery (I don't let the others jump off the sofa if possible due to the impact) As you can see, she loves being on the sofa!
The other reason for having her on the sofa was to do her biomagnetic pulsed therapy treatment three times a day. She loves having it down and it makes her drowsy! It basically improves circulation and promotes healing. I have used it on my back and it is lovely!
Food has always been the highlight of Brooke's day so we have been using various food toys and anti gulp bowls to slow her down. We had to be careful of which food toys though as we found that the little red ball she got quite angry with and used her bad leg a bit too much!
Even though she couldn't walk anywhere we found a couple of dog friendly pubs and coffee shops that we could take her in. She loved being a 'lady that lunches'! Lots of look at which wore her out completely.
The other thing that is so important for a resting dog is quality sleep! Brooke has always appreciated lap cuddles and as long as she was comfortable we let her snooze on us! This is a really good picture of the harness we use on her. She is a nightmare to fit harnesses on as she is narrow but also long. We ended up with a Perfect fit harness from Dog Games as it has three very adjustable pieces. It doesn't put any pressure on her bad shoulder and is lovely and padded!
The other thing we had to work hard with was keeping her nails and pads in good shape. Her nails need trimming every few days to stop them getting too long and her foot hair needed trimming constantly to mean she had the best grip possible when she did stand up. Her pads quickly became weird and crusty from not walking so we got some special balm called 'Wild Wash' which has helped keep her pads in good condition. We have tried to keep up with her grooming as well as it helps with her circulation and general health.
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