Nosing Around: Tips for Engaging the Injured Dog - a podcast by Ty Brown

Today I’d like to address a difficult question that I’ve had many times over the years: high-energy dogs who have been injured and need to be off their feet for an extended period of time.

Sometimes this situation is very simple—as is the case when a dog is neutered or spayed—and generally require a short four or five day recovery. Most people can manage to power through that. The strategies I’ll describe now can apply to those situations, but I’m speaking more toward people whose dogs have had an invasive surgery, broken a leg, or torn a muscle—injuries that require several weeks of “down time.”

When your dog needs down time but doesn't want to have it, there are two things I usually recommend. The first is mental activity. Most of the mental exercises I usually recommend revolve around food or toys, but if your dog needs to be resting it can be tough to employ a toy. You can, however, do a lot of things with food that engage the mind but don’t do much with the body.

It’s especially effective to utilize the nose. See, there’s a bond between your dog’s nose and his brain. It’s a thick, strong connection, and keeping the nose active sucks power from the brain. All the dog’s focus goes straight to his nose. So if your active dog needs to be down, try to engage some of that energy through his nose.

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