HELP !! Pro Trainers /Experienced Trainers ! Need your advice !!!!!!!!

[flipinnpitchin]

Some of you may read my post about my 14 week old BLF having a mishap, and suffering a Salter Harris growth plate fracture ! It was repaired on Friday by a Ortho Specialist in Nashville, and he said surgery went well, and could give me no gaurantee, but felt she should make a great recovery as long as the healing and rehab process goes as planned, which brings me to my question !

We have a minimum of 8 weeks of tough love crate rest, and of course a longer road of rehab ! I am hoping if everything goes well we can get back to training somewhere around the end of July or August !

We had came along great ! Here's a list of things we have done! We have been following Smartworks !

All commands with treat training down excellent
Daily Nature walks
Socialized daily
Daily Truck rides
Birds & Bumpers out to 50 yards
Retrieve in light cover
Intro to gun fire
Intro to gunner thrown marks
Intro to decoys
Intro to water (Belly deep on her)
Simple memory puppy doubles
Started heeling

What do ya'll reccomend me doing with her to keep her mind learning ? I want her to stay sharp, but we must be careful especially for the next 6 to 8 weeks ! I had planned on staying with the OB treat training, keeping Sit, Kennel, and Here in her head, but again we are very limited on what we can do ! We have orders to feed, water, and air, and back in crate !

I am very very concerned about her recovery, but am also concerned about her loosing her drive to learn ( She was doing so well)
How much do ya'll think she will forget or lose in a 2 month period without any marks being thrown for her ?

I know we have years to work out problems and train, just don't want her to go stale on me, and start thinking shes a lap dog hahaha !

Listiening to ALL ADVICE !!!!

[Henlee]

I am not at the experiance level you are looking for, but if it were my dog I would do nothing for 6-8 weeks and let your dog heal properly. All the lessons you have learned can be refreshed when she is healthy and you will not risk ruining her for good. It will not be as you are starting fresh, but back to where she was in short time. Times like this your Vets advice should trump all others.

[flipinnpitchin]

OH no doubt, we are doing ZERO activity for 6 to 8 weeks !!! PERIOD actually I am using that as a starting point and I may take it longer depending on how I think she's doing ! I guess I was mainly looking for how much ya'll think she will forget in this time period ???

[Chris Atkinson]

OH no doubt, we are doing ZERO activity for 6 to 8 weeks !!! PERIOD actually I am using that as a starting point and I may take it longer depending on how I think she's doing ! I guess I was mainly looking for how much ya'll think she will forget in this time period ???

She'll be fine. You've already laid a nice puppy foundation. Just be calm and soothing and talk to hear. Keep her used to your voice. Talk to her when you air her. Say "kennel" when you put her in. Give her a treat when she kennels. When you pull her from her crate, you can "release" her on her callname. Get her used to coming out of the crate when she's told. (later on, this will translate over to her not busting out the door when it gets opened until you "Release" her).

Don't worry too much about the training you're missing. Just keep it conducive to good healing and get her well as per doctor's orders.

Good luck! Chris

[Chuck Ward]

Do not rush the recovery! 8 weeks at least! Crate rest and LEASH WALKS ONLY with dog under control. My old guy told me he was well and good to go at 4 weeks, had broken leg with 6" S/S plate at 14 months. Set us back at least 4 more weeks, fortunately for us no additional surgery but I do think my letting my dog push the envelope on healing has contributed to his arthritic condition and lameness in his right front leg now. Listen to your vet and don't push it for the long term health of your best buddy! You do not want to have to do additional medical procedures/surgery over. It's really frustrating for you and the dog but it's for the best. He'll remember all the good stuff with just a little brush up along the way going forward. Been there, not fun and very upsetting to have to back up in the healing process. Take this time to let the puppy be a puppy but under control.

Wishing you both the best!

[fishduck]

I just spent most of the winter rehabbing my brother in laws dog. Obedience went out the window. We worked on keeping hold solid & any mental exercise I could imagine. None of it really helped. 6 weeks of crate rest with only airing & 6 weeks of tight lead walks was tough. It took a nice, calm pup that was through FTP & advancing nicely & turned him into a super hyper, vocal, bird crazy machine.

20+ hours of crate rest will not be conducive to any training. Without the physical & mental release of exercise no progression is likely to occur. The dog I rehabbed does remember all of his training but now we are focused on calming his demeanor.

Good luck! Hope your rehab is uneventful & healing quicker than expected.

[TIM DOANE]

I just spent most of the winter rehabbing my brother in laws dog. Obedience went out the window. We worked on keeping hold solid & any mental exercise I could imagine. None of it really helped. 6 weeks of crate rest with only airing & 6 weeks of tight lead walks was tough. It took a nice, calm pup that was through FTP & advancing nicely & turned him into a super hyper, vocal, bird crazy machine.

20+ hours of crate rest will not be conducive to any training. Without the physical & mental release of exercise no progression is likely to occur. The dog I rehabbed does remember all of his training but now we are focused on calming his demeanor.

Good luck! Hope your rehab is uneventful & healing quicker than expected.

Keep in mind some of this is just due to the dog getting older. Your 14 week old pup will be 22 weeks old when the restrictions begin to come off. I would expect to see more drive injured or not.

[Gun_Dog2002]

Keep OB standards high. Teach parlor tricks.

/Paul

[2tall]

Improvise! My 2 year old has been under house arrest for 3 months, with occasional set backs from escapes and the neighbor dog. He is going stark raving mad. My well trained, obedient, tractable, trainable little darling is a fire breathing monster. So I set out to work his mind if nothing else. Over the long weekends in my office up at the ski resort, it has been very quiet lately. Most of the snow is gone, and the lifts shut down this coming weekend. So I was as bored at my desk as pup was in the crate. Well, hmmmm, what have we here to work with. An empty back office, a closet full of old tv remote controls that don't work, an avalanche whistle hanging on a lanyard in the same closet and a worn out welcome mat. I set the remotes all around the room, placed the welcome mat in the middle and did casting drills! No retrieve was longer than 6 feet, floor carpeted so no sliding or slipping and a pretty quiet whistle. (I wouldn't want to depend on that thing if I were buried under the snow). He could not build up any speed, so all he did was step over to each remote. He really got into it, and got pretty darn accurate on the casts. Plus I got to practice my precision casting! He returned to the mat each time and learned the command Place.
To the OP. Anything like this will help pass the time. Just be sure whatever you do meets the vets instructions as far as allowable activity. I had just gotten to the point that all I was doing was yelling and holding the lead for dear life. Now that we are "playing" my sweet dog is back!

[MooseGooser]

I would do exactly what the Vet says..
Right now,, Bond with the puppy.

I bet as she comes out of her time out period,, you will be very surprised at what she remembers, and her desire to get back to work,, I bet you dont miss a beat..

Hoping all goes well with her recovery,

Gooser