Dutch Shepherd Forum

As I type poor demon is in the vet getting neutered, he couldn't escape it forever:)
Hopefully it will be a lot less eventful than Kodas spay.
If anyone has some tips or advice to keep him relatively sane and safe during recovery it would be greatly appreciated! I don't look forward to trying to keep activity levels low...

Luckily he seemed blissfully unaware of his impending doom this morning, so didn't make a peep for the whole hour and a half journey (without getting any treats or breakfast either!)

uh oh, he is going to be mad at you once he finds out what you did !!

cordeliandemon wrote:If anyone has some tips or advice to keep him relatively sane and safe during recovery it would be greatly appreciated!

MDAS snipped Radar the day we brought him home. I have to believe that was a factor in his unruliness when we first got him.

Having multiple dogs in the house might be problematic if they like to "play."

Currently I am trying to get started with scent training, which is probably a good activity for you in this situation.

I am interested in hearing other ideas, as I am sure you are.

Update: I just collected him and was told (in length) what he got up to. apparently the second I left the building demon went full Satan mode and tried to eat all the staff and vet, they had to try to sedate him three times, each time giving a full dose that should have knocked him out but he kept trying to bite them like a groggy slow-motion horror movie.
Apparently he was SO bad that they elected to use internal dissolvable stitches and skin glue instead of normal stitches, so that he doesn't have to come back anytime soon:)
I'll have to keep a very very close eye on him for the next week.
To make matters worse it seems he's been chewing on sticks so much that they say one of his canines is so worn down at the back that it will likely snap very close to the root in the next few years, and needs to be removed at some point.
He couldn't have been more lovely and gentle trying to lick everyone (vet included) when I was collecting him, so it seems he just takes on an entirely separate identity when I'm not present.

Sorry, I had to laugh at his antics ! Typical DS. Glad he is okay and hope he stays quiet so he doesnt have to go back

cordeliandemon wrote:they had to try to sedate him three times, each time giving a full dose that should have knocked him out but he kept trying to bite them like a groggy slow-motion horror movie.

This happened with my last DS...even after I'd given two doses of Valium prior to the knock-down at the vets. She had to be muzzled, too.

Sedatives can make aggressive dogs more aggressive, too.

I like Michael's idea about scent work...but they put all of themselves into it. I'd say have him on a lead where you can control the speed of his movement...but he's likely to still pull and wouldn't that tug at the stitches?????

What about object identification? (No searching.)

Teaching "push" with his nose, and "touch" with differentiation between left paw and right paw. Then tying it all together with object ID ("push" object X, "touch" object Y).

Teaching how to stack rings on a dowel.

Teaching how to put his stuff away ("bin it").

There's a lot of things, but we don't know what he knows already.

I'd think teaching him new things that don't require aggressive movement would keep him stimulated enough for a few days. I know he's still pretty young (?) but Thor reached an age early enough on where mental stim became more important to him than steady bulldozer activity.

demon is finally back out with koda and the whole healing time was extremely uneventful other than a few couch cushions getting wounded. i managed to get by with a stockpile of bones,chews, kongs and plastic bottles for him to noisily crush.

one surprising thing i discovered over the 11 days, and completely polar to the demon i knew only a year ago, is that he LOVES cuddles much more than i ever thought possible for him. he just cant get enough of being petted, hugged, squeezed and having his face/ears squooshed. and will (literally) jump at the opportunity to sleep on your lap like a big cat, whether or not you already have a laptop on said lap.

thought id share this now that i can look back and enjoy the chaos. he slept like this every single night on his back, me on one couch and him on the other.
if i lazed about too long demons means of getting me to take him outside were to crawl onto MY couch and try to curl up and nap on my face/torso, highly effective at getting me to fall off the couch in an asphyxiating panic.

Glad he is better. Sadie always sleeps on her back too on the couch with legs all over the place