How to keep a dog busy during rest without food?

[SAujla]

How would you keep a dog happy and busy when the dog needs to rest, but without being dependent on food. I was thinking about my pup in the future and if/when she gets spayed. I know there are things like kongs lickmats etc but it feels like it would lead to her putting too much weight on. She has chew toys but I wondered if there are other things that I could do. Most of the time post surgery I'm sure she'll just want to sleep but any ideas are welcome.

 

[Scotsbadboy]

Personally I wouldnt worry too much. Recovery times are pretty quick nowadays so crate her and let her sleep most of it. I would still use food but i would take the 'dinner' portion, or at least some of it, and put it in the kong.

Our cats and dog get nothing for free. They think they are getting a little 'treat mid day' but the weight of whatever it is (usually a raw chicken wing) comes off their evening meal, lol!

 

[Annette4]

Mine have lots of food based enrichment but it all comes out of their measured food allowance so no weight gain (except Dobby who does get extra as he never puts on a gram and needs high value rewards at times ?‍)

As others have said its a quick recovery, especially key hole, and all of my girls have been quiet while healing anyway so didn't need convincing to keep quiet except the last few days.

 

[FinnishLapphund]

As Scotsbadboy says, recovery times are often not that long theses days. And most dogs (and cats) is often okay with a few days calmer life, without starting to show signs of boredom.

If you want to use something to distract from boredom, I have to admit that the simple trick of using food, gnaw bones, filled + frozen Kongs etc, has worked so well for me, that I've not really thought much about other options.

Used sensibly, I don't see much problem. But if you e.g. is worried about weight gain during a less active recovery, I recently read that you could try substituting some of their food with what I think you call French beans/Green beans (in Sweden we use the French name Haricot vert). If served frozen they might take a few seconds longer to gulp down.

Although there's some dogs who gnaws like they're some type of industrial machines, in general, a gnaw bone might give anything from a few minutes, to half an hour, or more of distraction.
My old bitches now gets fed 4 times per day, and currently I try to serve 1 or 2 of those meals by spreading that ration out over a floor, hidden in/under blankets, or occasionally it happens that I use it in a brain training toy from Nina Ottosson.

One big benefit with the above, is that if they shouldn't move around too much, then lying down gnawing on a gnaw bone is good. All dogs I've tried the spreading out a meal of dry food over a floor with, quickly realised that rushing around to fast could lead to missing some bits of food, and that they need to use their noses, so I view that too as an relatively calm way of non exercise sort of exercise.

 

[SAujla]

Thanks for the replies. I think I'll just use her entire allowance in games kongs etc and she should rest up most of the time. It's over a year away if it'll be happening at all I don't know why I'm planning it already. I'm always thinking or worried about something, poor pup!

 

[Umbongo]

I would not worry too much for a spay. But good to be thinking about it if anything happened and she needed to be crate rested or under room/house rest for a while such as an orthopaedic surgery. Mental stimulation is great, there is a book called "no walks no worries" which you could look in to?

You can take some of her treat allowance out of her dinner allowance, use vegetables as treats or to bulk out her dinner etc

 

[SAujla]

I would not worry too much for a spay. But good to be thinking about it if anything happened and she needed to be crate rested or under room/house rest for a while such as an orthopaedic surgery. Mental stimulation is great, there is a book called "no walks no worries" which you could look in to?

You can take some of her treat allowance out of her dinner allowance, use vegetables as treats or to bulk out her dinner etc

I'll have a look at that book now it sounds like exactly what I'm looking for. She does love fruit and vegetables luckily, carrots and honeydew lemon are her favourite. I have a brilliant video of her eating a melon but unfortunately can't upload here