Earlier today I was walking to my car and wasn't paying attention and I stepped on a pinecone rolled my foot and heard something pop. So a 3 hour long trip to the orthopedic later and I officially broke a bone in my foot today and I have to wear the boot of shame. I have to stay off it as much much as possible and I will not be able to take her to the park for atleast 2 weeks, my bf will hopefully be taking her some but does any one have some ideas on ways to wear out a 7 month old husky that doesn't involve me walking around?

Das boot!!!!

That sucks, do you remember which bone you broke? I will say, from personal experience, that you really do need to stay off of that and make sure it heals. I've had a bunch of problems because I didn't when I was in college after I broke my 5th metatarsal and cuboid.

As far as wearing out Nova, try lots of mental stimulation and maybe some tug of war type toys. That way you can stay off your foot and she still gets what she needs.

Too bad loki was not there he loves picking them up. Hope you feel better.

Loki likes playing fetch inside (more inside then out). Then there is da bird . . . A cat toy he loves and it can be pretty contained in decent area but small. Finally, not sure if you can do it but we made flirt pole. I think with some practice you may be able to do it sitting outside. It wears him out and I have used it some at night when it is still hot. Then he can run through his kiddy pool when he is hot or need some water. The flirt pole is nice as you can work with dog on a lot of obedience commands too so seems to wear him out mentally. I do it standing though.

blueeyedghost wrote:

Das boot!!!!

That sucks, do you remember which bone you broke?  I will say, from personal experience, that you really do need to stay off of that and make sure it heals.  I've had a bunch of problems because I didn't when I was in college after I broke my 5th metatarsal and cuboid.

As far as wearing out Nova, try lots of mental stimulation and maybe some tug of war type toys.  That way you can stay off your foot and she still gets what she needs.

its the 5th metatarsal, maybe we will work on some new tricks, almost all of the tricks we've been working on she gotten pretty good with so I guess its time to change it up anyway, she loves tug of war, and she likes to play fetch with one of her stuffed animals so I guess we will have to up the amount of time we spend playing those.

techigirl78 wrote:

Too bad loki was not there he loves picking them up.  Hope you feel better.

Loki likes playing fetch inside (more inside then out).  Then there is da bird . . . A cat toy he loves and it can be pretty contained in decent area but small.  Finally, not sure if you can do it but we made flirt pole.  I think with some practice you may be able to do it sitting outside.  It wears him out and I have used it some at night when it is still hot.  Then he can run through his kiddy pool when he is hot or need some water.  The flirt pole is nice as you can work with dog on a lot of obedience commands too so seems to wear him out mentally.  I do it standing though.

I've never thought about using a cat toy, I'll have to go look at them tomorrow. We are in an apartment so no where to let her off leash to run, but my mom's house is 2 minutes up the road (she has a fenced in backyard and 2 pups that Nova just loves) so we will have to spend more time over there. Okay heres a question, what is a flirt pole?

I second the flirt pole. It's basically a long sturdy stick with some toy tied to it on a string. Like a giant cat toy for dogs. You could sit comfy in your chair and just tease him with the toy, make it run along the ground like a squirrel and he will go nuts trying to catch it (although my dog eventually gets tired of not being able to catch the toy and tries to grab the string or the pole, smart doggie).

Good luck with the healing - I broke my cuboid in my left foot a couple of years ago and it was not fun. I jumped around and tried to walk on it sooner than I was ready, and to this day it still aches randomly. It's good that you are making a better choice than I did

I agree with everyone else, let that foot heal!! Sorry about the whole pinecone thing, the wife and I have a similar problem with a KONG toy, step on one of those and they can roll in any of a thousand different directions.
As far as exercise, maybe you could invent wheelchairjor?? it could catch on.

We made one with about 7' piece of PVC pipe, then attached 7-8' string to the pipe, and at end of string, we can put any of his favorite toys. You do have to kind of do this outside, but at times I have trouble getting Loki to play in backyard and this helps get him going. He will run fast to get it and it seems to click with him more then fetch/frisbee in backyard. There are a bunch of you tube videos on it.

Okay similar to the flirt pole but works wonders in the house if your dog will chase it. A laser pointer or laser light ...I have one for the cat and tehy are relatively cheap if you buy the cat toy rather than the office tool. Bourbon loves to chase and try an catch it. As a pup this was my lazy way of sitting in a chair and excerising him. My arm would actually tire out. However word of caution my aussie husky ignores it 99% of the time and the 1% she just sniffs at it and lays down. My Aussie is scared of it or does not see it. See if you have a red beam from something else before you buy it. But this would work great indoors for the chase that the husky can never catch.
Keep it out of eyes!

HuskyLear wrote:

Okay similar to the flirt pole but works wonders in the house if your dog will chase it. A laser pointer or laser light ...I have one for the cat and tehy are relatively cheap if you buy the cat toy rather than the office tool. Bourbon loves to chase and try an catch it. As a pup this was my lazy way of sitting in a chair and excerising him. My arm would actually tire out. However word of caution my aussie husky ignores it 99% of the time and the 1% she just sniffs at it and lays down. My Aussie is scared of it or does not see it.  See if you have a red beam from something else before you buy it. But this would work great indoors for the chase that the husky can never catch.  
Keep it out of eyes!

I second this. DEFINITELY keep it out of his/her eyes. It will damage the optic nerve and possibly make them go permanently blind.

Juneau LOVES the laser pointer lol. I've got an open foyer (two stories with a staircase) and I just stand on the second floor and make her run up and down the stairs LOL. She goes bonkers for it!

Also, when choosing string for the flirt pole, I would use a stretchy cord so that the pole doesn't get yanked out of your hand if he catches the toy. Safer for him and you

I wish Caper liked his laser pointer. I bought one and he didn't even give it a chance. I ended up giving it to our office cat who gives it due appreciation by chasing it straight into a wall.

Hughie wrote:

As far as exercise, maybe you could invent wheelchairjor?? it could catch on.

 

Oh, here's another game Caper and I made up:

Get a bed sheet and throw it over him, then get squeaky toys and tease his face with it. Basically pretend there's some critter on the other side of the sheet that he can't see but can smell and hear. He lies down and goes nuts trying to "catch" the toy from underneath the blanket with his paws and mouth. Make it squeak by his ear and brush his face and run across his legs. Caper loves this game - he literally dives into blankets and sheets now if I hold one up. It's really cute to watch and doesn't require using your legs

Loki and my lab love laser pointer, but I only used here and there as I guess it can cause issues. Basically after using it watch to see how long they look for it. If they keeping searching it could be problem. Loki does so I use for just short time and finish on a treat.

I'm trying to stay off it, I have an interview today at a doggie daycare place here so we will see how it goes lol basically anything that I can trip over or run into I will. Thanks for all the ideas! They all seem great and I will definitely have to try them! I don't know why the laser pointer never even crossed my mind, my mom has one and I've spent I don't even know how much time playing with it. I'll let y'all know how the games work out.