Thank you so much for the info, yes we do, do a variation of “Touch”, he says “Thank you” that way. When you give him a cookie (he gets two every morning when I get my morning cup of coffee) the first one he sits for or catches it in his mouth. Lately we have just been doing the sit command. After the first cookie I get on his level this is usually when he gives me a morning hug. Afterward he puts his paw up like a shake and kinda hi-fives you, this is his way of saying thank you. He will also do it after a good tummy or ear scratch, when you are done tossing balls, frisbies, etc. or when the puppy is irritating him and I put her away lol. He is very polite. We have also started playing hide and seek. So in the house he is staying entertained, but outside is a different story. We have to leash him to go out for a potty break, and although he will pee on any tree, tire or post in front of you, #2 is always done in private, infact I don’t think I have EVER actually seen him do it. I do know about when he needs to go so I have been unleashing him but staying where I can see where he goes off too. He is starting to learn the command “slow down” and is doing well with it. We only have nine days till we go back to the vet and see how he is comming along, but living on 22 acres of woods, crawling with critters is complete torture for him. I ordered a puppy training toy that rolls a ball, then if he brings it back and puts it in the correct place the machine will dispence a treat, we’ll see how that goes. Thank you for responding, i really appreciate it. I’ll post later what ends up working for me for anyone else that may have to go through this. Keep your fingers crossed for a good visit!

Rachel

As far as keeping him busy, some things you haven’t mentioned include:
Teach him some tricks that don’t require movement of his legs- for instance “Touch” (which I just learned this summer.) Just have bits of his favorite treats (whatever he loves best) and let him see you have it in one hand, but hold out the hand without the treat (close to his nose) and when he touches your hand, immediately say “Touch” and give him the treat from the other hand. Keep doing this until he touches the hand automatically when you say “Touch”. You will be able to tell when it clicks and he understand. Then it’s time to switch hands, and when he has that mastered, you can set objects near him to “touch”. This will work his brain- any small tricks will.

You can also train him “Watch” which is similar, but the trick is getting him to look you in the eye then giving him the treat.

You may already have taught him these things. If so, you may want to go to your local library and get a book on different tricks. These are only the two simple ones I can think of right now.

With my old guy, Dulse (the guy who this post was about), I let him “fetch” things that were very close to him, so he didn’t have to get up. The I just made him “give” and drop it in my hand.

I hope these help and/or trigger something that will help Duke get through his “down time”.

Meanwhile, thoughts and prayers are with you and Duke, and I’m sure he is enjoying the extra attention he is geting.

Barb