Re: after spaying activity. . .

<< I may have been "lucky" with "Lucky" during her post-spay period.


No maybes about it, you WERE lucky because you didn't follow ANY of
the commonsense precautions.

<< For the next couple of days, I was fairly careful >>

You say you were careful, and yet you allowed her free roam of the
house, allowed her to jump up and down on the bed, allowed her to play
offlead with Muttley, fed two strange dogs together, and so on. Nope,
absolutely NOTHING careful about how you handled Lucky.

<< My trainer suggested that cutting back or eliminating the pain
medication might help keep her less active, so she would feel any pain
and automatically restrict her movements. >>

Some people do recommend this. I don't buy into it. Dogs and cats
don't have the same reasoning skills that we do and they don't relate
pain to activity like we do. By the time they feel pain, the damage
may have already been done, particularly in dogs with very high
physical pain thresholds or that are very high drive. (A dog with a
high prey drive will take off after the bunny or squirrel before the
pain registers). The bottom line is that if the dog has been given
proper restrictions, there is no need to depend on them to restrict
themselves.

And there IS a good deal of evidence that lowered pain will help to
expedite heeling.

<< my friend has used Benedryl to calm dogs down >>

Again, there are better ways to handle this. Teaching static
obedience exercises like stays or low activity skills like scent
discrimination or targeting are good ways to tire the dog out
mentally, which is usually what is needed far more than physical
activity. No, it's no fun for dog or human to have the dog crated and
under leash restrictions, but being the responsible party isn't always
fun.

Hope

.

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