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Puzzle toys are one great option for mental stimulation for puppies or adult dogs. For a dog on limited exercise while recuperating from surgery, puzzle toys can be a great way to help a dog burn some energy when they cannot be doing the normal puppy running, jumping and playing.
In this case, Zooka is 15 weeks old and is actually on limited exercise restrictions. His vet said no running, jumping or playing for TWO weeks while he recuperates from surgery. He managed to eat a rather large rock that got stuck in his intestines and needed to be surgically removed.
So for now, this energetic puppy is very limited in what he can do. Puzzle toys are just one of the things we used to help him burn puppy energy. Along with lots of training sessions scattered through the day.
While we know he should be resting, HE thinks he's totally fine! If you've ever had to restrict a high energy puppy, you know what we are talking about.
Puzzle toys require some brain power to figure out. How much depends on how difficult the puzzle is and how smart your puppy is. Some can take on the most challenging puzzles, some need to start simpler. In another post, we talk in more detail about how to choose the right puzzle toys.
In this case, you might notice Zooka is wearing a Thundershirt while he works on this puzzle toy. This is to help keep the stitches in place on his belly where his surgical incision is. He was very good at keeping on his shirt and not messing with his staples.
The puzzle toys help to not only burn some of that energy but also to help keep his brain thinking about other things and NOT thinking about pulling out his staples.
Some puppies do need to wear a cone over their head to keep them from messing with their incision. In Zooka's case, he only had to wear the cone at night for sleeping when we were not able to closely supervise.
Fortunately for him and us, we were able to keep him occupied well enough and supervise him closely enough during the day, that he never had to wear the cone for the two weeks.
Zooka did quite a good job during his recovery. We have puzzle toys, in part, to thank for that!
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