Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
Tripawds is your home to learn how to care for a three legged dog or cat, with answers about dog leg amputation, and cat amputation recovery from many years of member experiences.
Join The Tripawds Community
Learn how to help three legged dogs and cats in the forums below. Browse and search as a guest or register for free and get full member benefits:
Instant post approval.
Private messages to members.
Subscribe to favorite topics.
Live Chat and much more!
Register
Log In
Members
Add Topic
Offline
Dante is slowly becoming a well behaved member of doggy society. He's finally (FINALLY!) starting to clue into things we have worked so hard on teaching him this past year.
However, along with being a good boy, he's also become a very confident boy. TOO confident! He's been hurting himself a lot outside, nothing major yet, but lots of scrapes and bumps, and missing patches of hair, blood and scabs. He FLIES off the deck, and often one leg doesn't quite make it, and it'll catch/scrape on the edge of the deck. He tries to skip the stairs and just jump up, the other day he face planted twice trying to do this, took a chunk out of his leg and skinned his poor face. These injuries don't seem to phase him and he continues on as if nothing happens, and two minutes later he's attempting the same stunt again.
It scares me! How do you calm an over-confident tripawd? Every time I rig something to be safer, he just finds a way to hurt himself on something else. He needs to play and exercise in the yard - we rebuilt the deck last summer with him in mind, but he still finds ways to prove to us that we probably should've padded it with rubber. Out of our three dogs, he is the one with the most energy, and the most active - he's always 'on'. Mina is finally learning to just lay down and relax, but he's still always up and about, looking for something to do, even after a full day of play or exercise. It's still incredibly hard to truly tire him out, even with a combination of physical and mental stimulation, he still can't seem to sit still for more than 5 minutes at a time.
Is this just par for the course with a young tripawd? He is only just over a year and a bit, still very much an active puppy. Any tips to keep him a bit safer?
I think I am the neighborhood looney tune, chasing down my three legged dog in the back yard, hollering at him to stop what he's doing, all day long!
Sorry to disappoint you, but it sounds like you're in for at least another six months to a year of heart failure every time Dante gets rowdy. If he's just past a year old, he's still a puppy. What's worse, he's sort of a doggie teenager, an age when pretty much everyone (dog and human alike) should be locked into a crate and fed through a slot until they're socially acceptable again. Speaking as the perpetually tired owner of the infamous Bernie, I can tell you your best bet is to figure out what toys and activities obsess him the most, and try to channel that in safe ways. I've discovered that it you lob one of those oversized Jolly Balls or a basketball at Bernie, he'll chase it all over the yard until he wears himself out. Keeps him from digging up the yard or gnawing on his sister Linda… usually.
And remember – between you and Dante, you're the only one who realizes he's a tripawd. Our Max specialized in giving us heart failure after his surgery, making insane leaps and generally endangering his three remaining legs in horrible ways. Just safety check his surroundings as best you can, and hold on for the ride. You'll have some serious gray hair by the end, but he and you will (probably) both survive.
He's a pitbull x lab. I'm in for atleast 3 more years of this! 
His energy is just insane, and he has the attention span of gnat! We just boarded the dogs for two days while we went away. The pups were together in a kennel and they were outside pretty much all weekend playing away. The place we board at is wonderful and it's in the country, so they take them for walks in the country each day, as well. Mina, Dante's sister, just started to come out of her "I played all weekend" coma of wanting to sleep all day and night, this morning. Dante slept for 20 minutes in the car on the ride home from the weekend and has been his usual self ever since we walked back in the door!
He is exhausting! We still have not found what makes him tick in terms of activities/toys. The only thing he really, really seems to love is going for rides. Other than that, he's got no real 'obsession'. Balls don't do it, sticks don't do it, frisbees don't do it, he hates kongs, he rips the limbs off stuffed toys and walks away - he doesn't like to play tug for more than two minutes, then it's boring. He has patience for training for about, oh, 2 minutes. Brain teaser toys, he is above. The jolly ball is something to lay beside and chew on the handle.
Actually, he does have an obsession, and it's pestering the girls until they start romping with him in a rowdy game of wrestling which causes the poor pregnant lady next door to exclaim 'OH MY GOD! Those dogs are going to hurt eachother!" every time it happens. That is what he lives for, to make the girls (and myself and S/O) crazy. He just wants to play with them all day, but that is when he gets hurt. He spends his time hopping between the girls, bopping one with his nose, biting the other's neck, chewing their feet, barking in their faces and running ridiculous laps around them, until one gives in and plays.
I know he doesn't know he is a tripawd, but you would think after all the scrapes, blood, bumps, missing hair and yelping like a big old baby, he would learn to be more careful! It doesn't seem to be sinking in, though.
I may just need to start self medicating 
The one thing that is helping is the command "Drop!" where we can sometimes get him to stop and drop to the ground in mid stride.
He doesn't always comply, but he's getting it ... ever so slowly.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
We use 'stop' sort of in the same manner. The girls get it. It means pretty much exactly as it says - stop what you're doing! Dante...Dante just doesn't get it yet. It took nearly a year for him to learn 'lay down' though, so I'm holding onto hope that he will learn 'stop' some day, too.
I still question if we aren't dealing with a bit of brain damage with him - he all of a sudden becomes terrified of things that have been there for a while. I hung a Christmas stocking one day, right in front of him, he investigated while I did it and afterwards - and it scared the living daylights out of him afterwards. We received comet's harness showed it to him, put it on him, and he was fine. We then hung it on a chair and a few days later, he lost his mind over it. He spooked at the dishwasher the other day, just looking at it scared him and he would not come into the kitchen and walk past it. It's been broken since before the pups came home, so it has nothing to do with noise! We hand wash and have for years now.
He's slower than your average pup, so I think we'll be dealing with crazy puppy brain for a long time! It's good to know I'm not the only one facing this challenge though. I know most of our tripawds are older and have come into to their calmer, adult selves - it's definitely a challenge with a young dog. Especially now that he's reached his confident adolescent stage, he's immortal now - atleast in his own eyes!
Oooo, the "drop" command sounds cool. It'll probably take Dante's most favorite thing to learn it - hopefully that most favorite thing isn't playing with the girls! Good luck!! My house feels your pain. Gerry's roommate, Biggie (four-legger), started limping last night. Cross your paws with us that it's nothing more than a sprain like the vet thinks. But anyway, his spirits are not at all dampened by his owie, which of course makes it that much harder to get him to stop playing and heal. Preachin' to the choir though, haha.
Gerry has been a tripawd since 12/16/2009.
He was a shelter dog with a mysterious past and an irrepairable knee injury.
Videos and pics of Gerry's pawesomeness can be found at: http://gerry.tripawds.com
Yikes! Paws crossed for Biggie!! Definitely hoping it's only a minor injury.
One day, we thought Dante had seriously hurt himself. It was all I could do to wait it out to see if he'd improve within a few hours or not. The goof went from crying, limping, screaming in pain not wanting to move, to doing zoomie laps, within two hours. Seriously? A major ouch like that, and an hour later it's like it never happened? Sheesh!
Dante's most favorite thing is....Dante. haha. He's almost impossible to train. He is food motivated, very much so, for 30 seconds. Then he loses interest in paying attention. Even our kindergarten trainer was a little stumped by his lack of focus and motivation. Toys, nope. Attention, only when he's calm. He's got bigger fish to fry most times.
This has been Dante from day one. Always. I can almost guarantee he ran his way out of mom dog when she gave birth. We use the same vet who did his amputation for the shelter. We talk to the girls at the desk all the time. One of the girls took him home the night of his amputation to spend more one on one time with him and give him some quality TLC. She left him at the clinic the next night. Apparently instead of being groggy, sleepy and in pain, like she'd expected, he spent his night stealing her shoes, trying to jump on her couch, running into walls and corners and she got no sleep because he was up playing all night! Crazy little boy we have, but we sure love him!
What an adorable little terror 
How blessed and cursed you are, hahaha. Ohhhh, bless you guys. Best of luck.
Gerry has been a tripawd since 12/16/2009.
He was a shelter dog with a mysterious past and an irrepairable knee injury.
Videos and pics of Gerry's pawesomeness can be found at: http://gerry.tripawds.com
Spirit Tri-Pug Maggie's little sister Tani sounds like the pug version of Dante. She is a hydrocephalus dog (water on the brain) so she is literally missing brain cells. She is nearly 11 now, and has a puppy brain in a senior body. She has slowed down, but actually now is speeding up again as we have her on rimadyl and K9 Immunity .
Tani has doggie ADD- sometimes you have to touch her to get her attention when she is playing with her toy. When she was younger she would jump off things, or out of your arms since she doesn't like being held. Once she jumped off a full sized picnic table onto concrete. She is about 12" at the shoulder so that is quite a fall. She limped for a day or two. She jumped out of the truck a few times before I remembered to block her path every time. Once when she was playing tug-o-war with Maggie she stopped and sat down. She moved her jaw around a bit, then spit out a broken tooth and some blood. Then she picked up the toy again!! Turns out she had broken one tooth out, and broken another that was still attached- but she didn't care. Then there was the time she tore the skin around one of her nails. Every time she 'dug' on her toy it would start bleeding again. She would dig a few times, hold her paw up in the air for a second, then go back to digging on the toy. When she was spayed I kept her on pain meds for an extra day or two thinking it would slow her down- didn't work.
The end result is that she has pretty bad arthritis in her back (that's why the rimadyl). We also discovered that she is missing one lumbar vertebrae... so maybe she was destined for arthritis.
Now that I wrote all this I'm not sure what my point is.... other than short of locking Dante up you probably have to let him be himself. Other than keeping Tani from jumping from heights I don't think I would change how she has grown up and now grown old. There is always a bit more concern with a tripawd since you don't have a spare to limp on- but you don't want him to be miserable either. I like the idea of the stop or drop command. With Maggie I used 'stay'. She would stop and sit when I gave that command... well when she wanted, she was an obstinate pug!
One other thing- how is Dante's vision? Having pugs I have dealt with eye issues in all of them. Maggie used to bark and things she hadn't seen before- usually inanimate objects. Obie has pretty bad vision for a 5 year old- he barks and growls at movement that is 10 yards or so away from us- I don't think he can identify what it is. He also walks along the edges of things- pathways, sidewalks, even the back deck.
I used to go to pug events with the girls, when they were 9 and 10 years old, and people would ask me how I kept them so calm. I asked them how old their pug was... they would say 2 or 3. I would tell them- you just need to wait for 5 or 6 years!!!
Good luck with Dante.
Karen and the pugapalooza
Oh Gosh! Poor Dante! And Poor Biggie. I hope it's nothing!
How do you train the "stop" command?
I'm having a tough time over here with Cosmo playing so rough. He's 30lbs now and built like a bulldog under his fur! All he wants to do is wrestle Rocket but he gets too rough and it has made Rocket mad. Now, I'm on edge when they play. I can usually say "treat" to get him to stop but I'm constantly giving treats.
uh, oh - he has the remote control right now - gotta go!
bwhahahahahaaaaaa! Rocketbunny your mom is using your account again!!!
Sooper Cooper
Coopsdad/ Kenneth Blackburn
http://cooper.t.....ipawds.com
the monkeydogs only THINK they have invaded the tripawd state
Karen -
Dante and Tani certainly do sound a lot alike! He will fling himself out of the truck when we get to our destination and if someone isn't there to catch him mid-air, he will just fall on his face. It's a two person ordeal to get him out of the truck safely - one person inside to restrain him, and the other outside, in a position akin to catching a speeding football, and then his release needs to be timed just right. He's incredibly fast! He also seems to have doggy ADD, but for him it's more like doggy ADHD. He'll hop from toy to toy, lay down, get up, hop into another room, lay down, get up. And if he's really into what he's doing, it's impossible to get his attention without touching him. When we're all lounging around at night, S/O and I watching movies, the girls are usually on their chair or laying beside the couch on the floor. Dante can be found hopping around the room, throwing his body on top of our heads, pestering the girls until they get mad or comply, hopping to lay down, then getting up, laying down, getting up, in our face, laying down. He just never stops!
Dante's vision doesn't seem to be a problem - I've never noticed anything to indicate that he doesn't see well. He can catch treats mid air, find things that fall on the floor from across the room, find toys when we toss them in the yard, etc. But, I will keep an eye on him and see if there seems to be anything, I hadn't really thought of that before!
I just keep reminding myself that one day there will be a light at the end of the tunnel - our Beagle had an overabundance of energy that we could never seem to drain (which came out with her as a major mission to destroy anything I have ever valued or spent money on!) - and one day the switch flipped and she's been amazing ever since. Some day Dante's switch will flip too, and he won't have me on edge 24/7!
Comet -
We teach stop simply by interrupting play with a stomp or loud clap and saying 'stop'. To start you kind of need to get in the middle of the play and be right there - the clap or stomp will distract them long enough to get 'stop' out and praise them for stopping. Usually they will just separate when we say stop now. Except Dante, he will keep pestering the girls until they agree to start up again. Stop in our house typically means Coda goes and lays down somewhere else, Mina will come sit right in front of me, on my feet and Dante will charge her, and a game of cat and mouse ensues around the coffee table (if we're inside) until Dante catches her and it's back on after that. You can almost see the thoughts in Mina's head "Mom said stop. Mom said stop! Mom said STOP!!! Oh, screw it, it's on!!"
One thing I've learned though, is that dogs are much better at telling other dogs when enough is enough than we are. I used to get worried whenever things would get rough and someone would snark - but it almost instantly seems to calm them both down. And for us it's never escalated with any of our dogs beyond a snark. Coda is also the fun police in the house, if the pups get going too rough for her liking she will stick her head into the ball of puppy that is tumbling around and give a big, deafening "Arooroo!" in their ears, and they quit on the spot.
Good luck with Rowdy Cosmo! I'm so glad we're slowly getting out of that phase. As wonderful as puppies are, they are a ton of work!
bwhahahahahaaaaaa! Rocketbunny your mom is using your account again!!!
Sooper Cooper
HEY SOOPER POOPER,
I'm using mommy's account! Did it blow your mind???????????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Muuuuuuwahahhahahahhahahahhahahhahaha!
Comet - 1999 to 2011
She departed us unexpectedly January 23, 2011 at the age of 12 1/2.
She was born with a deformed front leg and a tripawd all of her life.
bwhahahahahaaaaaa! Rocketbunny your mom is using your account again!!!
Sooper Cooper
HEY SOOPER POOPER,
I'm using mommy's account! Did it blow your mind???????????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Muuuuuuwahahhahahahhahahahhahahhahaha!
Monkeybutt
Comet - 1999 to 2011
She departed us unexpectedly January 23, 2011 at the age of 12 1/2.
She was born with a deformed front leg and a tripawd all of her life.
1 Guest(s)
