1.  Your dog will be FINE – awesome.

2.  Read the book on the site, its awesome and very helpful.

3.  My 8 year old Lab Ajax had his right hind leg amputated this summer; I tried to chronicle his recovery.  If you search "Ajax" you can read my posts.  I was skeptical, but you will see from my posts/videos how great his doing.

4.  We've been doing well with kids in the neighborhood (in NYC, so we see lots of folks every time we go out) just saying that his leg was sick, and it was making him sick, and without it he is much healthier and happier.  Don't know how old your kids are, but some kids have asked us when the leg will come back, which is a little harder.  Only one friend's child was troubled, and that is b/c she has a dog herself and has known both her own dog and my dog since she was born.  Once she could see him running around, she was very happy.  You might want to find the best videos you can on this site and show them to your boys – not the early ones showing wounds an and early recovery, but the ones of 3 legged dogs running and playing and swimming.  I just posted one of Ajax in the snow; I know there are other swimming and running ones.  Depending on the age of your kids, you might want to screen them first.

5.  Your kids can help with the recovery.  Tell them your dog will be as good as new soon, but he has to get used to three legs and get really strong and feel really secure.  They can help by making sure he doesn't move around too much while the stitches are in, and gradually by doing things with him as he gets better.

6.  I'm going to add a tip to the book that I didn't figure out in time – you will see that the book says you need to make sure there are not so many slipppery surfaces in the house, especially early on.  I have found that while Ajax can walk on the ice outside (!)  he hesitates to go to the uncarpeted spots in the house – we added a bunch of carpet and he really likes it.  The tip is:  add a sisal rug – he can't scratch one side how and he LOVES rolling around on the scratchy run. And they are cheap …

I think you will find that once the recovery period is over you will hardly be able to tell your dog is missing a leg.  A rear leg amputee, doesn't even really have much of a hop like the front leg amputees seem to have.  Also because you usually see a dog from the front not the rear it often is not even noticeable to people that aren't aware of i!

Was the amputation from an accident or cancer?  I teach a prekindergarten class and shared with them that my dog Emily had a "real bad sick" and had to have her leg cut off to make her feel better because her "sick" hurt so much.  Depending on the age of your boys that may or not work. 

I felt is was a good lesson on acceptance of disabilities.  When one of the toy elephants in our class had a leg break off they decided to keep the toy and not throw it away because it was an Emily Elephant.  Small lessons in a non-threatening way may go a long way in the future.

Sadly, they also were given a lesson on loss.  They learned it is okay to grieve and that you don't just "get a new one".  They were also able to  have what was probably their first experience with death in a less scary way than they may have had.  They saw me cry and laugh and share memories of Emily.

To make a long story even longer, your boys will take their clues from you on how to react to the amputation.  They will be okay and will learn a valuable lesson on acceptance of handicaps.

Debra

Oh my gosh! If he is anything like Wyatt Ray Dawg you will think nothing happened. l met WRD two days after his amputation and he was wrestling and playing with another dog like nothing had changed in his life. Some dogs do slow down, but young dogs that lose rear legs usually adjust well to their new situation. See the blogs of Travis Ray and Codie Rae for more on rear leg German Shepherd Tripawds.

Ralph