Training with One Hand Tied Behind My Back

Have you ever done something and you are so shocked by the results that you earnestly wish you could turn back time? That’s exactly how I felt when I put my hand through a glass window after trying to kill 2 flies. The glass on the door was thin and couldn’t withstand my HULK SMASH impulse. The nurse taking my vitals aptly nicknamed me Superfly. As I waited for my hand to be prepped for sutures, I thought, “Well at least it’s my leash hand and not my treat dispensing hand.”

How does one train dogs while recovering from an injury? (Asking for a friend.) Here are some tools that may provide some assistance.

Hands-Free Leashes

6 Way European Multifunctional Leash — Good for looping over the shoulder and across the torso

Waist Leash — Often used for jogging with dogs

Your Voice — An invisible leash that can keep your dog with you

Reward Delivery

Half Apron — Inexpensive with easy access to treats

Mouth-shot food — Bite off small pieces of string cheese or hotdogs and blow them out of your mouth to launch them to your dog

Pet Tutor — Versatile programmable remote feeder

Cueing — Reward behavior by cueing your dog to do a behavior she loves to do

As you recover from injury, you may need to forgo training new behaviors requiring precision. However, you can still have fun with your dog and hopefully the ideas listed above will make training easier. Don’t forget to ask friends, family, professional dog trainers and walkers for help! Let us know which training items and methods helped you during recovery in the comments section.

Gratitude Journal

I’d like to thank my wonderful friends and neighbors for rushing over and helping me call the health insurance nurse. They kept me calm while I answered pressing questions such as “Is the blood gushing or just flowing?” Turns out describing multiple blood soaked paper towels will get you greenlit for the ER!

Thank you to my husband for cooking dinner and keeping me well fed on his specialty — bean burritos. He’s also the best editor of my blog posts!

Thank you to Behavior United LLC Co-Founder Amy LaFerrera for all of your help this and all weeks!

Thank you to my robot vacuum, without you my home would have so much more dog and cat hair. Without you, I wouldn’t have time to write this blog post with mangled fingers. Now if only there were a hovercraft duster.

Thank you to my constant furry companions Slinky the cat and Aero the dog. (Pictures of both below.) Slinky continues to silently judge me, injury or no injury. Aero licked my covered wounds so I’m pretty sure I’m going to heal quickly now. Either that, or become whatever the dog version of Spiderman is.

Aero and my wrapped finger

Slinky the Cat

A huge thank you to our readers, clients, social media followers, and cheerleaders! Want to get in touch?