TPLO DIY

First let's clarify, I'm not advocating you perform your own TPLO surgery at home. But for anyone who has ever needed to rehab a dog at home you know it can get expensive for you and boring for the dog, so I'm sharing a few tricks that have been proven life-savers for us.

First is the grocery bag sling:

It's something lots of experienced folks told me to do. Just take a cloth grocery bag, cut open the sides, hem it up and, voila, insta-sling for you and free advertising for your favorite establishment (disclaimer, Whole Foods is not our favorite establishment). Even if you have a plethora of slings around already, it's a good idea to have at least one more in the case of pee-on-the-sling.

Next is the tie-down. Take an eye hook, screw it in your wall. Take a sturdy clothesline material, preferably plastic coated metal wire, attach it to a snap hook, and clip to the eye bolt.

Measure out enough room so the dog can get up and turn around, but not so much they can get any momentum should they choose to break into a run, attach a snap hook to the other end, and clip to dog.

If your dog is at all crafty and has figured out how to tip over an x-pen (not that we know any dogs that fit that description), then the tie down can be your best friend. It also allows you to put eye hooks and beds in multiple rooms, thus creating multiple "rehab stations" so your dog can safely be with you wherever you are. In fact, if you're going to run a multiple dog home or ever consider having overnight doggie guests, a foster, or plan on adding a new canine to your pack, a tie down system can be your best friend. If you don't have some eye hooks already scattered around your home, I highly recommend doing so now.

Lastly, we bring you the "habi-trail":

It gets boring for the dog to be in the same space day in and day out, so change it up! Think hamster cage. Here we see how a crate has been turned in to a cave. Some days we'll make the x-pen larger or smaller depending on what's going on. Hey, if it works for rodents. . .