Your recovery
Caring for a dog while you recover from surgery
This guide is about your surgery, not the dog's. A new knee, a hip, a cesarean or a hernia repair can leave you unable to lift, bend, drive or brace against a pulling leash for weeks, and the dog still needs its walks. Here is how to plan its care around your surgeon's limits.
What changes
Your surgeon's limits become the dog's limits, and a fall is the risk to plan around
After most operations the discharge sheet says what you must not do: lift more than a set weight, bend, drive, climb stairs often or brace against a sudden pull. Those limits come from your surgeon, and only your surgeon changes them. A dog does not read the sheet. It still jumps up at the door, lunges toward a squirrel and lies across the hallway at night, exactly where a tired, medicated person walks.
That last risk is well documented. A CDC analysis of emergency department visits from 2001 to 2006 estimated 86,629 fall injuries a year associated with cats and dogs, almost 88 percent of them involving dogs. Among the dog-related falls, 31.3 percent came from falling or tripping over the dog, 26 percent happened while walking it and 21.2 percent from being pushed or pulled. Fractures were the most common injury. Planning the dog's care is part of protecting the repair.
- No lifting the dog, its crate or a heavy food bag
- No leash walks with a dog that pulls
- No driving to daycare until your surgeon allows it
- No bending to feed, clean up or check paws
Before the operation
Before the hospital date, set up the evaluation, the walker and the suite
Everything in this plan needs the free evaluation done first, and it runs on weekday mornings between 6:30 and 9:30 AM, so book it two or three weeks before surgery. One visit covers daycare, walks and overnight stays: a temperament test, then a few supervised hours in a group. Bring Rabies, DHPP and Bordetella records and the town license. A dog evaluated before your operation is a dog someone else can take over on the day you cannot.
Then make the arrangements while you are still mobile. Tell us the days, the walk length and how the walker gets in, and ask whether we cover your address. Reserve a suite for the hospital nights plus one, and ask the front desk how a stay is changed if your discharge date moves; on a Sunday, overnight guests go home between 8 and 10 AM or 4 and 6 PM. Write the dog's routine on a single page, meals, cues and quirks, so whoever holds the leash does it your way.
The first two weeks home
The first two weeks home: someone else on the leash and you on the couch
Plan the first fortnight as if you will do nothing physical with the dog, because on some days you will not be able to. Two solo 30-minute walks a day at $35 each cover a large dog that pulls; a 20-minute walk at $25 covers a small one. A 10-pack of 30-minute walks costs $315 rather than $350 bought singly. If the dog needs play as well as walks, a daycare day with the Pup Van at both ends tires it out without you leaving the house.
Keep the handovers quiet. Ask whoever opens the door for the walker to hold the dog on its leash so it cannot launch at you, and keep the dog off the bed or sofa you are healing on, with a mat beside it instead. A frozen Kong or a lick mat handed over as the walker leaves buys an hour of calm. The photo and note after each walk tell you how the dog is coping while you cannot see for yourself.
- 01
Discharge day: the dog comes home from its suite with a friend or by the Pup Van, after you are settled
- 02
Days 1 to 3: two walks a day by a Dogtown walker; no leash handling by you at all
- 03
Days 1 to 7: someone else feeds the dog and cleans up, so you stay off the floor
- 04
Week 1: a daycare day with the van at both ends if the dog is restless after walks alone
- 05
Week 2: one short session from the couch, a settle on the mat, paid with treats
- 06
End of week 2: check your surgeon's next instructions before you take back any walks
Around the house
Clear the floor and teach a settle before surgery, because tripping over the dog is the classic fall
The CDC's advice from that analysis is plain: be aware of pets and pet items as fall hazards, and reinforce obedience training. In practice that means picking up toys and chews, moving the water bowl out of the walking path and putting a gate across the stairs so the dog cannot race you down them. Put the dog's bed where you can see it from your chair, not in the corridor between the bedroom and the bathroom.
Teach two cues in the weeks before: settle on a mat, and wait at doors. A dog that lies on its mat while you stand up, and waits while you pass through a doorway, removes the two moments when most trips happen. Our trainers teach both in private sessions from $94, and a Dogtown Academy day at $89 includes a session with our trainer if you would rather the practice happen here.
- Toys, chews and bowls off the walking path
- A gate across the stairs
- The dog's bed in sight of your chair
- Settle on a mat and wait at doors, taught before surgery
Which service fits
Walker packs, daycare with the van and an overnight suite cover recovery; a home bath does not
Match the service to what you cannot do. If you cannot hold a leash, book walks, from $25, in packs of ten or thirty; a 30-pack of 30-minute walks is $892, enough for two walks a day for two weeks with a couple to spare. If you cannot drive, book daycare at $42 a full day with the Pup Van. While you are in the hospital, the suite at $78 a night means playgroups by day and round-the-clock monitoring at night.
What does not fit is anything that asks you to bend, lift or restrain. Skip washing the dog in the tub; a bath at Dogtown Grooming starts at $55 by size, needs no evaluation and can be booked into a daycare day so the dog comes home clean. Put classes that need you on the leash on hold until you are cleared. If it is your dog that had the operation, our after-surgery guide covers that different plan.
| What you cannot do | What covers it | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Hold a leash or brace against a pull | Solo walks by Dogtown staff | $25, $35 or $55; ten 30-minute walks $315 |
| Drive | Daycare with the Pup Van at both ends | $42 a day plus $10 each way |
| Be home overnight | An overnight suite | $78 a night |
| Bend over a tub | A bath at Dogtown Grooming, no evaluation | From $55 by size |
| Keep a young dog busy | Enrichment add-ons on a daycare day | Frozen Kong $6, sniff room $7 |
At Dogtown
Hands for the weeks you cannot lift
Solo walks from your door, the Pup Van to and from daycare, and an overnight suite for the hospital nights.
Pick-up & drop-off
The Pup Van comes to you.
Pup Van pick-up and drop-off is available for $10 each way in the Rockport, Gloucester, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea area. Not in the area? Ask us for pricing.
- Rockport
- Gloucester
- Essex
- Manchester-by-the-Sea
Asked and answered
Questions people ask about this
Short, complete answers you can act on today. More in the full FAQ.
Who walks my dog while I recover from surgery?
Can my dog stay at Dogtown while I am in the hospital?
I cannot drive after my operation. How does my dog get to daycare?
How do I stop my dog jumping on me after surgery?
More questions? Read the full FAQ
Sources
Rules and dates change. We re-check every beach, licensing and ordinance page each spring and fall; the source above is the current word.
Keep reading
Next step
Line up the help before the hospital date
Book the free evaluation for a weekday morning between 6:30 and 9:30, and the walks, the van and the suite are ready when you need them.
- 01Free evaluationWeekdays 6:30 – 9:30 AM
- 02Book a dayOnline, in the app or by phone
- 03Play, rest, repeatReport card at pick-up
