The Cone of Shame

Goose, our puppy, is 5 months old now.  That means it was time to get him neutered.  From what I read that typically happens between 4 and 6 months for a puppy, so we were right on schedule.  We took him back to the vet where he and his brothers lived before we adopted him.

I've never had a puppy which includes the need to care for a puppy after he is neutered.  He came home a little groggy and slept the rest of the night, but that's to be expected.  When we came home the next day and I took him out of his crate I noticed that his incision area was a little bloody - he was licking his wound.  The rescue group that had Goose paid for the surgery, but they didn't cover paying for the cone.  You know the cone... what I like to call the "cone of shame".

After calling the vet, Goose and I loaded up in to the car (might be his least favorite thing in the world) and we headed back to have him checked out and fitted for a cone.

This is before he realized that the cone comes home with us. He looks so happy.  I think it's because he saw me again after going into the back room and he was just happy I wasn't leaving him there forever.  He's a big boy - we weighed him at 40 lbs at 5 months!  Notice how nice the cone looks.  

Goose and his cone!  Look at all of those big boy teeth that just came in!

Just a few hours later, including one car ride, and the cone is no longer a circle.  He didn't quite understand how to walk around the house at this point.  So we did what any good pet parent would do, we videoed him learning to walk in the cone.  He ran into everything.  If he got lost or disoriented (like he does in the video when he get to the stairs) he would just hang his head and wait for us to save him. 

I will point out that he only had to wear the cone at night and when we were at work, so this was really the only time he was in the cone walking around - we love our little man, we don't torture him.  The other dog in the video is Mabel who was terrified of him in the cone at first.  

It's been a week and Goose doesn't have to wear the cone any more.  The first time we left him in it he was able to get out of it and chew it up a bit.  Then he got depressed when we put him in it.  He'd lay down on the ground when we'd put it on him and then walk right into the crate to lay down.  He was too sad to even fight it.