Pain and the Back Lawn

Recently Himself aka Grumpy aka Maxmillan - the breeder's husband misspelt his name when registering him and left out two 'i's, he should have been Maximillian - anyway, what was I saying...oh yes, the poor chap was recently walking on our back lawn and stood on a small shard of wood, hurting his paw. We took him to the vet to check that nothing was in his paw and telling the vet that he's now too scared to walk on the back lawn. However, his foot is fine, but he has arthritis in that leg and the vet thinks that Grumps is associating his pain with the lawn... typical!

He's now on painkillers for a week and we have to make sure he doesn't over exert himself - easier said than done. He's either asleep, or racing up the stairs barking at one of the children, or any birds who inadvertently land in our garden. I'm having to carry him up and down the stairs, which isn't too bad, but he's a heavy little devil and it doesn't help that he's impatient and can't wait for me to take tea, laundry, etc upstairs and then come back down for him. I've tried to take him up and then go back down for the tea, linen, etc, but he just races down to meet me again.

So, I'm building muscles, while he's scared of the back lawn. I'm sure we'll work it out soon...