How to keep him calm?

honestly - he'll be fine. Give him an hour or so to 'wake up' and then just don't worry about it. When Bareny (last foster) was neutered, we had to stop by a foster parents house on the way home, and he and her dogs were running and playing like nothing happened. Just keep him out of the dirt, and you'll be great.

So I'm really just being paranoid about him opening back up playing (roughly of course ) with our other dog?

Well - you don't want them wrestling super hard, but I wouldn't fret to much about keeping him still. You being nervous will just stress him out. Running is fine, just stay out of anything that can get in the incision.

Do you have disolvable stitches? Or ones that need to be taken out later?

They play pretty rough but the house is clean =) so I would hope nothing to get into the inscision!  I guess I'm just paranoid haha.  They are the dissolveable stiches. Which is probably a really good thing, considering he'd run away if I had to take him to the vet AGAIN!!

Gee, I'm so mean, last time they put stuff up his nose and this time! GOSH! hahaha

Hi - just to add a p.s. to what ERica said -- the advantage of NO painkiller is simply that it tends to keep them a bit more sedentary.  Pain is sometimes a dog's friend because if they feel TOO good then they do want to play and ram around so the only thing that will keep him FROM wrecking havoc is that bit of pain.  It's not mean -- it's literally given by nature for a reason! (to keep him still a little).

 Now -- to your original question?  "How to keep him calm?"  If you can get to a health store get some Calms Forte by HYlands.  It's a homeopathic but wow it works great.  It's not going to "sedate" him at all -- just encourage calmness.  Not expensive and great to have on hand.  Two tablets --same dose for a baby, a dog or a sumo wrestler!

^^what she said. =]
I never give my fosters the pain medication. They do what they can handle, and then sleep.

I've had better luck with the non-disovable ones, but they both work well - I've not had huge issues at all. Only one female kitten that needed an extra dab of glue.... she was nuts anyways!

Try a frozen kong in his crate when he gets too wound up. That always works over here.

Thanks for the tips guys!!  I've been taking him out to pee, but am keeping him crated until hubby gets home (whick should be soon) so that there;s an extra set of hands just in case.  (since i only have 1 with the baby awake!)  a frozen kong??? how do i manage that?

put his normal stuff in there - plus some sort of liquid. Pop it in the freezer, and let him enjoy! Freezing it makes it harder to get the stuff out, keeping him busy - longer.

for the kong. close the small hole with something like peanut butter. then put is normal food. top it off iwth something liquid or moist. i often use canned food or yoghurt... if he has never done it before, maybe just semi frozen will be ok. if it's too hard in the beginning it can be discouraging!

also: when you freeze it, make sure you prop up your kong in the freezer securely. first time i froze one, i ended up with a half empty kong and frozen gunk all over my freezer!