performance food during the season

josie · performance food during the season

I have a nutrition question, if anyone has any thoughts on this!

Usually during both the summer and the winter, Slate gets about 1.5 hrs a day of active training (running either retrieves or hunting practice), and the rest of the day she is happy to laze about the house.

However, during the winter when we have a shotover day or a shoot day or a trial or whatever, she can be required to be pretty active the whole day from 10-4pm.

So, I want to feed her a performance food for these occasions. (I am eyeing up the Royal Canin 4800 at the moment - http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/dog...yal_canin_size/special_care/13699 )

So - my question is - how far before the event should I switch her to a performance food to see maximum benefit from it? 1 day, 5 days, 1 week??? (Any nutritionists out there?!)

Last season I was using ProPlan Performance 1.5 days before the event, and a light meal of Nature Diet on the morning of the event with Kronch Pemikan doggie energy bars (as recommended by Des!) during the day.

I don't see any point in using the performance food during the whole season because she's not doing any more than during the summer on off days and she will get porky eating it all the time!

Any thoughts??

Bareve

The dogs of mine that do any form of working are fed on a performance food all year round with the quantity varying depending on their overall condition. Uping and reducing the quantity is how we regulate the dog's weight - not the food type and generally increasing fitness - as you would getting a horse ready for hunting - is how we get our dogs ready for shooting days.

This time of the year swimming is the best form of exercise and you don't have to worry about those blessed grass seeds!

Mike

Mine are fed raw so this might not be very helpful Laughing

There basic food never changes but I will very the amount they have depending on the season / workload. But I might tweak the amount of certain foods to help maintain some weight (only because Harley is shown, i'd be quiet happy for Harley to go lean but it would be pretty poinless showing him in that condition, so I try to strike a balance)

During summer there entire diet revolves pretty much around tripe but during the winter i'll switch them on to minced lamb more regularly.

josie

Hmm, ok the problem with feeding the same food (a performance food) year round and increasing/reducing the amount is that at the moment she is fed only half a cup of non-performance food morning and evening. She's a good weight on that and looks well, not underweight.

So if I were to feed a performance food, I would have to reduce that amount further on off-days (which would be most of the time) and I just can't help feeling it's not fair to give her anything less than half a cup in terms of her enjoying her food and feeling full etc. We also have the problem of her sicking up bile if her stomach gets too empty (ie if there is too long between feedings or if meals are too small and digested quickly), so even if I did reduce the amount further I'd expect her to sick up on a regular basis.

She is pretty good about being switched around on foods because I tried to make sure she was used to digesting various foods right from puppyhood on and I often switch just to give her a change when she finishes a bag.

I just want something which is going to keep her going all day and not flag in terms of energy on the days when she needs to.

I was just thinking - surely human athletes begin to eat differently before a race - they don't just eat more of what they were eating before, don't they load the carbs or something? How long before a race do they begin to do that? If I were going to switch to another food for an event, how long before the event do you think it would need to be?

Greyghost

How about the odd raw chick wing when 'in training' so to speak. Not only does it have a good balance it sustains them longer as it takes longer to digest.

Think I am going to have to adopt this myself actually. This morning Holly has not only sicked up her bonios (gave TWO black ones last night as she had produced bile at 4pm yesterday, just 4 hours after a bonio and some natural yoghurt) but she had huge pooos in the kitchen too. It all seems to have kicked off again since changing her kibble (still on Forthglade) to AG Prestige or performance (breeders bag) can't remember which one it was now.

Mike

josie

I've already got the Kronch Pemmikan and think it's great, I just wondered if there was some way I could boost performance with the food I was giving as well. (Ie provide something which will give her a long-term slow-burn of energy throughout the day, and use the Kronch Pemmikan to provide sudden boosts or top ups...??)

I get the point about human athletes, and dogs not needing carbs but someone referred me to this article: http://www.k9power.com/fat_dog_diet.php

Which basically argues that with performance dogs instead of loading the carbs before an event (as with humans), you should load the fats instead. So, even if dogs are totally different to humans, maybe the principle of loading with something is relevant?

And even if dogs and humans are different, how does that follow about switching for the season rather than individual events? And what's the difference between adding fat with Kronch Pemmikan and switching to a high fat (30% fat) diet 2 days (say) before? Sorry, endless questions here!!

Interesting about the fasting - I give a small meal of Nature Diet, as I figured she would digest it fast and not be running with it in her stomach and also that she might hunt harder if hungry!!

Bareve

My falconer friend always fasted his dogs before a big falconry meet to ensure they were much keener to hunt. He also never fed them on the morning of a trial/working test or when he was going to do some serious hunting with the birds.

windem bang

This topic interests me, I am surprised to read that you would find it neccessary to change in any way a dogs diet prior to or during a single days work. Hard work day after day could be a different matter. I am anything but educated when it comes to feeding I am happy to take advice from those with practical experience of any dietary problem I am having. I have only ran into trouble once with a dog during work due to a feeding problem.

About 20 years ago I did a week solid of grouse counting with Wilson Young and Peter O'Driscoll. They had several dogs each I had one, my first Brittany. She worked very hard for three days covering her ground for the count. By the end of the 3rd day I noticed a slowing in her normally hard,fast hunting. Then that evening she refused to eat. She was always fed the very best of an all in one food supplied by her co-owner, I think it was the same stuff that the Ididarod race sled dogs are fed! The following morning she still refused to eat and by a lucky chance I saw blood in her urine. I took her straight to the vet who wasn't much help as all he could do was suggest I should rest her - I was already doing that!

I have two married friends who are both vets and I phoned them for advice they promised to get back to me quickly. Peter O'Driscoll said to try some of his dog food - she ignored the biscuit but wolfed down 3/4 of a pound of raw meat! I was still very worried for she looked awful. My vet friends contacted me and said they'd read about this in some obscure paper, I think from Australia. The "cure" for this condition caused by overwork is raw meat!

I bought 3lbs. of the stuff and she ate most of it at one sitting, she would have eaten the lot if I'd let her. By morning of the following day she was bouncing up and down again raring to go. I severely cut back on the hunting I allowed her, I'd learned my lesson. There are good reasons for taking numbers of dogs when going out for several days running of work on the grouse.

Since that time I have still fed my dogs on various all in one foods but for a dog that is doing a lot of regular hard work I add raw beef. He isn't doing any hard work yet but Buck gets 3/4 lb. of raw beef with his kibble every day. I will step this up if he ever has to work on several consecutive days.

I still don't really understand what happened to Vicky, my Brittany, I do know I behaved stupidly working a dog on and on like that. Apparently under such conditions a dog will sometimes run out of useable food for energy and will draw on its own blood supply. This then goes through the dogs internal organs and shows as blood in the urine. I believe the condition has been documented in Australian racing greyhounds.

As I said at the beginning I'm not at all scientifically minded but I'll get there eventually.

Bill T.

weima

I feed mine on Arden Grange Prestige all year round. During the shooting season they have increased amounts depending on the work they are doing. If it is a shoot day then they get more food than if it were just a trial or dogging in. On a shoot day, they also have a Mars bar at lunch time & at the end of the day.

I have never felt the need to change my dogs diet but do increase/decrease it all the time depending on what weight the dogs are carrying. Pagan has hers dry with nothing added as she is a pig & Quba has hers with nature diet mixed in as she is fussy & won't eat dry food.

I know a friend of mine during the season feeds the Prestige but during the summer feeds the AG Performance.

josie

I used to feed Slate on the AG Prestige but she put on too much weight on it, so I switched her to the AG Large breed and she was fine on that.

I guess it's not that I'm worried that she is going to collapse on me or fade away, but sometimes towards the end of a day she will range less far, run slower and look less stylish and although I know this can be a fitness issue, I wondered if nutrition could help in some way and how...