Feeding - Article...

[Judy]

Its been known for years that a high fat diet is needed for hard working dogs, and also known that meat protein is far better absorbed than plant protein, the article just confirms this. I have watched dogs working for years and seen the results of poor diet choices time and time again. Its not fair on the dogs! They don't work as well as they might, they tire quicker and a tired dog doesn't put heart and soul into finding birds. They look like coat-racks by the end of the season and if the owners shove more food down them to keep weight on they poop for England. They also tend to retire younger.
Having said all that I still wouldn't feed Eukanuba.

[Judy]

As an aside two Lab owning people have told me that Labs do much more work than Cockers, that's why they have to retire earlier. I went away and thought about this, surely a dog that puts in three strides to one of another breed, forces a way into cover that another breed wouldn't touch and carries a far higher weight of bird in proportion to body size could be said to work harder? Some people just don't think, I mean it might well be something to do with the shite diet their dogs are on?

[CockerCanuck]

But I don't see how anyone can claim that dog A found more birds than dog B because it ate a particular food. There's too many variables, including the individual dogs own ability at the time of experimenting.
I'm not arguing that a good diet is needed for the best performance, that's obvious. Just that I won't be blaming a missed bird on not feeding eukanuba to my dogs.

I think you’re over complicating this. Two packs of dogs hunting over the same grounds during the same season but on two different diets and their handlers didn’t know which. Let’s assume they have a mix of comparable experience and fitness. All things being equal, if one group has a markedly higher tally of birds found over the other I’d say diet was a significant factor seeing that was the only measurable variable. Any other incidentals would balance themselves out over time.

Naj

Agree with Naj, it may not be 100% proof but it provides enough evidence to convince a reasonable person that higher quality food improves a dog's performance in measurable ways. Not rocket science or a surprize but interesting none the less. Thank you for posting SP.

[Contender]

As an aside two Lab owning people have told me that Labs do much more work than Cockers, that's why they have to retire earlier. I went away and thought about this, surely a dog that puts in three strides to one of another breed, forces a way into cover that another breed wouldn't touch and carries a far higher weight of bird in proportion to body size could be said to work harder? Some people just don't think, I mean it might well be something to do with the shite diet their dogs are on?

Labs have to retire earlier???? Rubbish. The only dogs that I know are prone to retire earlier are wildfowling dogs and yes, often they're a retriever breed - working in cold and icy water eventually takes it toll. My labs have always worked until around 12 years of age then typically the recover period is just too long afterwards and perhaps the eyesight is going and the hearing as well. Perhaps it's because I'm feeding a superb feed full of fat and super high in meat/fish/eggs?? but they all have a long working life here out on the moors, on partridges and on pheasants.

It's interesting how many people spend so much time on finding the 'best puppy' and then proceed to feed it rubbish a great deal of its (working) life, yes they'll survive on rubbish (just as us humans) just don't be surprised if the dog collapse or has had it by lunchtime but then again some feed companies don't mind that at all because then they can sell various 'energy products' for dogs so it's a win/win for them

Natasha

[Naj]

I suspect that many dogs are retried early simply because of the accumulation of bad habits they’ve acquired over the years!

Naj

[Judy]

Nah, they mostly start off with the bad habits! They retire cos they can't work properly, hobbling about and crippled with arthritis. Feeding them better might make them last longer.

[Contender]

I do appreciate that most of us deadly people have to operate at some sort of dog food budget especially as you might accumulate dogs but there are some very simple ways around getting the best food for the money you've got like get together with a couple of friends and buy in bulk. Some feed companies can be a bit strict in terms of signing people up as breeders or bulk buyers but it's worth spending a bit of time looking into it as the discounts can be rather good. The feed company I'm involved with only have a minimum buy of 4 x large bags/order and you'll get a 40% discount so it really is worth looking into, that's how I can afford to feed my 12 dogs here

Natasha

[Judy]

Exactly that, find the food that suits the work the dog has to do, don't give rocket fuel to a dog that does a 50 bird day once a fortnight but feed a dog thats expected to work in heather or bramble all day something more than maintenance. Speak nicely to Contender, she'll advise you as to what's best.

[crackerd]

As an aside two Lab owning people have told me that Labs do much more work than Cockers, that's why they have to retire earlier. I went away and thought about this, surely a dog that puts in three strides to one of another breed, forces a way into cover that another breed wouldn't touch and carries a far higher weight of bird in proportion to body size could be said to work harder? Some people just don't think, I mean it might well be something to do with the shite diet their dogs are on?

Labs have to retire earlier???? Rubbish. The only dogs that I know are prone to retire earlier are wildfowling dogs and yes, often they're a retriever breed - working in cold and icy water eventually takes it toll. My labs have always worked until around 12 years of age then typically the recover period is just too long afterwards and perhaps the eyesight is going and the hearing as well. Perhaps it's because I'm feeding a superb feed full of fat and super high in meat/fish/eggs?? but they all have a long working life here out on the moors, on partridges and on pheasants.

It's interesting how many people spend so much time on finding the 'best puppy' and then proceed to feed it rubbish a great deal of its (working) life, yes they'll survive on rubbish (just as us humans) just don't be surprised if the dog collapse or has had it by lunchtime but then again some feed companies don't mind that at all because then they can sell various 'energy products' for dogs so it's a win/win for them

Bless you, Natasha. Big nutrition concern in N. America is over grain-free foods as a possible contributor to heart disease in working dogs, particularly retrievers. I believe, especially with the thinking (and eating) machine that is the performance Labrador Retriever, that you just have to teach them to "harvest" their own grain as a...a "dietary supplement."

IMG_20190902_113215.jpg

MG

[Contender]

As an aside two Lab owning people have told me that Labs do much more work than Cockers, that's why they have to retire earlier. I went away and thought about this, surely a dog that puts in three strides to one of another breed, forces a way into cover that another breed wouldn't touch and carries a far higher weight of bird in proportion to body size could be said to work harder? Some people just don't think, I mean it might well be something to do with the shite diet their dogs are on?

Labs have to retire earlier???? Rubbish. The only dogs that I know are prone to retire earlier are wildfowling dogs and yes, often they're a retriever breed - working in cold and icy water eventually takes it toll. My labs have always worked until around 12 years of age then typically the recover period is just too long afterwards and perhaps the eyesight is going and the hearing as well. Perhaps it's because I'm feeding a superb feed full of fat and super high in meat/fish/eggs?? but they all have a long working life here out on the moors, on partridges and on pheasants.

It's interesting how many people spend so much time on finding the 'best puppy' and then proceed to feed it rubbish a great deal of its (working) life, yes they'll survive on rubbish (just as us humans) just don't be surprised if the dog collapse or has had it by lunchtime but then again some feed companies don't mind that at all because then they can sell various 'energy products' for dogs so it's a win/win for them

Bless you, Natasha. Big nutrition concern in N. America is over grain-free foods as a possible contributor to heart disease in working dogs, particularly retrievers. I believe, especially with the thinking (and eating) machine that is the performance Labrador Retriever, that you just have to teach them to "harvest" their own grain as a...a "dietary supplement."

IMG_20190902_113215.jpg

MG

Ohh I know but it's actually nothing new at all as not that many years ago, the exact same problem happened with cats and it was the same culprit then: low meat/fish/egg content and a high level of 'fillers' so 50-70% of peas, potatoes and what have you. 'Grain free' IS NOT a quality stamp perse, it's very important that people read the ingredient list. As another side note the regulations for manufacturing dog food here in Europe are more strict compared to the US (& Canada) and not one single European feed is on the warning list recently released in the US. Another thing which we wonder about here in Europe is why have we only seen an increase in possible links between 'grain-free' feeds and heat disease in the US and not Europe? A few of the feeds/brands on the 'warning list' are imported to Europe and there are certainly several 'crap' grain-free feeds produced and fed in the UK It's certainly one that's been watched closely here in the UK and the rest of Europe but so far there has been no significant increase in heart disease cases of grain free fed dogs...

Anyway, it's important never to get 'fanatic' about feed or training for that matter, we're only just starting to do some serious research about our dogs and especially feeding them, we're way behind other animals on this point. The dog food company I'm involved with aren't 'fanatic' about grain free and do produce one feed which contain both oats & rice