Energy supplements for working dogs

[westcountry]

Tried various supplements and things many years ago with the running dogs and gave up on them all. I relied on real hard fitness conditioning and a good basic diet including quail eggs. I dont use supplements on my spaniels, again I rely on a good level of fitness and a good diet and use my eye for rationing rather than read the writing on the bag. My dogs have worked on commercial shoots several days a week and have never shown any signs of collapsing. Three of these dogs are trial breeding and one is a trial award winner. So when people say the trial bred dogs lack stamina they are very wrong.
Of course in trials people will experiment with supplements or anything they think can gain them an edge and I dont blame them for doing so. From past experience I dont think I will waste anymore money down that road. If a dog isnt fit enough or is lacking the correct nutrition ,or simply isnt capable of doing the job, then supplements will not help it.

[Judy]

I used to go down that road, mostly herbal stuff from Dorwest, saw very little difference in condition. The only supplement I would recommend these days is Joint Aid for older, arthritic dogs, worked wonders on my old Flatcoat. Additional proteins and fats may help if you have a particularly hard few days coming up, eggs, sardines, fatty meat. I give the Cockers fatty cheap sausages during the shoot day, I think, (unproven) they seem much less tired afterwards. Makes me feel better anyway! Given that they can have anything up to 8 drives to sweep up they cover a fair bit of ground during the day and, apart from travelling in the truck between some of the drives, they are on their feet from 9-ish to 3 so not pandered to.

[Judy]

... and I don’t think I can be accused of standing still and letting the world pass me by on diet or training. I was the first to write about the BARF diet in the sporting press when it was very little heard of. Raw feeding (and, yes, I went from tripe to balanced commercial diets to BARF) is now pretty well mainstream. And I’m a bit of a bore, I’m sure, on ‘new’ and innovative training methods.

I feel a song coming on; "A dedicated follower of fashion" can neither remember the title nor the group and none of you young things will have heard it...

[Judy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqXrAHuLksU I know a few of you are old enough to remember...

[Naj]

Was just going to tell you it was The Kinks, cos I’m old and ugly enough to remember.

[EssGrouse]

Well you totally killed that thread Judy

[Judy]

Sorreee, well, maybe not or just a little bit, possibly.

Did I mention eggs are good for dogs?

[ips]

Sorreee, well, maybe not or just a little bit, possibly.

Did I mention eggs are good for dogs?

My one likes scrambled or chopped up boiled, also quite likes soldiers with the latter...just saying

[Naj]

Sorreee, well, maybe not or just a little bit, possibly.

Did I mention eggs are good for dogs?

My one likes scrambled or chopped up boiled, also quite likes soldiers with the latter...just saying

She’ll never make a gundog.

[ips]

Sorreee, well, maybe not or just a little bit, possibly.

Did I mention eggs are good for dogs?

My one likes scrambled or chopped up boiled, also quite likes soldiers with the latter...just saying

She’ll never make a gundog.

Its doubtful