Any health / feeding questions - remember this is no substitute for the Vet!
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There is no substitute to visiting your Vet - he has the knowledge and experience and can see/feel/smell your dog and advise accordingly. Please apply your own judgement and common sense to any advice given. What works for one dog might not work for another. If you are in any doubt please visit your Vet! General Forum Rules
Indeed. But with respect, apart from being rather naive, so was this:
I'll take the word over thise who are consistently winning with spaniels in my country over that of someone who is running pointers from another country
Indeed. But with respect, apart from being rather naive, so was this:
I'll take the word over thise who are consistently winning with spaniels in my country over that of someone who is running pointers from another country
Indeed. But with respect, apart from being rather naive, so was this:
I'll take the word over thise who are consistently winning with spaniels in my country over that of someone who is running pointers from another country
Goodnight.
Night X
That made me giggle!!
It's stretching the point saying because a handler gives a dog a wee biscuit/sausage roll/Kronch bar or "lardy honey" that the dog isn't fit, my old headkeeper, discussed in an other thread swore by his homemade "lardy honey", as I do for giving a dog a wee lift, I found, when working terriers to hounds, a square of lardy honey perked them up no end, small dogs when wet on a cold day burn energy just keeping body temperature up, as do wet cold spaniels, I'm sure you know this, fat and honey does SEEM to be good for MY dogs welfare when they are cold and wet, it was good enough for one of the best spaniel men I've met, some top class terrier men, some of which if you said THIER dogs were't fit because they got a square of dripping after a dig would see you eating through a tube and seeing family during "visiting hours"!!! I'm sure it helps, that's good enough for me and others with fit dogs.....OK.
Its as much about the size of dog I think, when I ran the Flatcoats they were fine, never tired never cold, they had extra food in their supper bowls from just before the start of the season until the end, didn't lose weight nor condition. The Cockers being of much smaller body mass do feel the cold more, not helped by living indoors either I guess (thinner coats). They do better in later in the day if they have a few fatty bits during the day, especially the older ones at the start of the season before they are fully match fit.
Besides, it doesn't do 'em any harm and might just do them some good, especially if they share it with me.
In life, it is important to know when to stop arguing with people and simply let them be wrong.
Feeding the dog during activity doesn't do much for them. They derive their energy from what they ate the day before and even prior to that. When hunting season is coming I start feeding more food about a month prior to my first planned hunt. I find it takes about that much time to fully get into their system. Feeding more the night before will do nothing for your dog except perhaps give it diarrhea the next day. I do agree that cockers feel the cold a lot more, I know mine sure does and depending on how long we are out - especially if its raining and cold, I always make sure I carry glucose with me because I have seen him affected by low blood sugar in the past. Longer than normal hunt + cold + wet = cause for concern. Aside from that though I don't believe feeding during that helps anything on a normal day.
"If you train a young dog for momentum, precision will arrive. If you train for precision, demanding perfection, momentum will depart." - Rex Carr
Oops, lots of opinions, thanks for that. No she isn't overly fit but as it happened no fitness needed, buhuuu. Anyhow, i decided to bring with me a bottle of hot water with milk and a small bag of energy booster which we won on some WT last year, no idea what was in it. As it was we didn't need either due to no work but it felt right and i will do the same for next cold hunt/trial day. Even if she HAD been fit as a fiddle i would have liked to bring something to have if the weather turns rough and they have to work long. The first dog on this trial ran for half an hour btw, snowy ground and -6 which is warmer than it has been for weeks.
Hepe wrote:The first dog on this trial ran for half an hour btw
Half an hour total?
No, it had more runs as the first one didn't produce any flush or retrieve. I was too nervous to keep track of who ran what for how long but the first run was that long in snowy rather difficult terrain. It was a pinger, a good one.
Cass wrote:Feeding the dog during activity doesn't do much for them. They derive their energy from what they ate the day before and even prior to that. When hunting season is coming I start feeding more food about a month prior to my first planned hunt. I find it takes about that much time to fully get into their system. Feeding more the night before will do nothing for your dog except perhaps give it diarrhea the next day. I do agree that cockers feel the cold a lot more, I know mine sure does and depending on how long we are out - especially if its raining and cold, I always make sure I carry glucose with me because I have seen him affected by low blood sugar in the past. Longer than normal hunt + cold + wet = cause for concern. Aside from that though I don't believe feeding during that helps anything on a normal day.
I'll agree with you to a certain degree, but having witnessed someone with 2 dogs both collapse and seizure towards the end of cold, wet days after not being fed all day I disagree with that bit. Their Lab has now done it 3 times that I know of, and the ESS once that I remember over the course of two shooting seasons. To be fair, I think there is more lacking in their feeding regieme than just that but neither dog has done it when they have been adquately fed on the day of the shoot nor under any other circumstances. Some dogs need the food to keep them going all day.
Happiness is where we find it, but rarely where we seek it.
Were there not signs that all was not well prior to them collapsing? I wouldn't have thought a healthy dog would just keel over due to exhaustion or hypothermia without prior indication that all was not well with them.
No she isn't overly fit but as it happened no fitness needed, buhuuu. 
Anyhow, i decided to bring with me a bottle of hot water with milk and a small bag of energy booster which we won on some WT last year, no idea what was in it. As it was we didn't need either due to no work but it felt right and i will do the same for next cold hunt/trial day. Even if she HAD been fit as a fiddle i would have liked to bring something to have if the weather turns rough and they have to work long. The first dog on this trial ran for half an hour btw, snowy ground and -6 which is warmer than it has been for weeks.
