Gundog Training Forum

... or is it a pseudo advert!?

I did think that too

That's precisely what it is. He's sponsored by Kronch, and even has a Beggarbush Champions Choice line of Kronch. Can't see Graham Tweed being very happy if he said his dogs perform best on tripe.

I reckon most Cockers would sing their little hearts out on 22% protein Champions Choice!
There was a giggle at the championships the other year when one of the Kronch "sponsored" guys said openly that he couldn't feed that particular cocker any of the complete foods because it made a noise on it! He fed it on tripe alone!

What makes you think that 22% protein would hype the dogs up? At least I think thats what you mean?

In my experience of the Cocker trials, it seems the guys that run them keep them on very little protein to keep order. I'm talking terrier meal and tripe not 20 something percent protein. Obviously that's a generalisation.
I could be way off the mark...!

Back on the food wagon again. Most good foods should be more than adequate for trailing dogs requirements as it is not hugely demanding. Fitness and condition is more important than diet.

I have been using 26% protein, have done for donkey's years until they changed the formula and my dogs seemed to lose condition. Admittedly they're used for picking up not hanging around for ages and then running, on average, 15 minutes or so. Come to think of it... Although mine would get 5 or 6 runs in a day not 2.

Ahhh, the minefield called feed debate Well, I'm not sponsored by anyone and many years ago I used to import Kronch from Denmark as there were no fish based dog feeds in the UK at the time. Firstly, let me just say that Kronch is manufactured in Denmark by a Danish family owned company called Henne Pet food and for those who may wish to see the factory (one of the sales arguments the current importer is using) they would need to go to Denmark to do so. As with ANY dog feeds, some dogs are doing well on it (labs and racing huskies seems to be some of the breeds) where as others might not.

When it comes to dog food, we've kind of moved away from the whole protein/fat content debate and we're now talking Kcal's as that would be more important: how much energy does a dog actually get out of you giving 100 grams of x feed to your dog? that is the REAL question, that and then WHAT kind of protein, fat and to a certain extend carbohydrate is in the feed. According to Dr J Boyd of Nottingham University who is doing independent research, it's not the protein level in a dog food that will make a dog 'hyper', it's "something else" in that feed that does, so something that the dog "responds to" in a negative way. Remember that people who feed RAW, BARF or complete grainfree diets to their dog, feed a rather high protein level and most of those people will tell you that since they changed over, they've got none of this "hyper" behaviour. I feed a dog food which has 34% protein and 24% fat and never have I ever had more level headed dogs which now also have energy the whole day on the grouse moor.

Lots have happened during the last 10 years when it comes to quality of dog food partly because of the US and Canada who have been really raising the bar on quality for complete feeds but UK manufactures have followed suit and never has there been a better choice and quality as we have now. As usual, the gundog world overall, is slow and if you look at agility people they're much more into nutrition than most gundog folk are, for a start, how many of you would weigh your dogs weekly? some gundog people like to call their dogs top athletes but they forget that top athletes have a carefully tailor-made nutrition program as well as training regime plus carefully weight gain/loss monitoring.

Short burst of required energy like Greyhounds, would need one type of feed, a dog working many days on the grouse moor would need to be fed another type of feed, a trial dog might need to be fed another type depending on type of trial and breed... For those of you with knowledge of horses, you'd never feed a racehorse the same way as for instance a show jumper.

There is so much to learn about feeding a dog but always, always be careful that the info/articles are not "coloured" by sponsorships and/or financial involvement - it's a 2-3bn/year industry and there is generally minimum a 40% mark-up (often more) on dog feeds so it's big, big business and also remember that some of the stuff they make even more money from would be the various supplements they now market..

Natasha