Feeding the Canine Athlete-----

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SeniorCoot
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Feeding the Canine Athlete-----

Post by SeniorCoot » Fri Feb 19, 2010 6:57 am

In the latest issue of RJ-George Hickox-states-"Feedng a pup on the morning of a big hunt is not a souind program" & "a dog should never be fed within two hours of excerise"--

Well ia 6:30am today I justfed my three labs. We will be hunting at 9am. As an old time LD dog musher I feel a dog needs all the energy he can get to good a good job in the field. In LD racing we fed dogs twice a day with 2-3 snacks daily, both pre and post training runs, and on a race would feed at least 4 times and snack twice in a 24 hour period. No dogs work harder than LD sled dogs and I never had one suffer from over eating-- not eating -yes. We always tried to give a minimum of three hours of rest between eating and running again. With my labs, I feed first thing in am every day and never work or hunt them for at least 2-3 hours.

Any thoughts on when to feed? George's Theory?

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ezzy333
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Re: Feeding the Canine Athlete-----

Post by ezzy333 » Fri Feb 19, 2010 7:13 am

It's been pretty well proven that you reduce the chances of torsion in a free running dog by not feeding for 4 hours at least before running and a couple afterwards. Plus the dog will be more comfortable with an empty gut as shown by the fact that they will eliminate when turned loose. I would doubt if the dog gets much energy from food till an hour or more after being fed and it also reduces the amount it is taking to digest the food.

But the big reason is the reduction of stomach torsion which can and does kill a lot of dogs, especially the deep chested sporting dogs.

Ezzy
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Kyle Wintersteen
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Re: Feeding the Canine Athlete-----

Post by Kyle Wintersteen » Fri Feb 19, 2010 7:46 am

A Purina researcher told me that hard-working dogs should be fed once a day in the evenings. Research was done mostly with sled dogs but also with hunting dogs. Dogs fed in this manner metabolize their meals during the night and are ready to go in the morning. This eliminates the torsion (stomach flip). Plus if you normally feed in the morning, but feed in the evening on days you're hunting, your dog will be hungry by day's end. Dogs routinely fed in the evening are used to fasting during the day. If you insist on feeding before exercise, a small canine energy bar can provide a boost and they're small enough that they won't torque the stomach.

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mcbosco
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Re: Feeding the Canine Athlete-----

Post by mcbosco » Fri Feb 19, 2010 10:41 am

I would think early evening is best and the morning perhaps some fat & protein supplemenation something simple like cheap fatty beef or pork or canned sardines.

The interesting thing about bloat is that many dogs actually bloat at night on an empty stomach.

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