Ways to Energize your dog during a hunting day??

[gspman]

My dog knows in the morning what's going on and generally will not eat much. I talked with the Pro I got her from and he recommended a few things to try (no guarantees though).

1) Moist dog food either canned in the small sealed bags. Mix this in with your regular food. He says food with sugar in it generally will get them to eat it so look in the ingredient list for some kind of sugar near the top. I'm going to try Purina Moist & Meaty.

2) Nutrical tubes - This stuff packs a lot of calories. You can use this during the hunt. Just squirt the recommended dosage in the dogs mouth.

3) Water with corn syrup, sugar or honey in it - This is supposed to whet the dogs appetite.

I'm going to try Purina Moist & Meaty and the Nutrical tubes. My dog crashed in the field twice last year. She out ran her body's ability to provide itself with energy and had a hypoglycemic episode twice. Needs to learn to pace herself. Scary stuff.

[OUTDOORNUT]

A few things that seemed to work well last season was a Vitamin E (400 or 500 IU) in the morning and at night with feeding. My vet checked and a large breed dog can handle 1,500 IU a day. I could really tell the difference, not only in the amount of time it took for them to get sore, but also in the turnaround time. The other as pervious posters acknowledged was canned or wet dog food packages with their regular foods to keep them interested. I found that I couldn't feed my Weim enough food throughout the season, she was on 3 cups Purina One w/ one package wet (high protein) dog food twice a day (about 8-9 cups daily) and still couldn't keep any weight on her. I saw Gander had some new high energy/ high protein bars, I'll grab a pack or two of them to keep in the vest for the muts also.

There is still the tried and true method of making a big patch of noodles and feeding them noodles between hunts. The carbs gave them the extra boost to make it through another couple hundred acres!

[LMITOUT]

I have a German Shorthair. I think I could probably starve her for days before hunting and still run her all day long.

Still looking for that dang energizer battery.........

Be very leary of the "Twisted Gut" problem when feeding before giving your dog a run. Could end up being the last time you hunt with your partner.

[irvingdog]

Condition the heck out of them before the season starts.

No kibble the morning of the hunt.

Generous amounts of Nutrical.

Water.

[duckbuster]

GSPMAN, If your dog went down on you twice last year I hate to say this but I think she has got bigger problems than pacing herself better.

If I'm not mistaken it is something called an EIC condition. This is something can can kill the dog.

If you would like I can PM you with a site to check out the topic. It is very scary stuff, one that you, which I'm sure since it happened you are, must keep very close tabs on now for the rest of her hunting future.

Be careful and enjoy the upcoming season!!!!

[gspman]

I had her into the vet both times and it was diagnosed as having hunting dog hypoglycemia. Basically after about 2 hrs. she went down. Both times she ate poorly beforehand and coupled with the fact that she's low body fat and runs very hard she just burns energy faster than her body can provide it. We now take short breaks every so often and have a small high calorie snack and it seems to help. I know what the signs are now so I can react sooner if something does happen.

Duckbuster, I'd be interested to know what EIC is so I could research it to see if it's a possibility. What does the acronym stand for? You can email me at clark dot koenen at hotmail (Contact Us Please)

It definitely scared me. The first time it happened I thought she was dying before my eyes. The funny thing is my previous dog would go all day every day so Dixie is definitely different in that dept.

[LABS4ME]

Exercise Induced Collapse...

Becoming a prominent problem in some of the Field Trial Labrador lines... not sure of other breeds

They are trying to isolate he gene to be able to detect the carriers in order to stop the breeding of these dogs. It is a metabolic disorder in which the dog goes down in a fit resembling hypoglycemia... this disorder is very scary and very dangerous.

Good Luck!

Ken

[bergie]

I think if your dogs are running out of energy they are not in the shape you think they are. The only problem I have had with my dogs is being too gunned up to eat, so I would give them a can of dog food at midday, thats the only time they get canned food, the rest of the time its pro plan. We would spend a week in So. Dak. hunting hard every day, and after two days you could tell the dogs that were in shape. After a dog gets old and arthritic you just have to let the dog set the pace, for a young dog nothing beats a good quality dog food and exercise. Good hunting.