I am currently feeding my lab lamb & rice eukanuba for adults but he has started to do a lot of obedience training and does working trials once a week.  Basically, I wonder whether the performance food would be better suited to his activity level.

He does ob training 3 times a week goes for approx 2-3 walks a day and does trials for about 2-3 hours once a week.  He also does ob shows most weekends.

What do you think?

Cheers all xx

I compete with my dogs in working trials, agility, gundog tests of work and show plus a lot of exercise and have never found the need to feed my dogs "performance" foods and I think I can safely say they "perform" pretty well :)

For normal use, training and an occasional working test a maintenance grade is fine. I use a mantenance grade right through the summer but change to a performance grade for the shooting season when I know Anna is going to spend possibly 5 to 6 hours in the field working hard. I change over during September when I'm getting into hard training but change back when the season finishes in February.

Best wishes, John

thanks john so do you think the normal activity food would be ok for him for now?

But your game is much tougher than ours John :D

Working Trials only involves 20 min track and then a 5 min square and then 10 minutes on the control field.  Agility you are in the ring for 30 seconds and obedience no longer than 15 mins max.

A bit different to a long, hard day in the shooting season :D  That is REAL work :)

Yes I agree but to be fair all the other bits inbetween such as training 3 times a week, walking daily, running, swimming weekly etc do mount up to a lot of activity.

That's true ML but you need to add the excitement level into it. Anna sits beside me literally quivering and that absorbs quite a bit of energy. Add to that, we are talking about December and January cold, often soaking wet and the cold again takes large chunks of energy.

When Anna was younger I never bothered to change diets but as she is approaching middle age I try to do all I can to help her do her job. Even out of the game shooting season she is still working, not to the same level I know but working for all that. Last Saturday we spent 3 hours pushing through woods trying to help the farm clear some pigeons so she never really stops work.

Unless you have reason to believe that her energy levels are low I would not change. As Tohme says, comparing the different disciplines is on a par to comparing a 100 meter sprint with a marathon. One is an explosive burst of energy and the other is a long energy sapping event.

Best wishes, John

There's nothing to compete with the amount of nervous energy a gundog can burn whilst 'sitting still' is there John?!!!

Gasp, shock, horror are you implying that Working Trials/Obedience/Agility is not exciting :-o :D

I've seen Anna sitting in a foot of standing water with a film of ice on it with steam coming off of her! Still, it's not only her who gets wet. I took a step forward in some standing water on one particularly cold day last season, stepped into a hole and filled a boot with freezing muddy water. Everyone else thought it hilarious :(

Oh no no Tohme, of course not!  It's just that the energy a 'peg' dog can use by just sitting has to be seen to be believed!

bear in mindthough that traveling can really take its toll too! i would sometimes use preformance foods on tara as she was a really light eater ,so at least i could sort of get more into her per mouthful!!! -of course thats all changed since we went natural!!!

I heard that some people before shows feed loads of protein to dogs to chivy them up a bit?? I am not considering it but is this true?

not heard that!!!! but i know some people dont FEED the day before so that their dogs are more motivated!!!!!!??????
i dont agree with that !!!
i would imagine too much protien would make them too scatty too do stays etc!!!

Not sure why anyone would want to feed loads of protein to chivvy their dogs up?  Not sure how protein would do this anyway?

I don't know but it's just what I heard. ?:-~

That's not nice either not feeding the day before.  that would never do for my Henry!

think henry would go on strike if he didnt get his dinner!!

he would indeed lol!

he would be like..."ur not getting me round that ring..forget it!"

does it to horses!!! so guess the theory comes from that!!!

Hmmm, is it the protein that makes horses gassy?  Thought it was feeding oats

all the preformance mixes have high protien & they always made all of our horses very gassy!!!

So does this mean that humans who eat a high protein diet will also be "gassy" too?

my performance mix for my horse tend to make her a complete handful and she was extremely gassy too!

whatyou got emma? i sold my mare,halliday, a few years ago. she was abright bay quarterhorse x TB,15.2(well 15.1 AND AHALF!!!!!!!!!!) shes a polo pony in london now! but i did all the local sj/xc on her,& riding club areasj where we qualified for the national finals(team) but i sold her before we went! i do miss her!!!!

16'3 hanovarian x tb mare, she is 13 now.  I used to do cross country and sj with her but I just hack now and she goes to the local college once a week to be used by a girl I know, sarah.  I don't really have much time anymore unfortunately with having H but sarah sees to her most of the time and we sort of share.

i sold hal,cos i had to decide between competing her & the dogs. she was only 8 when she went so still had plenty of time to do stuff. she wasnt particarly low matenience,stilll makes me sad though!!

ps nothing at all to do with this post but Michelle Julie had her baby yesterday!!! a little boy called Jared! I'm so so pleased for her

loveley!!!not that im very into babiesthough!!!!

no we have our own special hairy 4 legged babies!

Tohme, probably best to ask someone currently on the Atkin's Diet if they've gone a bit gassy.  :-)

Would you necessarily have to ask...............................

Hmmm. Good point.