Food for Thought

A working hunting dog is possibly the highest form of the canine. A combination of intelligence, training, athleticism, desire and ability, the hunting dog expends a tremendous amount of energy to perform his or her duties. Accordingly, the highest-quality sustenance is required for this demanding job, and today’s hunters are willing to pay a premium to feed the best rations to their canine companions.
     Back in the old days of table scraps and processed offal, a dog was at a disadvantage when taking to the field. Inconsistent minerals and electrolytes, an overload of carbohydrates, and indigestible proteins and fillers made up much of a hunting dog’s diet.
    Today’s dog food companies are engaged in a race of sorts, seeking to raise the bar and provide top nutrition to hard-working dogs. In addition, many dogs are working into their teens, and good nutrition is playing a greater role in extending dogs’ lives and working careers.
    To have a clear discussion of what is in play here, let’s qualify a hard-working hunting dog. It can take eight to 10 weeks to bring a sedentary dog into good physical condition for the extreme demands of hunting season. A dog’s nutritional demands at the beginning of the conditioning process are different than its demands in the middle of a hard season of hunting. A fit, conditioned dog should be rock-ribbed and lean, with tight musculature and great heart-lung capacity. Honestly, most family owned hunting dogs are somewhere between backyard pot licker and field-trial fit.
    So what exactly is good dog food all about? The answer can be found by learning to read a dog-food label. All the experts seem to agree on several factors. Fat, digestible protein and a clean source of carbohydrates are the main ingredients for getting a dog to work at a high level. Electrolytes, vitamins and minerals follow these closely. Typical grocery-store brands for the family pet market have high concentrations of carbohydrates made of milled grain, fillers and low levels of fat and protein, with a lot of the protein being non-digestible byproducts.
    “Well-conditioned dogs are fat users,” said Bob West, Director of Breeder Marketing, Sporting Dog Group, for Nestlé Purina. “A lot of people believe that energy is derived from carbohydrates, but sporting dogs in good condition burn fat for energy. Protein isn’t a good source of energy, but it is used to rebuild muscle, bone and blood that are broken down in the field.”
    So it’s time to learn how to read a dog-food label. Ingredients to be avoided are cellulose fillers; multiple sources of corn, soy and wheat; and whole raw meats. Whole raw meats, says John Howard, Vice-President of Marketing for Native brand dog food, are not desirable ingredients, because meat has so much water in it. When the raw meat dries out in processing, the actual percentage of meat in the food becomes much less. A better bet, Howard says, is a food composed of meat meals made from 100-percent meat with no byproducts.
    Speaking of byproducts, are they an undesirable ingredient in dog food? According to the AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials, www.aafco.org), the old trick of grinding up feathers and beaks and calling it “chicken byproducts” doesn’t fly anymore. Feathers and beaks are indeed protein, but they’re indigestible protein and don’t meet the AAFCO’s nutritional standards. (For information on “byproducts” and details about the AAFCO’s standards, visit www.peteducation.com.) Chicken entrails, on the other hand, are an acceptable source of protein, and they’re cleaned, cooked and ground up nicely for dog food. The same goes for corn, wheat and soybeans. Somehow we have become convinced that these are bad sources of carbohydrates—and to some extent that’s correct. If a dog food lists several variations of corn, wheat or soybeans as ingredients, watch out, particularly for dogs that suffer allergic reactions. Barley and brown rice are considered better sources of carbohydrates, but the world won’t come to an end if your dog eats some corn meal.
    The contents of today’s premium dog foods are undoubtedly better than they were even 10 years ago—and manifestly better than the nutrition fed to dogs of yesteryear. But marketing claims that lamb is better than beef and that barley is better than wheat are debatable. Truly, the only way to find out which food is best for your dog is to try various brands. Note your dog’s vibrancy and health; your dog’s breath, coat and stool; and your dog’s energy level.
    If you read the AAFCO standards of the nutrients that must be included in dog foods, you could only wish that you and your children would be that well nourished. The big, bad secret of American family nutrition is the dearth of vitamins and minerals in our diets, and even potlickers eating grocery store kibbles get what they need. However, working dogs and hunting dogs have even higher nutritional requirements, and today’s feeds often feature such additives as chondroitin, glucosamine and even prebiotics, which are “healthy bacteria” similar to those featured in yogurt ads on the WE channel.
AAFCO standards call for dog food to contain a minimum of 18 percent protein and 6 percent fat, which will sustain a sedentary dog. Most grocery store brands contain 21 percent protein and 8 percent fat. However, your dog at peak performance needs high-octane fuel and should be fed a formula of at least 30 percent protein and 20 percent fat during the hunting or training season.
    Think about it this way: If a retriever is either in serious training for a master hunter title or on the field-trial circuit, it will be expected to accomplish 400-yard retrieves, sometimes over both water and land. What about a triple-blind retrieve at 400 yards? By the time the dog runs and swims 2,400 yards at top speed, it has burned an incredible amount of energy. The protein demands of a fit, athletic dog performing at top speed are immense, and fat supplies the energy to burn.
    When the marathon craze came about in the 1980s, we all were convinced that “complex carbohydrates” were the key to athletic performance. But think about it: If you’re going out hunting for the day, do you want pancakes with syrup in your belly or bacon and eggs? I don’t know about you, but a bowl of oatmeal lasts me about an hour, and then my hands start shaking.
When the hunting season is over or a dog comes off of the trial circuit, high-power dog food is too much for a dog with limited activity. Gary Kubicek, National Sales and Marketing Manager for Country Vet Pet Foods, recommends either dialing back on the quantity of food or feeding a maintenance food with, say, 24 percent protein and 14 percent fat.
    As dog foods have evolved, so has the desirability of “value added” ingredients such as chondroitin and glucosamine for joint health; vitamin E, Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids for heart and lung health; and lactobacillus acidophilus and enterococcus faecium to aid in digestion. There also has been a lot of discussion about the preservatives used to keep dog food fresh but, trust me, if they didn’t use preservatives, the food would go rancid pretty quickly. The top end of the industry has settled on mixed tocopherols as the preservatives of choice, and these happen to be anti-oxidants as well.

Several brands of dog food have been at the top of the heap for years. Bob West at Purina (www.purina.com) notes that of the 15 finalists in the retriever field- trial national championships, “Eleven or 12 of them were Pro Plan dogs,” and a majority of the top 20 dogs in several different disciplines, from pointing-dog field trials to sheepdog trials, are fueled by Pro Plan.
    Eukanuba (www.euksport.com), an Iams brand that is part of the Procter & Gamble family of companies, has been making top-quality dog food for more than 40 years. Nutrena, a Cargill company, has gotten into the game with its Loyall (www.loyallpetfoods.com) line of pet foods, and it has put its decades of experience formulating quality animal feeds to work. Nutrisource (www.nutrisource dogfood.com) makes a well-formulated brand of premium performance dog food. These giants in the industry have a slew of PhD nutritionists and are constantly developing new products, so much so that it can become confusing as to which formula to buy. Indeed, these various brands are sometimes very similar in content. There are some important differences, however. For example, chicken meal made from chicken meat is preferable to chicken byproducts made from ground entrails. You may find that your dog doesn’t tolerate glucosamine well, as evidenced by an upset stomach; or that your dog is allergic to the corn used in one of the brands. You may find that your dog does really well on a barley/lamb or a fish/rice formulation.
    There are several smaller regional brands that make good sporting-dog blends that don’t break the bank. The aforementioned Country Vet Pet Food (www.countryvet petfood.com) doesn’t spend big bucks on marketing like Procter & Gamble and Purina and offers a quality food at a good value. The company has its own fleet of trucks and can deliver throughout the heartland. Country Vet’s highest-octane food, Dog Fuel, is a 32/20 mix, and its maintenance food is a 26/18 blend.
    Native (www.nativedogfood.com) dog food is distributed through hardware and feed stores, so if you live off of the beaten path, chances are you can find a local store and order in your food. The appealing formulation of Native foods is the company’s system of “stepping it up” from a Level 1 (24/14) formulation for a sedentary dog to a Level 4 (35/25) blend for a hard-charging, calorie-burning hunting dog. As your dog progresses—or regresses—through levels of fitness and activity throughout the year, you can seamlessly change the formulation without causing stomach upset.
    Recently the buzzwords “natural,” “organic” and “holistic” have emerged in pet food production. The thinking is: If organic is good for me, it’s gotta be good for my dog. Blue Buffalo (www.bluebuff.com)produces a line of natural and organic pet foods, formulated for active and working dogs. Natural Planet Organics (www.naturalplanetorganics.com) has a completely organic line of dog food. At $2 a pound for the biggest bag, it’s pricey stuff, but nothing is too good for ol’ Rover, is it?

Sometimes a dog needs more than what’s found in a bag of dog food, and for unusual, stressful or difficult situations, a nutritional supplement may be just the ticket. Anyone who travels a lot with dogs can tell you that the stress of traveling can make a dog suffer gastric upset, and that may result in you having a mess on your hands. Hopefully the motel owner won’t shoot you or bill your credit card for the cost of cleaning. Maybe you’ll get away with spending 10 bucks at the car wash swabbing out your dog trailer.
    One way to avoid this is to supplement your dog’s diet with prebiotics, or the “good bacteria” that help a dog digest food. Some dog foods now contain these digestive aids, but it’s not a bad idea to help a dog settle its stomach while traveling with a little extra dose at feeding time. Some trainers give their dogs a daily application and find that they seem healthier and happier. Hillsboro makes an additive called The Edge (www.theedgeadvantage .net) that helps control odor and diarrhea and allows a dog to achieve better nutrition absorption.
  ZoomDog (www.zoomdog.info) has a lineup of supplements to help with joint damage, nervousness and barking, and itchy skin and allergies. Suffice to say the company has done a great deal of research on the subject, and if your dog is achy after a hunt, nervous about thunderstorms or has an itchy coat, you should see if one of these supplements will help.
    It’s well known that elk will eat aspen bark like candy, and you can’t stop horses from eating cottonwood bark. That’s because bark from trees in the willow family contains salicin, which is a natural pain reliever and the base ingredient of aspirin. Retrieve Health (www .retrievehealth.com) makes an all-natural pain reliever for dogs based on the bark of the white willow. The company says it’s just as effective as aspirin but doesn’t cause stomach upset or liver damage like aspirin can.  Retrieve Health also has a complete line of dog supplies, including washes for cleaning ears; nutrition bars for doggie pick-me-ups in the field; multi-vitamins and supplements; omega fatty acids and antioxidants for skin and coat repair; and digestive enzymes and probiotics.
    There are different schools of thought regarding energy supplements for dogs. Some trainers and guides like to give every dog an energy boost with a powdered supplement on a daily basis. Others like to keep energy bars in the dog trailer or bird vest for a calorie and energy boost while experiencing a long day in the field.
    TechMix (www.techmixinc.com) is invested in sporting dogs as well, with a line of electrolyte supplements, canine energy bars, joint supplements, probiotics, and vitamin and mineral supplements.
    Happy Jack (www.happyjackinc.com) is a great resource for a variety of supplements as well as routine-maintenance supplies such as vaccinations and de-wormers. Also, Happy Jack helps dog owners handle troublesome conditions such as ear infections, skin problems, fleas and ticks, and mange. The company has a great online store, particularly for kennel owners, serious hunters and trainers who need vet supplies on a routine basis.
With all of the great food and supplements available these days, it seems a dog’s life isn’t so bad after all.

Gary Hubbell lives in Crawford, Colorado, and works as a ranch real-estate broker, writer and photographer. He guides blue grouse and ptarmigan hunts in the fall. Visit his Website at www.aspenranchrealestate.com.

A Feeding Schedule

Your dog’s feeding schedule is very important. Torsion, or twisted stomach, can easily kill a dog, and it happens most often when a dog is running hard with a full stomach. Bloat is another dangerous condition. Both can be avoided with a common-sense feeding schedule. Don’t hunt your dog within about three hours of feeding. Some experts advocate feeding once a day in the evening after all of the day’s activities are concluded. Others say two portions a day are better, with a smaller portion fed at least three hours before the morning’s hunt.
    Do not leave food out for your dog all day. This is one of the main contributors to canine obesity. Feeding table scraps is a bad idea, too, because you can’t really control the amount of calories or the quality of the nutrition, and your dog probably will get fat as a result. And last, don’t confuse affection with food. Petting your dog is great; feeding it snacks as “treats” will only help it become obese.  —G.H.