dog food

[buddy 1]

hi all, i have two lurchers, a minshaw bull grey dog 25tts and a bull grey bitch 23tts, i feed mine a choice of chicken mince, chicken carcase all raw,and beta grey dry food.i take them for a mile and a half walk in the morning and 3 miles in the night after work, also try to get out three time a week on the lamp,The question i want to ask all of you is what do you feed yours and how much execise do they need to the amount of food they get given! can we keep this in good order just by putting down what you do and not have a go at what others do. cheers atb budddy

[sandymere 8,263]

I don’t think there can be an amount of food per exercise as they are all slightly different, as an example I have two that are about the same size give or take an inch, on days they aren’t getting rabbit etc, each morning one gets a large cup and a ¼ of dried plus scraps the second gets 2 cups. Evenings both get a few biscuits. Any dogs working get a meal on return in the evening as an extra. Both get similar amounts of exercise which on non working nights involves a walk in the morning and either a run with me in the evenings of around 5 miles cross country or a walk on the beach with a swim and some ball work. In reality this means that one is getting almost twice as much as the other, the reason is that one is very laid back and just sleeps and the second up and about playing with the pup or pottering about most of the day, this means he’s burning calories when she’s fast asleep. I have a pup and I feel he will fall somewhere between the two extremes. Basically I judge by eye and slightly increase or decrease on a daily basis so changes are gradual with a reduction in amounts as the work tails off in the spring then increase as the exercise increases at the end off summer.

I think the key is to adjust the amount to suit the individual rather than look for a pre-prescribed formula. That goes with exercise as well and if as dog is working 3 or 4 nights a week then it will only need a minimal exercise such as regular walks to relieve boredom and as active recovery whereas if only worked once or twice a week and in the summer they need to exercise to maintain fitness as the work alone will not keep then in good enough condition to cope with the few nights they are expected to give thier all. But some dogs will cope with lots of sprint type exercise when others will break down and be better suited to plenty of road work with a smaller amount of fast stuff. Of the two mentioned the laid back bitch, which is the ¾ bred speed merchant, can trot all day and a 10 mile run with me is like water off a ducks back, the hyper is a ½ bred and slower type that thrives on galloping but struggles with the longer runs which is backwards to what one would expect.