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Overcoming In-Season Obstacles with Your Bird Dog
Between dangers in the field and training-related issues while hunting, how do you handle and prepare for obstacles that may arise this season?
The Importance of Mental Stimulation for Sporting Breed Puppies
Training your puppy starts the moment he comes home, and it begins with mental stimulation. Keeping him on task from the beginning will build a better adult sporting dog—but how do you do it? Read on for advice on how to hold a puppy’s attention.
Nutrition to Support Your Sporting Breed Puppy’s Digestive Health
Digestive health is integral to a puppy’s overall health. The digestive system turns food into building blocks (nutrients) used by every other system, such as the muscular, skeletal, respiratory, and nervous systems, for proper growth and development. Feeding a highly digestible, nutrient-dense puppy food can help a highly active puppy’s body put vital nutrients to work with optimal efficiency.
Nutrition’s Role in Supporting Your Sporting Breed Puppy’s Immune System
A sporting breed puppy’s exposure to the natural world can occur early in life, and frequently. Introduction to the woods and waters in which they will eventually work is important for future training. However, these environments often contain pathogens that can challenge a young puppy’s immune system. Selecting a nutrient-dense diet with prebiotics and a fortified antioxidant complex can help support a puppy’s developing immune system and natural defenses. A strong and functional immune system helps a puppy’s body identify and address potential pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, and parasites.
How To Support Joint Health in Your Sporting Dog
When we think about the longevity of our hardworking sporting dogs in the fields and blinds, joint health is often a point of concern. They run hard in a variety of conditions, they jump over logs or stone walls, and they twist and turn their way through fields and covers. Those aggressive movements can put a tremendous amount of stress on their joints.
How Much to Feed a Sporting Breed Puppy
Puppies are a lot of things. They’re curious, they take a lot of naps, and when they wake up they’ve got a tremendous amount of energy. They’ve got powerful appetites and are always on the lookout for the next meal. But there’s more to feeding a puppy than filling up a bowl with kibble.
When and How to Socialize a Sporting Breed Puppy
Socializing puppies when they’re young is key to building strong and confident adult sporting dogs. Puppies need to learn about everything, which includes the environments in which they’ll live and work, people, other dogs and animals, and routine care. Read on for some tips on when and how to start socializing your sporting breed puppy.
Should Your Sporting Dog Shift to an Off-season Diet?
Sporting dogs burn a lot of calories during the hunting season. To support their elevated nutritional needs, savvy handlers feed them performance kibble. Off-season nutritional needs are often different, and that’s why many handlers shift a dog’s diet to one with lower amounts of fat and calories.
Can Sporting Breed Puppies Eat Adult Dog Food?
Sporting breed puppies are bred and trained to work. As a result, they have very different nutritional needs from those of a future house dog. Puppy formulas are typically more nutrient dense when compared to most adult formulas, to meet the demands of growth. However, it is not uncommon for sporting dog owners to utilize a performance formula or an “all-life-stages” product for their sporting breed puppies. These formulas are usually more nutrient dense and, in theory, sufficient to support the growth period. However, there are other nutritional options available today specifically designed for active puppies that may offer advantages that help promote a solid nutritional foundation for future performance.
THE BENEFITS OF ANTIOXIDANTS IN DOG FOOD
Hunters and trainers might argue about which breeds of sporting dogs are best for their preferred pursuits, but they can all agree on one thing, sporting dogs are driven to work. Whether it's a setter, pointer, shorthair, or retriever, sporting dogs are energetic, focused, and motivated. Off-season conditioning helps dogs maintain their hunting drive all year long. Well-conditioned bird dogs can run for miles without missing a step, and retrievers can run, jump, and swim their way through dozens of retrieves.
Tips for traveling with your Gun Dog
Whether you're driving a decked-out dog hauling rig or crating Rover in the backseat of your sedan, traveling with dogs is a process. Here are some tips and recommendations from two hunters and trainers who spend a lot of time on the road with their dogs.
The Role of Antioxidants in Recovery
Give a pointer, setter, shorthair or Lab a choice between working or taking a nap, odds are they'll take work at every opportunity. Handlers are in it to win it today, but they've got an eye on tomorrow as well.
Key Nutrients for a Healthy Skin and Coat
Humans can use topical supplements like moisturizing lotion or hair conditioner for good health, but a dog doesn't have that luxury. The condition of a dog's hair and skin comes from proper feeding, and it's far more important than just making them look good. Healthy hair and skin protect them from the environment.
The importance of protein, fats and carbs in a gun dogs diet
The intensity of a flushing dog working for three minutes is different from a bird dog that runs all morning long. Gun dogs need to be fueled by the correct type of energy, one that gives them drive at the breakaway and enough juice to swim against the current for that 15th retrieve. Nutrition tailored to support these different types of activities helps dogs work at their peak potential.
How Much Water Should Your Gun Dog Drink?
Most sporting dog owners and handlers know how to calculate daily amounts of food, but is there a way to determine how much water your dog should drink? According to Eukanuba's Pet Health and Nutrition Center's Director Dr. Jill Cline, there is.
