It is time, however, to consider that the working dog is an athlete and
deserves the same attention and consideration that any other hopeful
Olympic competitor or all star player is given. Imagine a professional
human athlete in training consuming a prepared diet of processed food
twice a day. Imagine that the food is cooked for three days, using
inferior grade food products, and then baked into small chunks, with
supplements added in after this process to stand up to nutritional
requirements. Would you expect this athlete to deliver his best
performance on the field? Would this diet sustain and maintain the
required strength, stamina and endurance needed for the player to
compete under stress at their best ability?
The dog is somewhat different than us, however, as canines are
carnivores. Carnivores depend on proteins and fats for energy and
life-sustaining nutrients. The more energy a dog expends, the more fat
and protein are required in their system. If these energy-feeding
factors are not found in the system, the dog quickly loses the ability
to sustain endurance and stamina.
The main diet available for dogs today is dry dog food. Let’s take a
quick look at the ingredients in this diet. Most kibble lists at least
three forms of grain, if not more. Carbohydrates are not energy
producers for canines. Grains are used extensively in processed foods
for bulk, cost and ease in preparation. Dogs require amino acids as the
building blocks for increased energy and health. Amino acids are found
in proteins, most importantly, animal proteins. The cooking involved in
the making of processed dog foods often destroys the amino acids,
digestive enzymes, and most of the vitamins and minerals.
Finally, starchy and high fiber foods take longer to digest in the dog’s
short and simple digestive tract, compared to the ease of digesting
fresh foods (animal proteins and fats). Digestion takes up most of the
energy in any living being, and the less time spent with digestion, the
more their energy can be spent elsewhere, like the field or the ring. If
food is digested quickly, the working dog will not have to carry a full
belly of food on to the field, giving the dog the needed energy for
working, and also lessening the chance of bloat or torsion.
“No lower limit or minimal requirement for carbohydrate has been
established in the dogs. Ketosis and associated sodium depletion occur
in humans suddenly shifted to low carbohydrate diets. Dogs are much more
resistant than humans to ketosis when fasted and fed 100% fat. Sled dogs
fed a high fat (66% energy) and zero carbohydrate diet at twice
maintenance has very low blood levels of acetoacetate and
betahydroxybutyrate 3 and 9 weeks. There is no evidence that dogs have
an essential nutrient requirement for glucose, using nutrient in the
strict sense of something assimilated from the diet. Tissue utilization
of glucose accounts for about 25% of the total resting metabolism in
dogs and other animals. Clearly this can be synthesized from nutrient
precursors of glucose, (e.g. amino acids and glycerol, in dogs fed zero
carbohydrate). In this respect, dogs resemble ruminants, chicks, rats,
and cats. Even in man, the metabolic changes that immediately follow
dietary intake of carbohydrate deprivation abate with time. Thus, there
is no minimal daily intake of carbohydrates recommended for man. It has
been suggested that some unassimilated carbohydrate is beneficial
mechanically in facilitating regular bowel movements. Regularity is
synonymous with health in the eyes of anally-oriented people. The
anthropomorphic projection of this ideal to dogs has no established
medical basis. The small, foul smelling and infrequent productions of a
dog fed a low fiber diet may be less desirable than the bulky,
relatively pleasant herbivore-like scatterings of dogs fed high fiber
diets. Or they may be more desirable. This is a matter of esthetics.”
http://www.b-naturals.com/newsletter/working-dog-diets/
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