Chet McCreary wrote:
All dogs should have there own pen or be chained out.When they are old enough..Pups should be separtated before 12 weeks old.6-8 weeks works best if you have a warm place to put them.The reason is sooner or later most dogs when feeding them. They will get into it over feed..I know of old broke dogs kept together since birth. One day hate each other and fight over feed from then on.....I feed once day the same time each day. On average about 1 pound of food per day to each dog..Less in the summer as long as they look good eatting less...I feed 24-20 Ultra Advantage to all my dogs....My pups have automatic feeders so they eat as much as they want..It also saves on feed because they dont waste any.They also eat less that way...
Good post, and I agree all dogs should be fed separately as soon as they can take a chain. This allows the weight of each dog to be monitored, and it allows the owner to adjust the amount of feed given each dog. As far as "how much" to feed, an owner should watch the weight of each individual animal and adjust the amount given
individually (thus making "following instructions" on a bag pointless). Some dogs will simply need more food than others, even if they're the same weight, based on individual differences in activity levels, metabolism, etc. I have had 32-lb dogs that ate as much as 55-lb dogs, because the 32 ran her chain all day long and the big boy just laid around all day. So put the "instructions" down and just look at your dogs, adjusting as the reality of each animal's needs and bodyweight demands. What I disagree about is feeding kibble (but that's a whole other subject).
As far as "when" and "how often" to feed, when talking about a performance dog, feeding it ONCE a day (immediately after its workout) is what every serious sportsman does. A dog will NEVER perform its best with food in its gut. Half the dogs that run hot, gas-out, etc. do so because they are stuffed with food and then asked to run. There is no professional athlete, anywhere (of any species of animal, including human), that performs optimally when full of food. The blood that should be in the muscles is going to the stomach, and the blood that should be going to the stomach is in the muscles, and consequently neither digestion nor performance expectations can possibly be at their best. So always work a dog when it is completely empty.
Why feed once a day? So the dog can actually BE empty
Dogs' stomachs and digestive systems function differently, and much faster, than a human's. When fed the proper diet (which is raw,
not kibble) the food is digested, assimilated, and out of the dog in a few hours. The dog's liver (when the stomach is empty of feed) actually begins to produces glycogen for optimal muscle function, but this phenomenon can't happen unless the dog is completely empty. Unfortunately, those who feed "twice daily" (especially kibble twice daily) will
never have a completely empty dog, and consequently their dogs will
never perform to the uttermost of their capabilities.
Feeding once a day allows a dog to be completely empty, and so the question of "when" to feed is answered by knowing when you plan to work the animal---because all performance dogs should be fed AFTER their work is done and AFTER they have cooled off. In other words, if you hunt in the morning, then feed the dog after you get back and he cools down and stops panting, as
this is when he needs to re-fuel. If you hunt at midnight, then feed the dog when you get back in the wee hours, again after he stops panting. You also do NOT give your dog water immediately after his work, as they simply slop-down too much of it when they're hot. Instead, let the animal cool down naturally, and then give him his meal first. Only when he's done eating do you then give him water. This way he will not drink so much water and bloat prior to his meal. True bloating (gastric torsion) is a direct result of ingesting too much kibbled feed (and water) too fast. Regardless of brand, ALL kibbled feeds are sub-par feed choices when compared to raw anyway, so kibble really doesn't belong in any performance dog's diet.
Top level performance dogs get fed raw.
Finally, regarding the advantage of raw, keep in mind that natural meats are 70% water, so dogs that get fed raw have plenty of water in them naturally and don't need much additional water. Their own bodies are likewise about 70% water, so eating a raw diet keeps them in a perpetual state of equilibrium as nature intended. This natural balance is thrown-off when a dog is fed kibble, while feeding raw maintains this balance as it should be. For example, a dog that gets 2-lb of chicken quarters actually gets 22.4 oz of water and only 9.6 oz of solid food. By contrast, a dog fed 2 lb of dry kibble (at 10% moisture) gets fed only 3.2 oz of water and 28.8 oz of solid food. In other words, he gets 3x the amount of solid food a raw-fed dog gets, and nowhere near enough water to process it. For if a dog ate 28.8 oz of solid mass from raw feed, then he would be getting nearly 70 oz of moisture to process it, as again a raw diet is 70% water and 30% solid. So ~30 oz of solid mass should have 70 oz of moisture to process it, but a kibble-fed dog gets only 3.2 oz of moisture to process 28.8 oz of solids. No wonder kibble-fed dogs drink 10x the amount of water raw-fed dogs drink--they are literally forced into a perpetual state of dehydration!
Anyway, that is a side rant, but performance dogs should get fed once a day, after they've cooled down from the work. Their water should be removed when they come back, and then they should get their water back after they eat. On off days they should be fed at the same time they would get their meals if worked and have clean water available as normal. A strict feeding schedule, feeding the same time every day, allows the dog's body metabolism to be synchronized and regulated for optimal performance.
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