Conditioning

[Marinepits]

I've noticed that many of the dock dogs are in really good shape. What do you do to put (and keep) them into condition?

Also, what food does everyone feed their dogs?

I do a lot of hiking with my crew and the youngsters do flirt pole and spring pole. They all eat Merrick Wilderness Blend kibble/canned. Snacks are raw vegetables or apples.

[renegade]

We do lots of hiking and swimming at the lake. Renegade also does agility so we are doing training everyday for that which I think helps a lot. He's currently eating Innova Evo - I just switched him over recently and I'm loving the extra energy (I didn't think it was possible to get more energy out of an already extremely energetic dog) I'm getting from the extra protein!

[Sassy Girl]

We do lots of stuff with our pups...unfortunately Twiz's breeder thinks he's still needs to take off a pound or two...so he'll be doing a little bit more... :?

Gunn does alot of different things - chuck it, swimming, spring pole, frisbee and some nights the treadmill. We also compete in flyball so lots of drills for that.

[Sardo]

Lots of walks on the beach almost daily. Bicycle rides, treadmill work, swimming, fetch, up hill retrieves, flyball practice, hurdle jumps, hiking( mostly winter time due to rattlesnakes) and every so often dockjumping.

Maximus eats Solid Gold Barking at the moon performance dog food, supplemented with fish oil, glucosamine, creatine, and k-9 superfuel two weeks before a competition

[Sassy Girl]

as far as food, we feed Innova Evo and like Brian, we supplement K9 Super Fuel as well 2 weeks prior to competitions.

By the way Brian - Animal Naturals, the manufacturer or K9 Super Fuel sponsors Gunner....they are a local company.

[Sardo]

Evo is just like barking at the moon. It is a high prtein low grain diet, the only real diffrence EVO uses chicken and turkey, mine is turkey and salmon.


K-9 superfuel a sponsor ha!!!! that's pretty good because that stuff is expensive.

[Sassy Girl]

Yeah - we also use the Go Dog product,so it was adding up....but I love the results I've seen in my dogs with both products.

[Labpaw]

To help keep in shape, Parker does a TON of swimming, usually in the river where there is a small current. He loves to swim against it. What a workout!

[Marinepits]

Lots of walks on the beach almost daily. Bicycle rides, treadmill work, swimming, fetch, up hill retrieves, flyball practice, hurdle jumps, hiking( mostly winter time due to rattlesnakes) and every so often dockjumping.

Maximus eats Solid Gold Barking at the moon performance dog food, supplemented with fish oil, glucosamine, creatine, and k-9 superfuel two weeks before a competition

Up hill retrieves -- what a great idea! I'm sure walking in the sand is a great resistance workout, too. No sand around here, but a TON of fallen leaves, LOL.

I've heard really good things about Barking at the Moon. Might have to pick up a bag.

[Sardo]

Also shallow water retrieves is also a good workout, and running through snow is also a goodworkout, but where I live we don't have that pleasure.

[Labpaw]

I agree Brian! Snow is abundant here and helps when the water is frozen. We play fetch with the tennis ball when there is deep snow. We usually lose a few balls , but it is all in good fun! :?

[deedclemdogg]

Sarge and Hope get daily walks (sometimes twice daily!) and they get to go to the park and swim and play. Typically Sarge plays and does LOTS of retrieves--usually tennis balls but he's formed an attachment to Frisbee for some reason (thanks Bart :wink: ). He also jumps "up" onto items for developing the rear hind muscles. I usually set him back down on the ground (good for my rear hind muscles too! :oops: ) unless it's a picnic table that has benches for stepping down. Hope, in the mean time, is usually hunting anything possibly alive around the pond...

Yes, the winter is great for being outside with the dogs! Typically we hike in the woods and the dogs get to bound through two-three feet of snow! And I get to put on the snowshoes! That is a great workout for everyone! And Sarge still does lots of retrieving too!

They both eat "Pursuit" which is our sponsored food by Dr. Tim. You can find more information on it at: www.drtims.com

They've eaten Nurto Natural Choice High Energy--and that worked very well for them. They ate Evolve and that was good too! I tried Wellness but it made their skin very dry and lots of hair fell out! (plus two very gassy dogs! ) They've eaten Natural Choice (I think that's the Dick Van Patten one) Potatoe and Duck--it smelled so good I think I could have eaten it! :wink: But most quality dog foods seem to work well for them--but usually something with high protein and now that they're getting older, food that has added Gl & Ch. in it. I also put Nupro supplement on their breakfast meal! Oh--and lots of healthy snacks--either homemade biscuits or fresh fruits and veggies!