[hotel4dogs]

Be careful with food. Insufficient fat in the food of hard working dogs makes them more prone to heat stroke. http://www.sportsvet.com/information-pages/a3-feeding-the-canine-athlete/

 

[DarrinGreene]

Only way to answer the question is to switch to Orijen or go raw - see what happens when you pull the carbs out. Not sure it will or won't help but the only way to know is to try. All the predictions in the world tell you nothing because no one has done that with enough dogs to really tell you definitively what the effect will be.

 

[KwickLabs]

This thread is based on food being the problem mostly because since the trainer can control it this would be much simpler (to "regulate" a dog's excitement)
......never mind the aspect of instinctive traits and training skills (or lack thereof). The drive to retrieve and how "birdie" a retriever becomes (excitement)
are coupled with focus, control and responsiveness. Does anyone believe that those last three factors are a function of food? Is the idea that making a dog
lethargic via food can be a training technique?

Adrenalin is a powerful stimulant. Some learn to use this to an advantage and many have trouble with its effect. If a dog is going to run in a test with high
Adrenalin levels, training will be more effective if that level of excitement is experienced regularly.

Human athletes go through a stage were "the game" is just "too fast" for them. They loose it and become unraveled. I don't know of any athletes that cut
back on the level of food intake to get more control over their emotions. However, coaches do tend to emotionally elevate the intensity in practice to provide
game like simulations. Some are just better at dealing with adrenaline in "crunch time" if they have become use to it.....regularly.

"Let the genie out of the bottle" in training and deal with it there.......or cut back food so the dog is running on six cylinders instead of eight?

 

[Wayne Nissen]

Bill, train like you trial. Large groups, less marks but conditioning to all the hullablu is as important as what happens in the field. You've been around you know that. Off the subject I found another bumper for that gift I all but gave you.

Dogs with that drive are great to watch, but a bit tough to train. FYI I feed all my dogs the Victor formula you mentioned. Hang on tight and enjoy the ride! She trains very well. But in the last holding blind when she hears "guns up" it maybe over the top of the holding blind: Passed 5 MH , failed last bird in first qual Love her dearly
BillB

 

[LabskeBill]

Bill, train like you trial. Large groups, less marks but conditioning to all the hullablu is as important as what happens in the field. You've been around you know that. Off the subject I found another bumper for that gift I all but gave you.

Beleive me we do the hullablui every chance we get. You charged me three times what it was worth. Had to but new tanks, regulator, battery plus many accessories to get it ready. The problem is that I paid lol works great now

 

[LabskeBill]

This thread is based on food being the problem mostly because since the trainer can control it this would be much simpler (to "regulate" a dog's excitement)
......never mind the aspect of instinctive traits and training skills (or lack thereof). The drive to retrieve and how "birdie" a retriever becomes (excitement)
are coupled with focus, control and responsiveness.

Just interested if food Protein, fat do effect the above. maybe a causitive

Does anyone believe that those last three factors are a function of food? Is the idea that making a dog
lethargic via food can be a training technique?

No intention to make her lethargic but if something is falsely raising the adrenaline I want to know it

Adrenalin is a powerful stimulant. Some learn to use this to an advantage and many have trouble with its effect. If a dog is going to run in a test with high
Adrenalin levels, training will be more effective if that level of excitement is experienced regularly.

Agree and attempt the above

I don't know of any athletes that cut back on the level of food intake to get more control over their emotions.
No desire to cutback the level just change the composition slightly

Thanks
BillB

 

[T-bone]

High drive /Energy/ Fire breather/ all them quotes are common.
They all require 'Calm' training ..Not special feeding. (imo) .A well trained dog is a well trained dog .
A well fed dog is a well fed dog.
A dog that is fed anything that the owner thinks it will make it a High drive dog doesn't have a high drive dog ! You can work the rest out yourself.
.....
Anyone tried drugs ?..Or just plain old Training . ..
Any food on the market or additives to get a 'Driving Miss Daisy' dog going like a an Exocet missile?..Give us a call ,that would be great .thanks. Save me heeps on training time.

We have a high roller who had a severe injury. Once he was ready to start out "slow" (yeah right ...) I asked the vet school if they thought it would hurt to try to calm him down with some of his "downer" drugs that we used to keep him quiet during recovery. They said why not so we gave it a try. It was the most entertaining training session we've had. He is birdy as heck and a talented marker. On that day he was like an eight year old playing T-ball. Easily distracted by daisies, a plane flying overhead and the grass moving in the wind. Gave the whole training group a chuckle!

 

[1tulip]

We have a high roller who had a severe injury. Once he was ready to start out "slow" (yeah right ...) I asked the vet school if they thought it would hurt to try to calm him down with some of his "downer" drugs that we used to keep him quiet during recovery. They said why not so we gave it a try. It was the most entertaining training session we've had. He is birdy as heck and a talented marker. On that day he was like an eight year old playing T-ball. Easily distracted by daisies, a plane flying overhead and the grass moving in the wind. Gave the whole training group a chuckle!

So there was this dog we called All-World Earl. He was a crazy man, a huge creeper. We called him All-Star Earl. Then First-and-10-Earl, then All-American Earl. He kept creeping so badly we finally called him All-World-Earl. There was a point when we actually tried to figure the pharmacokinetics and Volume of distribution for Valium and tried to do the calculus for when the drug's action would peak verses how long it took to run the test and where Earl was in the line-up. Since everyone was sorta math challenged, we decided to bag it and give the Valium to the handler. (He was NOT my dog. At the time I had a dog that would fall asleep on her honor... which is another way a dog can embarrass you.)

 

[Breck]

Give me a high roller like Little Man or Lefty any day of the week. They can eat whatever the heck they want too!

 

[ClayStubby95]

My dog used to be the same way. What I would really consider doing is going to as many mock tests and or club events as possible. Get them around the hunt test atmosphere and in the element as much as possible. Most likely if you get your dog in a situation that is very very similar to the situation she messed up in during the test you can give a good correction on a practice event.