Dutch Shepherd Forum

in this month's publication of Veterinary Clinics of North America: Small Animal Practice, there is an article that would interest many of you, i think especially Christie and Stephanie, by Dr. Joseph Wakshlag, Professor of Clinical Nutrition and Sports Medicine at Cornell U's vet school. the article is entitled ''Nutrition for Working and Active Dogs'' and ''highlights basic nutritional physiology and interventions for exercise, and reviews investigations regarding aging working and service dogs and canine detection activities.''

this article is also referenced in an article today in the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com in which there is also a brief interview with Dr Wakshlag. this times article is very short and should probably be of interest to almost every owner of DS here. as i have no idea of how to paste [??] a link to this [ and someone's instructions to me on how seemed written in a foreign language ], i would be happy to email a copy of the NYTimes article to anyone who PM's an email address --- and then one of you can post a link.

for those of you who run/jog with your dogs, this article has specific advice.

EDIT for title: www.nytimes.com article: ''FEEDING YOUR CANINE ATHLETE"

hmmm Interesting

so.............do people actually give their dogs sports bars or protein drinks?????? This article seemed to be aimed at the people who actually think that human sports crap is good for the dogs too. Thalie goes mountain biking with me and I never have the bars or gatorade anyway and we always have water.

H will occasionally get a Gatorade/Pedialyte/water combo (mostly water) if we've been out for extended periods working in above 90 degree heat because he won't drink and then gets heat exhausted. He won't touch water with chicken broth in it and he never gets a lot of his Gatorade combo, since it's used mainly to make sure he gets something in him where he refuses water and desperately needs it. Here in the south it gets hot very quickly so for me on hot days it's become more of a safety precaution to be used as needed when water fails.

I do like the base amounts the article gives - something that a lot of people wonder about. I myself have wondered how much fat is too much for such an active dog like H.

Gatorade is the worst thing you can put into you and your dogs body. It has so much sugar and sugar feeds all of the bad bacteria in the gut. I use lemon water. Thalie will drink it out of my camelback.

Huh. I would never have considered giving electrolyte drinks or the like to a dog. I've always had dogs who've drunk tons of water, though, so I've never had to worry about their hydration.

The only good thing about Gatorade is the rapid rehydration technique it uses to rehydrate seems to be beneficial when used properly. If I remember my science classes right, electrolytes are followed by water in absorption, so the way chemically Gatorade is designed to developer the needed electrolytes and other nutrients to replace what is lost is right, just all the additives to make it drinkable is absurd. I'll have to research to see if my science is correct or horribly flawed like my long term memory - too many drinks! lol. Now, that being said, I did see a natural remedy that used baking soda, lemon, maple, and water which I'm curious to try. I've been lucky I've only had to break out the "Punch" (his mixture, though it is severely diluted with water) three times this summer. Amazing thing is after he takes what he needs he goes back to his water and refuses whatever is left of the "Punch". Yet he knows where it is kept and last time we needed to use it he specifically got it from the fridge. I'm just lucky he will communicate what he needs to feel better!

there is nothing good about gatorade, it has so much more bad stuff in it that it negates any good it can possibly do. Lemon water is the best way to go.

I just give water to Dutch on my runs. A lot of it. Thatr's all I get. I never thought that stuff was good for dogs. The martini afterwords is for me . I don't know if this is good or bad, but I thought dogs were naturally built for running after their prey. So I never thought that giving them anything outside their normal feeding. Having said that he does get a hamburger or hot dog if I'm out. Bad owner

HeatherH wrote: Having said that he does get a hamburger or hot dog if I'm out. Bad owner

Bad owner, bad owner. Go to your crate

Switchel - tis good stuff.