Dog performance appears to increase with food consumption - Page 2

I believe there is a difference between 'training' and 'testing' that

a lot of people seem not to appreciate ... 

if you withhold food until after  a training session, you get better attention

from the dog provided that you train with food 'treats',   but usually a

very hungry dog is not one who concentrates well under testing  conditions

(eg in the Ob ring);  and certainly a half-starved dog will put in a  lower-energy

performance, in any discipline .

But a dog being normally well fed should not be showing a dramatic difference

if only fed lightly before working on the day of competition.   Problems can

arise when the inexperienced take some loose talk they have heard from other

handlers about working dogs while they are 'hungry'  and in their own minds

turn that into an excuse for never feeding the dog as well as they should, IME. 

I do a lot of performance/sporting events with multiple dogs. My dogs are and have been titled in rally, Schutzhund, agility, flyball, dock diving, lure coursing, nosework, SDA (tracking, ob, protection)....these days I am doing flyball, agilty, and then disc dog and dock diving seasonally (spring/summer). In a slow month, I am traveling to compete once a month. During some times of the year, I am competing 3 weekends a month and having to say no to others because of money. I'm no stranger to competing dogs and the physical demands. A lot of what my dogs do are competitions that might be 1 hour of down time and then 5 minutes of intense activity/sprinting (flyball) so when and how much my dogs get fed is not the only thing I have to consider (stretching, warming up, cooling down, etc).

I never understood why some of my fellow competitors insist on "running" their dogs on empty stomachs? I was a competitive gymnast and I'm still active and work out and never do so on an empty stomach. Really, common sense goes a long way! I don't feed a dog a huge meal 5 minutes before entering the flyball ring (or 5 minutes after). I was competing Sat, Sun, Mon this holiday weekend and I feed my dogs a normal meal 5:30-6am, we arrive at 8am, compete on and off throughout the day, I feed a small meal between noon-2pm (but not right before or after a dog competes), and then the other half of that second meal when we arrive home (it's over an hours drive home so they have more than an hour to rest). When we are competing in flyball, I feed a small meal early morning and then feed them handfuls of food many times throughout the day. I'm not going to have them running races from 7am-7pm with no food or a small breakfast and nothing else all day.

I'm also not one that uses basic necessities to eek out performance in my dogs. I do not have the "super crazy extreme drive!!!!111" dogs. My dogs have drive, plenty for me to work with in ALL the venues I enjoy while still having dogs that are great travelers, settled at home and at hotels without crates or kennels. If I really have to withhold meals just so my dog will track or do obedience....no thanks. Again, I use common sense. If I'm training with bait or food rewards, obviously meals will be a bit smaller so my dogs don't get fat. ALL of my dogs regardless of age, breed, drive level, titles, or purpose are entitled to 2-3 meals a day, a comfortable home, and access to clean water.