Our recently-acquired 3ish year old Springer, Bryn, is going out for an hour or so on weekdays and longer at weekends. We tend to alternate walking and running outings, covering about 2 1/2 miles - 5 miles, usually in hilly woodland.
He lost 1kg in about three weeks, which he's regained, but only by being on 600 gm of Arden Grange Lamb and Rice - about twice as much as they recommend.
He's in generally good health, but sometimes seems to lack energy and on one outing a few weeks ago basically collapsed.
The vet reckons there's something wrong with Bryn's digestive system, so he's not absorbing enough energy from the food. He's now on tablets to see if they help.
I'd be interested to hear from anyone with experience of Arden Grange and active-type dogs. How much do you feed? How often? Do you give more after longer outings?Do you supplement with leftovers / potato peelings etc?
Does he need to gain weight? Remember, a rough guide to the ideal weight is that you should be able to feel the ribs with your fingers without having to press hard, so unless his ribs could be seen through the skin you probably don't need to feed him that much.
Oh, can you post a photo of him? one from above and one from the side will help to give an indication to his physical condition.
Finally, is he from show or working stock? show dogs are typically bulkyer and working dogs always look skinny
Missed the bit about possible digestive problem, Sounds like my friends dog, he has to eat double the normal ammount to maintain his ideal weight
We were given a bag of Arden Grange with each of our two from the Dogs Trust, which they didn't really seem to like. Usually they wolfed down James Wellbeloved but Jack would pick at it sometimes. They seem to prefer Chudleys Working Crunch, which is much much cheaper! So, from our experience, I would suggest, if the OP hasn't already, getting small bags of a few foods for Bryn and seeing which he prefers: from a wolfing down point and putting on needed weight/etc.
A friend's dog was found to be intolerant to rice, which is in a lot of good kibbles, and was a lot happier with a brand that was essentially just potato and salmon.
Potato poisoning can occur in dogs if you are giving him raw peelings due to them being part of the nightshade family. There was a national appeal from vets this Christmas, when people tend to be a bit lackadaisy with what they feed their dogs.
I suppose it depends on the dog though. Mine used to eat the odd leftover cooked spud and was fine, but a dog belonging to a chap nearby sadly passed away from eating them regularly.
I just did a search on the internet and there is quite a list of things you shouldn't feed dogs, which my dog used to happily eat - things like turkey skin and pork?!?
I used to add a can of quality dog food to the dry mix after a long day out.
Ours didnt like it, they now get bakers complete dry stuff for breakfast and Winalot classic for tea, as soon as the can pops open they are waiting for it.
please don't feed bakers, at the very least it causes excessive diahorrea. A lot of the additives are also proven to cause behavioral problems/cancer (effect depends on the induvidual. (will dig out the full details of the tests when I get chance)
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