Did you know that your working dog is considered an endurance athlete by animal scientists?
One study found that farm dogs regularly covered 60-100 km a day or more on big hill-country musters, much of it at 20-30km/hour.[1] Other research found that, although there were significant differences between regions, farm dogs were active during peak periods for an average of 9 hours per day.[2]
You wouldn’t feed a human athlete an inadequate diet and expect them to achieve at the highest level for prolonged periods, so why do that when it comes to feeding your working dogs?
Some NZ farmers home kill meat to give their working dogs. Research has found that home kill is often deficient in micronutrients, including iodine and vitamins A, B and E.[3] In addition, ingested bones are responsible for reports of gastrointestinal obstruction, perforation, and gastroenteritis.[4] They can also be linked to constipation.
When fed uncooked or unfrozen meat, farm dogs were also found to be at risk of infection from a range of parasites.[5] Studies suggest that uncooked meat may contain more bacteria than cooked forms too, which can result in gastric upsets.[6]
In many cases, home-kill is supplemented with commercial dry biscuits, which often contain high levels of carbohydrate. These ‘fillers’ have been found to inhibit the highly advantageous fat adaptation process, which relies on a low carbohydrate, high protein and high fat diet in order to be triggered. Once enabled, fat adaptation delivers more energy and endurance to your dogs.
In addition, large quantities of both home kill and commercial dog biscuits can be needed to be consumed for working dogs to meet their nutritional requirements.[7] This can increase the risk of bloat and torsion.
Symptoms such as poor skin healing, susceptibility to fractures, joint problems and a lowered immune system have all been linked to poor nutrition.
So just like human athletes, working farm dogs need the right diet to stay healthy and perform at their peak.
Research shows that the ideal diet for working dogs is one that is:
- highly digestible
- palatable
- energy dense
- nutrient rich
Those key requirements are delivered through the STAMINA diet of high protein, high fat and low carbohydrate farm dog food. This optimal nutritional balance provides your working dogs with sustained energy and endurance. Find out how STAMINA’S 100% nutritionally complete formula does that.
A diet for human athletes promotes health, immunity, minimises injury and optimises performance by providing a sustained energy source during long periods of exercise.
STAMINA has been specifically formulated to do exactly this for your high-performance working farm dogs, so that they can last the distance on-farm, whatever the season, temperature or task.
[1] Dalton, 2020.
[2] Singh, 2013.
[3] Guilford, 1997.
[4] Freeman and Michel, 2001; Cave et al, 2009.
[5] O’Connell et al, 2019.
[6] Le Jeune and Hancock, 2001; Stromeyeret al, 2006.
[7] Hill, 2011.