Cocker spaniel tiring out

https://Immersive-optics.com/
D

danban

Well-Known Member
Hi all I have a 8 year old Cocker bitch and now and again she has flaked out when I'm out rough shooting.
I carried her back to the car yesterday got her home and cleaned her up and she was fine. Today she is full of beans.
I wondered what you guys give to your dog's during the day to help them. She won't normally eat anything when I'm out with her.
She was only out just over 2 hours.
 
She is a very funny dog and sometimes have to nearly force her to eat. We feed her morning and night maybe i need higher protein food
 
danban said:
She is a very funny dog and sometimes have to nearly force her to eat. We feed her morning and night maybe i need higher protein food.

Hi DB

Also check the carb content on the food she is having compared with other foods and perhaps increase it. I always give my labs a small breakfast on working days consisting of half a bake bean can of Working Crunch plus 2/3 big spoonfuls of canned dog meat mixed up with hot water to make a gravy, they very soon scoff that down and it keeps them going.
Also do you keep her hydrated during the day, the weather doesn't have to be hot for a dog to start flagging, at lunchtime a lab will drink a litre even when there is snow on the ground and they are very fit dogs.

atb WB.
Click to expand...
 
My spaniel has never had this. Can only presume that the little bit of breakfast she eats before a shoot day sorts this plus I give a little bit of food at lunch.

I knew a guy who's spaniel used to fit quite regularly. Is this what you are talking about or did she just get too tired to do anything? He was advised glucosamine tablets if he saw his dog starting to show signs on a shoot day. As said above - low blood sugar. Wedged one up under its lip if it wouldn't take it.
 
A chap on our shoot had this happen with his lab. It was towards the end of the day and it had been working really hard. Never seen it before and it was quite distressing at first because the dog just collapsed and wouldn't move. At first he thought it had a stroke or similar but we got the truck and lifted it in. Back at the barn we cooked some sausages and gave it some food and within about 20 minutes it was fine. He took it to the vet the next day to have it checked and was told it was probably simply low blood sugar levels.
I now always take a few treats in my pocket to give my dog during the day
 
Heard of folk giving mars bar etc but due to I think bromine ? In human chocolate I wouldn't risk it ...
Same lad moved over to the tetra paks of ambrosia custard ( sugar hit) at lunch time on a shoot day & gave dogs bit of his sandwiches , never had any bother

Paul
 
danban said:
She is a very funny dog and sometimes have to nearly force her to eat. We feed her morning and night maybe i need higher protein food
Click to expand...


My 8 year old Border Terrier is the same. He only eats one meal a day. Funny little critter.

For the spaniel could be worth having some dried meat to feed her half way through plus a big breakfast in the am with a few oats bit of fish chucked in.
 
sauer said:
Heard of folk giving mars bar etc but due to I think bromine ? In human chocolate I wouldn't risk it ...
Same lad moved over to the tetra paks of ambrosia custard ( sugar hit) at lunch time on a shoot day & gave dogs bit of his sandwiches , never had any bother

Paul
Click to expand...

I can remember my father and uncles giving the dogs half a mars bar each at lunchtime on shootdays but "we know better now".
It didn't seem to do the dogs any harm and cannot remember seeing one run out of steam.

atb WB
 
Hi,
don't worry so much about protein levels it is fat levels that are more important. In winter for my kenneled dogs when it was very cold and dogs that I worked I would either feed high fat food or drizzle melted lard on their food.

Further, regarding sugar. In a human having hypo chocolate, lucozade etc will bring them around but it will not sustain them. For that the emergency services like to see them eat a sandwich, biscuits or a meal of some sorts for sustained sugar release. If I were out working a dog and noted it starting to tire quickly I might go for something like this

http://www.kronch.co.uk/shop/pemmikan-bars-400g/

I have no connection with the supplier but always liked the idea of it.

Ian
 
Last edited:
I am wary of chocolate for them as well.

The young springer faded once having worked hard and it was cold and sleety. But I have since increased the size of their breakfast handful and upped their share of my sandwiches on shoot days. I have always carried a pocket full of their dry biscuits.

They are only fed once a day, late evening. I am giving them half and half Pero organic and the Akela working dog mix which is 80% protein and 20% vegetable with no filler.

I was told that working dogs should go onto a higher protein diet leading up to and during the season. But mine have a fairly high protein diet year round. Two or three pheasant legs or thighs a week and the odd duck egg on top of their biscuits.

Alan
 
I like the idea of putting duck eggs on food. When I lived on a farm (those were the days) I would boil up all my surplus duck and hen eggs, smash the shells and throw them in with the dogs, they would eat them shells and all. Great food.


Ian
 
I always break them and pour in...I try not to let the dogs see the process so they don't get the idea that egg shaped things taste good and start thinking to help themselves!

The young one is an excellent retriever, one of the ducks used to lay during the day when she was out and about the garden....very useful to have a soft mouthed Springer egg collector!

Alan
 
My 9 year old cocker bitch used to be too excited to eat if she knew we were going shooting. She would flag a little during the day (or rather, she'd slightly calm down from her "pocket rocket" early-morning phase) but she never got to the point of being that exhausted that she had to be carried. If it was me I'd ask my vet to run some blood tests, just to be on the safe side.

Her son, now four years old, has never had a problem with eating in the morning - apparently he takes after our two labs ;) We've just put him to a bitch, so hopefully the next generation will inherit his eating habits rather than his mothers.

Regarding snacks during the day, another working dog owner put me onto these: http://www.waitrose.com/shop/ProductView-10317-10001-452-Waitrose+venison+and+tripe+sausages+for+dogs and I have to say that all our dogs can't get enough of them. They are over 90% meat, are easy to carry in the pocket, and I'll often give the dogs one between drives with a couple at the end of the day. Wish I'd found them years ago.
 
Knowing my vets and the way my dog was i think that now she is older and I don't work her as much I think it was just a case she was over worked.
She use to do 3 days a week with no problems but now I have a little lad she probably doesn't get the exercise she did.
Where we were it's tough going jumping back and forth across ditches and rough hedges.
I will try tripe before and something during our time out.
If anything else happens she will be straight to the vet. I will probably retire her next season. She has been a great little dog for my first and I'm not going to work her into the ground.
 
It may be wrong but always gave my spaniels a mars bar and some of my pie or sandwich on shoot days, she went down one wet cold day, but soon recovered, the only time she did it, don,to now what the effect of chocolate is on dogs but never had one live less than 16 yrs, most of them wanting to work until the day they died.
 
Mine has Equi Life %85, cooked veg (broccoli cabbage colli etc) sunflower oil, scraps, tined tuna in sunflower oil.

He is only 3 and not 8, hope she picks up.

Tim.243
 
I had a similar problem with my Springer when cold and wet so always carried a few Tunnock wafers in my pocket so half for me and half for the dog a few times during the day and never anymore problems.
I am also a great beliver in getting fat anf carbs into my dogs when the weathers bad or working hard
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

When your Cocker proves she has a 'soft mouth'...
Replies
6
Views
1K
dogman56
D
Peg/Picking up dog training
Replies
11
Views
820
Willowthewhisk
W
they live among us.
Replies
0
Views
244
John Gryphon
John Gryphon
Roe doe are so tough
2
Replies
36
Views
3K
wildfowler.250
wildfowler.250
When to take my daughter shooting
2 3
Replies
55
Views
3K
suburban bushwacker
suburban bushwacker
Back
Top