That's interesting frosty, I leave the dog with fresh water for more or less the whole keep, I only control the fresh water in the last week, that's when I take any excess fluids off the dog and fine tune the weight. And are you giving anything to help keep the kidneys flushed?
Thanks, thats why i wondered that it was mentioned.Originally Posted by FrostyPaws
I've copied Frosty's method and im happy with it. That's plenty of water, i give a little less, and all at once 30 min after training.
When u just leave the dogs with fresh water, i find they don't drink enough to keep themselves hydrated for training. And when you add "some" water to the food, i found some dogs wouldn't touch their bowl. So better to give it all at once.
Macker, the water flushes the kidneys. You figure if a dog gets 32oz of water, that's 2lbs of water everyday. When the dog isn't working, he's laid up resting. The dog's body gets rid of the excess water throughout the day. You also have to take into account the body's ability to make metabolic water throughout the day from the processing of energy. So the kidneys are fine unless there is previous kidney damage.
Ok, it's just your initial posts was asking what people are giving supplements to help keep the kidneys flushed so I just wondered if you where giving anything yourself?? Like I say I leave them with fresh water as well as giving broth with a supplement to help kidney function once a day, that's just the way I learned to do it but I am interested by your method.
Toxins are released in the body throughout the door. That amount increases during and after work. The water at feeding time helps to flush all that out initially. Since it's so much water to give in one feeding (or 2 if you desire), the excess water continues to flush the kidneys when urination occurs. Couple that with the metabolic water the body produces anyway, and you have a little extra water flushing right alongside the water given in the feed.
My only trouble with "all the water at once with the food" methodology is the fact that it's an overload of everything at once.
Say the dog eats X amount of food, then the dog's digestive juices go to work trying to break down and process that food.
Left alone, the dog's digestive juices are already challenged when in optimal concentration to try to do so
However, with the influx of an assload of water on top of that, all at once, those stomach juices become diluted
Giving the dog all the food at once, by itself, is a challenge for the dog to digest completely and properly, but there is no way this can happen with the total dilution of these digestive acids with a day's worth of water on top of it.
No way.
Jack
I feed kibbles at the moment. I will let it soak in all the water (warmed up, not hot) for 30-60 minutes before feeding. It makes it more easy to digest.
When u add all that water, and you let your dog empty after 2 hours, you will see he will piss out a river already. So it's not like the food is swimming in all that water all the time.
Dogs are able to perform/train hard. So whether its optimal for digestion is questionable but i dont notice any problems in practice
All that water, added to all that food, is simply not optimal for for digestion.
It is done for "human convenience," and for an element of control, not for any other reason.
I break it down in two parts, Jack. Lets say the dog is getting 1.5lbs feed and a cup and a half water all at once at feed time and then weigh. In two to three hrs I will let him/her out to urinate and put em bck in the crate for the night. In the morning, when we empty out, we might lose 10-18oz of piss n shit. After the workout I will offer another cup and a half of water. Depending on what stage of keep we're in he/she may or may not drink it all. So what do you do when he/she begins to stop drinking the water towards the end of the keep if you dont give it all with the feed? Do you think that when they start to not want the water this could be a cause for some dogs kidneys failing afterwards?
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