drying out naturally

[EWO]

Calling the correct weight for a dog is an art. The easiest way to 'find the eye' or 'learn the art' is to keep dogs in really good shape all year. Well fed, lean and fit, healthy and free of parasites, great housing, clean chain spots, etc..etc.. Even the best can't look at a dog 10lbs over and do a two week keep and call that perfect weight. Their best guess will be either lucky or wrong, usually wrong. And the opposite is true as well, wormy, underfed, 'skinny' dogs are a hard call as well.

What makes so many people think they have the eye is that the dogs can overcome the owner's inaccuracy with heart and talent, and in some cases mouth. Lots of times the dogs win in spite of their human counterpart. And one of the great human tendencies is to take credit where it is not deserved.

Lots think they can slop feed once a day, have no interaction with the dog, leave him in a filthy/unhealthy state then walk him for two weeks, upgrade his food, work for 6-8 weeks and end up with a world class athlete. Simply not true.

If someone ever says, "He really came on the last week or so of the keep", usually means he was fed like shit before hand and when he finally acclimated to the upgrade in 'fuel' and the benefit of exercise, he "STARTED" to shine. Further meaning, if the dog had started out at par, he would have SHINED earlier and SHINED BRIGHTER as the keep progresses/ended. And even then the dog has adjusted to the weight that was chosen for him not so much operating at the optimal weight. Take that same dog and allow him to live year round above par, then start and he will be SHINING from the jump and will get BRIGHTER and BRIGHTER as the keep progresses.

Calling the correct weight is a "year-round decision" not just so and so has a 41M and I think ol' Spot can go at 41, let's pull him down 7 pounds this week and call the weight. Ol' Spot better be a good one because he is basically on his own. EWO

[bullyson]

All of us who just read this should print it and frame it because you just summed it up with this post . If we cant follow what you posted and become professional, class A, elite, high caliber dog men then our dogs will never reach those heights as well !!

[EWO]

Our weather is starting to break in central NC. For whatever reason, it is like the dogs know.

This is one of the best topics for this time of year. I prefer to dry one out naturally. If the dog is worked, fed and hydrated adequately he will pretty much come off the available water himself. At that point he will piss what is excess and retain what is necessary. Much easier to dial in from that point than correcting over or under hydrated.

EWO

[CYJ]

Very well put EWO. You nailed it on the head. Hopefully a young dog person will come into your life that has a lot of get up and go. Will listen and is teachable. You have a lot of knowledge that is right on. Cheers.

[EWO]

I remember when I was that guy. D would sit down after working the dogs and it was like teacher/student, maybe even like a professor giving a lecture.

We would work a dog a the dog would respond or not respond as expected. He would go over the why's and why nots. I would come home a write it all down.

So many of the conversations were along the lines of Mr. Colopy (spelling) said this or that. Mr. Sorrels used the carpet mill this way. Mr. Brewer said this and Mr. Stephenson said that. Mr. Hargrove uses a slat mill like this or that.

Often it was a work session followed by a class session.

Couple that with being young and willing to ride up and down the road almost every cold weekend. D, his son and myself made a pretty good team, or at least we made some good memories while doing so.

Thanks for the compliment. I have enjoyed and appreciated all you have offered. I should have been born about 20 years earlier. LOL.

EWO

[Marvel]

This is a damn good read.

[EWO]

It is my favorite part of the dogs. I could read and talk about it for days on end.

There is nothing any more special than a finely tuned animal that is willing to go the extra mile powered by great preparation.

EWO

[EWO]

Another means of naturally drying a dog is the use of dry kibble. I feed raw and kibble combined, mostly for the convenience when the number of dogs somehow creep up (LOL).

A dog that is on a raw diet is naturally wet and naturally hydrated. They do not got to the water bowl near as much as the dry fed dogs.


I met a young guy a few months and he and I feed in a similar fashion. They feed raw for the most part but add kibble in a similar fashion as me. What kibble he uses is presoaked. The last week what little kibble he uses is not pre-soaked. He uses th dry food to pull water off at the end. I was not sure how effective this would be til this week.

Work took me out of town for a few days and I had a buddy of mine (non dog man) feed the dogs. There was some miscommunication over the amount of food (raw) and he fed up everything I had in three days instead of it lasting four. Dogs now like him more than me. LOL. He went to my dry bag and fed them the fourth day. He topped off all the two gallon bowls with water on Friday night. I got home Saturday at lunch and just about every bowl was bone dry. Maybe a couple had a handful of water left.

Maybe I did not realize how much water the dogs needed when being fed dry, maybe they adjust, but coming of raw onto dry requires a lot of water. They pretty much drank more than a gallon of water in an 18 hour period when most days they hardly touch the bowl in a 24 hour period.

I can imagine a handful of dry food could pull a pound or so of water off in the last weeks. It is like dexing without the dex. LOL

EWO

[brokeback]

Great posts as always. I really enjoy the reads. It is amazing how much more water they drink when being fed kibble. That was probably the first thing I noticed when I switched back to feeding kibble. The water doesn't last near as long in the bowls. Didn't think about that pulling any excess water off but it does make perfect sense.

[EWO]

It is sort of like I knew it pulled some water but never thought about using it for that reason.

I was the thinking the opposite. If I use kibble I then need to add more water. Not so much if I add some kibble I can pull some water.

It is funny how sometimes things are right there in front and it still proceeds to be an AHA! moment.

EWO