Frosty, why exactly did you think the dog wasnt hydrated enough with less then 1 oz a lb, when its skincount was alright and the dog seemed hydrated.? Just trying to understand.
Do you add 1oz a lb trough out your whole keep? I guess i can give less when still building up the work. And how about the day before the show?
Thanks all, this has been very usefull for me. Good tip on the food Ogdogg, i was thinking about their stumic and forgetting about the kidney's
Water is actually absorbed everywhere in the digestive tract. And (according to something I remember reading) the trouble with giving too much water while the dog is eating is this: the water goes in the stomach first, diluting the acid (and thus the initial breakdown of food) while it's all being contained in the stomach.Originally Posted by FrostyPaws
Jack
Edit/PS: I guess what I am saying is, I think it is a better idea to give all that water in the AM, 12 hours before the work/show, rather than after the workout. If the dog needs the hydration to perform optimally, giving it after his workout (and possibly diluting his digestion) doesn't make as much sense as giving that same water in the AM, allowing it to be processed (and him to be hydrated) by the PM work.
I do the same thing, except what I do is dump a little tuna/water from the can in thereR2L, the secret to a successful keep is H20
Since my dogs don't like to drink too much water, what I'll do is 12 hours before their workouts I'll put a small amount of rice in their bowl and fill it up with water. They could see the rice but can't get to it so they'll drink most of the water then I'll take it away when they're almost to the bottom. Gets them every time
Jack
Very good points Ogdogg and Jack, i think this is an even better method. But has the dog fully emptied out all that water 14 houres after? I guess you want to see his right weight just before feeding it after work. Or would you give exactly the same ammount of water on the day on the show? 1,2 kg of water is quiet allot, i figure if the dog holds to much of that you might be contracting over your dogs right weight.
This concern is a myth, according to Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist Michael Picco. Picco says drinking water with a meal can help improve the body's digestion. He also says water helps the digestive system function correctly by working to break down food in the stomach. Picco suggests that people can get the same digestive benefits by drinking water shortly after meals. The breakdown process is hormonal and happens naturally, whether people drink water with their meals or not. No research suggests that digestive acids or enzymes are diluted by water intake, but even if they were, the system would still be able to do its job productively.
I haven't been able to find anything that pertains to dogs as of yet. You were right about the water bit. Of course when a dog drinks that much water, the stomach is going to have a say in it. Durh!! I was thinking about when water is pulled from the body to help with digestion, it is pulled mainly to the intestines.
At less than 1oz per lb of water, the dog's skin was not alright after a long workout session. It wasn't alright the next day, so that tells me the dog wasn't getting enough water.
By the time I actually start my keep R2L, my dogs have been getting the extra water in their food, building up to the actual amount. So, when keep starts, the extra bit of water added to meet the 1oz per lb limit is within reach. When I start the cutdown time on the keep during the last week, the water starts to be cut back also. Since there is limited work going on, all that water would just be extra weight your dog is carrying around, and you would be over weight come show time.
I don't think it's a bad idea to give water in the morning, as I usually give 8 oz in the morning. Even then, most of the dogs won't drink all of it as there have been countless times I've found left over water in the bowl that night before work. After the workout, that is the time the dog needs the water the most. Most of the weight a dog loses is water weight, and most dogs will lose at least 1lb of weight with a decent workout. Some dogs can lose more due to their intensity. The water is needed afterwards to get the body back up and running properly through digestion, waste removal, renal function, all that kind of thing that revolves around body systems.
Thanks for the response.
If the stomach produces 'x' amount of acid, and if you add 'y" amount water to that pure acid, then by default there is dilution going on by a factor of 'y'.
Thus the question of how much this dilution may (or may not) affect digestion would have to be contingent on how much water is being added. While I have not read the report by Dr. Pico, I am instantly wondering if there was any distinction made between "some" water being added to a man's diet (like a normal 8 oz drinking glass), and the entire day's ration of water being added to a man's only meal. To clarify, a 170-lb man needs 170 oz (10.5 lb) of water in a whole day ... and yet he only drinks maybe 8-16 oz of water with a meal ... having the rest of his water intermittently throughout the day. I believe this is what Dr. Pico was likely measuring, meaning "a" glass of water with a meal.
In what you're talking about, Frosty, you're essentially giving a dog ITS ENTIRE DAY'S RATION OF WATER in one setting, while it is also eating its only meal, so I am not sure at all whether Dr. Pico's report for a human having "a glass of water" with a meal means that a person can also drink his entire day's supply (170 oz) of water with his only meal of the day.
So, while I realize there are differences in the digestive tracts of dogs and humans, I sill would like to be able to ask an expert to help clarify this (rather large) distinction as it pertains to "the amount" of water at one setting we're talking about.
Jack
Just enough so it'll entice them. And yes it has to be cooked. If you give em uncooked rice it'll come out their ass the same as it goes in but yellowish in color
So would I, but I don't know any experts. I'm sure he's not meaning it in the same context as we are in this discussion, but like I said, that was the only thing I could find by an actual doctor that said such a thing. If a person didn't want to give the entire water content with the meal, I'm sure they could split half that night and half the next morning. There are many ways to get to the same spot. I've read that there is a dilution; there isn't a dilution; if there is a dilution it doesn't matter; the dilution does matter. If it does matter, how much does it matter? I'm not sure there has ever been anything written around that kind of thing. I have a small animal nutrition book, and one of the chapters revolves around the canine athlete. Even that book can't agree on how much water is needed except to say maybe give water 3x a day, splitting it up with the last water coming at LEAST 4 hours before exercise.
I've not seen, or read, anything negative in regards to the giving of all the water in the meal. Maybe someone should try it the other way, but I don't think it's going to have any effect personally. What I do know is that I wouldn't cut back on the 1oz per lb of water for any reason. Factoring in heat release, internal temperatures, along with everything else, I'd wager on being wrong if I didn't think a dog didn't need that amount of water after some serious work. In the summer, the water may even increase if the dog is kept outside, and it will definitely increase during the winter months.
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