Getting your gundog ready for the new season
If your gundog has an off season the amount and types of activity they enjoy will vary but one thing is certain - you need to start building fitness.
Some dogs will have total rest while others will use the time off to take part in other disciplines - like scurries, obedience or agility - and will continue to work daily.
Resting is essential for some gundogs - especially at the end of a hard season – and traditionally many were confined to kennels for enforced recuperation.
But this level of restricted activity results in much more work to get a dog ready for action. Some level of activity is a good idea to help maintain a certain degree of fitness.
Walking, training and swimming are all useful ways to maintain some fitness out of season.
Whatever your gundogs do, it is important to prepare their bodies and minds for a return to work so they can perform at their best and are less likely to suffer an injury.
Exercise
Exercise is a vital way to condition your gundogs, especially if you vary the intensity, duration and types of physical activity. To keep exercise as varied as possible, you could mix activities such as running alongside a bicycle, free running and retrieves across various distances using dummies of increasing weight.
To sharpen the mind, training exercises will give your dogs a good mental workout, which will get them used to being alert.
Shoot days consist of bursts of intense activity in between periods where your dogs will be doing very little, like travelling or waiting to get started.
In training, while you increase the amount of daily exercise, it’s also wise to incorporate down times when they are doing nothing so they know what to expect.
Nutrition
Some gundogs will transition to maintenance or light food out of season so they don’t put on extra weight as they move less. These lower calorie options are still packed with all the nutrients working and sporting dogs need but contain a lower level of protein.
A dog which puts on weight during the down time - either through enforced rest or a reduction in activity - will find it much harder to get back into work. If your gundogs have kept to the same level of activity, you may not need to make any adjustments.
If they have been on a maintenance diet, it might be wise to transition to a working or active dog food in the run up to the start of the season.
Active and performance foods consist of high protein, high calorie formulas which offer a slow-release form of energy to improve and maintain the stamina of working and sporting dogs.
When making any changes to a dog’s diet, you should do so gradually over a period of about a week to avoid an upset stomach.
Monitoring condition
You can take control of your gundogs’ physical fitness by ‘feeding to condition’ rather than following the product guidelines on daily amounts.
With regular monitoring, you can tweak the amount of food you are feeding if your gundogs start to lose or gain weight.
Your gundogs should be lean with clear muscle definition. When viewed from above you should be able to see their body tapers at the waist and then goes out again at the hips. You should also be able to feel their ribs but not see them.
It is common for gundogs, who enter the season in optimal condition, to start losing weight if working several days a week or if the weather becomes suddenly colder.
It is recommended you weigh your dogs on a weekly basis as you may not notice a change in their appearance until their performance deteriorates.
Building up gradually
Some dogs suffer fatigue - both mentally and physically - early in the season so watch out for signs and withdraw your dog if this happens. Accidents are more likely when dogs get tired so it could be better to gradually increase the length of time your dog is working. You don’t want a dog to push itself past its limit and risk injury so you need to pay attention as they don’t always know when to stop.
