Excerpts from an article
written by Elliott B. Weiss, a professional handler and conditioner of
show dogs for over 25 years. Mr. Weiss is a recognized authority on
judging all breeds at international dog shows. Mr. Weiss does not
specifically recommend any product - only his professional opinion.
Permission received from the author.
Elliott Weiss: I will be stating
my personal opinion of feeding, exercising and maintaining coat condition
on show dogs. What I have come to call... the inside and outside of
show conditioning.
The Inside: "I believe show
and coat condition is a direct reflection of what we feed our dogs.
Their condition outside is a result of what we put inside. Over the
years I have tried every dog food fad that has come and gone, and most of
the current extruded or pressed types. None of them produced results
that satisfied me. I have never been able to keep a dog in what I
consider top condition by feeding anything other than a top quality
KIBBLED biscuit mixed with meat and a fatty acid supplement. It is a
lot less expensive to extrude or press dog food than to bake or
"kibble" it.
When all the major manufacturers of dog food
did their market research, the number one concern of the public was that
their dogs have hard stools that are easy to clean up. They answered
this public demand by adding ingredients to dog food that in my opinion
are better suited to feed cattle than our dogs. The side affects of
the dog food companies solution to cutting production costs (extruding)
and satisfying the number one concern of their public marketing survey are
in direct conflict with this dog persons requirements for show
conditioning. It may be more costly to produce a baked or kibbled
food, but the process appears to do something that allows the dogs
digestive system to better absorb the necessary nutrients from the
food. With proper exercise and feeding a kibbled dog food, I have
been able to maintain dogs in good weight and proper muscle tone. I
have not been able to do this feeding a pressed or extruded food. |
Today I know that our dogs have a harder
time digesting starches than we do. The baking process makes the
food easier for your dogs to digest by changing hard to digest starches
into easy to digest dextrins. Yes, baking dog food is more
expensive, but the results I see in dogs condition certainly justify the
additional cost.
The Outside: There is nothing
that is put on the outside (hair or skin) that is going to make the coat
grow. Second, to maintain coat, it must be kept clean and
pliable. Hair is an inside job, nothing but nothing, put on the
outside is going to make it grow any faster or any better. A dog's
coat conditioned from within is pliable and therefore more durable and
easier to maintain.
Try this: one one dog for a two month
period. Feed an all-natural premium kibbled biscuit. Find one
whose ingredients say: chicken meal, lamb meal, NOT chicken
by-products or pultry by-products. Moisten with a little hot water
and adding a small handful of raw meat, beef or lamb heart is excellent,
organ meats are fine except for liver because it is a detoxifying
organ. Add a fatty acid supplement directly to the food. In my
opinion the very best product is cold pressed flax seed oil. My
second choice would be sunflower oil. For a large dog give eight
tablespoons daily for the first three weeks, then drop to five. The
diet will first appear to be much more costly, but give it eight to ten
weeks and then tell a fellow dog person the results you see. Some
Additional Great Sources!:
What's the Best Dog
Food for your Money? - From the Dog Food Book, Nan Weitzman & Ross
Becker
Feline Health
Center - From Cornell University
Pet
Food Labels: A Misnomer? by Terri Symonds Grow
Increasing
you pets longevity
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