Tina and Julia spent 2 days at the Tails seminar searching for more knowledge about dog nutrition and how to keep your dogs fit for flyball.
The Saturday was run by Holly Barker and a fountain of knowlege from the offset. We learnt all about the dogs digestive system and how they turn food into energy, what they can digest easily and what they can't. Did you know that a dog's digestive system has only 1 enzyme that can break down carbohydrates to energy (humans have over 30) - which is why they are so intolerant to wheat etc. We learn't a lot about how to improve their gut, what best to feed to create energy quickly, and what to avoid. We also picked up all sorts of other information on dog's bad habits and why they do things like eating poo and drinking dirty water!!! We learnt that fasting is good for dogs (as for humans) and how their quickly their cells regenerate. The history of dog food as well as modern day feeding came into the day as well.
Sunday was run by Iain MacDonald and was all about dog fitness for sport and conditioning them so that they can perform their best. This covered general dog sports/activities as well as zeroing in on flyball dogs.
The day was informative as well as practical with working slots for some of our flyball dogs. He showed us how to condition our dogs to be ready to play flyball with exercises to do with them to condition their muscles and build them up not only to perform well but to avoid injury where possible. These include walking backwards, sidestepping and crawling among others....
We have loads of tips now and ideas to share with our team members - just ask us.................