Life is strange at the moment isn’t it? We live in a peaceful world (mostly) with people who love to spend time with their dogs. For us particularly, that involves training our dogs to be great at agility. With no shows to attend for the foreseeable future, we’ve taken the opportunity to establish and enjoy more relaxing routines and weekends.
Our dogs have been brought up to utilise their energy and enjoy regular training. They’re fed high-quality food to enhance their performance and maintain tip-top fitness. With no shows or training classes to attend, like many agility competitors we’ve scaled down the agility training.
In our household we currently have four border collies and a terrier-cross and they love learning and being active. They’re on a training programme of: learning how to just chill-out and relax around the house and garden; learning how to loose-lead walk and practicing social distancing around the extra people, bikes and horses we meet on our usual walks.
The Border Collies and Pikachu’s all love working, and although running round an agility course is the most fun in our house, anything that involves figuring out what we want them to do is fun too.
We’ve started using other activities to channel their mental and physical energy. These include:
Waiting in their beds patiently while their dinner is being prepared.
Waiting at doors & gateways until they get called individually.
Waiting for their turn to fetch their toy (Torro (old boy) doesn’t get this and gets 3 x as much exercise whilst we are doing this with the others). And Pikachu was a bit snooty of joining in, but now has her own toy which nobody else can have.
Doing sit, down, stand or a left / right turn before or on the way to their toy.
Loose-lead walking – in the past the main time they were on a lead was on the way to the agility ring and no one was interested in doing that calmly. J
Walking and balancing on logs.
They play most of these games all together, which challenges them further and its intriguing how they learn as a pack members and as individuals.
As we come out of lock down and small training classes are restart, it’s noticeable how some partnerships have definitely got tighter with this extra time we’ve been spending at home with our dogs. We’re going to keep up some of the fun training we’ve been doing as we all enjoy it.
We hope you and your dogs are keeping safe and well.
There’s an unusual family history behind CSJ – the British natural dog food, herbs and treats company – and it’s now on YouTube.
In a fascinating 2 minute watch the pictorial story unfolds of Ceri Rundle’s and her late father H. Glyn Jones’s background in working sheepdogs and huge success in trialling and breeding their world renowned Border Collies.
Packed with old photos of Ceri and her dad though the ages with their dogs – and even one of her shepherdess Great-Grandmother – we also see the dazzling breadth of top winners who swear by CSJ in canine activities from sled-dogs to agility dogs whilst not forgetting ‘the little dog next door’.
In its own quirky and engaging way the video illustrates why CSJ has been so successful over the last 20 years and become probably the best loved pet-food in the UK … developed by dog people … for dog people!
You’re chopping and sautéing, working on your favorite dish, while your dog or cat sits at your feet, looking up at you with those pleading eyes. You know that they would enjoy it if you cooked for them as well, but should you really toss out the kibble and cans and pick up your knives and skillet instead?
Cooking for our pets can be very appealing for those of us who have time to do it; however, there is no evidence to support claims that home-prepared diets are healthier than commercial diets. Despite what you may have read, very few pets actually need to be fed a home-cooked diet because of health reasons and an improperly prepared home-cooked diet can seriously harm your pet’s health, especially for a growing kitten or puppy.
Many pet owners are surprised to find out that cooking for a pet isn’t necessarily as simple as cooking for their human family. Whereas all commercial pet foods must legally meet or exceed certain amounts of nutrients to be marketed as “complete and balanced foods”, studies have shown that the vast majority of recipes that pet owners design for their pets, or obtain from magazines, books, or the internet are deficient in one or more essential nutrients. A big problem is that these inadequate levels of nutrients may not be evident for weeks or even years in adult animals, until the pet has a serious health problem that may not be easily reversed.
Unfortunately, as veterinary nutritionists, we often see the sad stories – the puppies that are brought to our hospital emergency room with broken bones and seizures due to inadequate nutrients and the adult cats with severe heart disease and blindness because of taurine deficiency. While occasional home-cooked meals for adult pets on special occasions (holidays, birthdays) in healthy pets are unlikely to cause any health issues other than potentially an upset stomach (as long as foods toxic to dogs and cats are avoided), more care is needed to make a diet that a pet will be eating on a daily basis if these kind of tragedies are to be prevented.
There are literally hundreds of sources of recipes for home-made pet food on websites and in magazines and books and some of these sources are much more reputable than others. The best pet food recipes will include very precise amounts of specific ingredients (e.g. 100 grams of boneless, skinless, baked chicken breast and 45 grams of baked, mashed sweet potato vs “1 cup of chicken or fish or pork and 1 cup of cooked vegetables”), and will include added sources of vitamins and minerals such as calcium, B vitamins, iron, zinc, and essential fatty acids. While a “whole foods” approach where every nutrient comes from food, not supplements is appealing, it is nearly impossible to meet all of a pet’s nutrient needs without adding concentrated supplements. Supplementing a pet diet is not as simple as taking a trip to the local pet supply store, though.
Most vitamin and mineral supplements marketed for pets are not sufficient to bring the nutrients in a home-cooked diet up to the levels to meet pet requirements, so specific veterinary supplements or multiple human supplements (potentially as many as 7-9 different products, depending on the diet ingredients) are typically needed to ensure that all essential nutrients are included in appropriate amounts. The amount of each nutrient needed depends on both the diet ingredients and also on the specific pet.
If you’d like to try cooking for your pet, the best way to ensure that your pet’s diet is meeting all of his nutritional needs is to obtain your recipe from the pet equivalent of a registered dietician – a veterinarian with board certification in veterinary nutrition (www.acvn.org) or with a PhD in animal nutrition and experience formulating pet diets. These individuals will use computer software to put together the right mix of ingredients and supplements to produce a diet that will provide for a pet’s nutritional needs. If your pet has health problems, it is even more important that you seek qualified assistance from a board-certified veterinary nutritionist.
Once you get a good recipe, it’s your job to follow it exactly – seemingly benign substitutions such as swapping one meat for another can dramatically alter the nutrients and calories provided by the diet. Not making changes to a recipe may be harder than it seems – we recently surveyed our clients who had purchased home-cooked diet recipes from us over the past few years. Greater than 80% of pet owners had made changes to their recipes, either minor or major, without consulting us and many of these changes had the potential to lead to inadequate or excessive nutrients in the diet.
In summary, home-cooked diets can be healthy, if time-consuming, options for feeding our pets, but they should not be undertaken lightly. They should not be fed to growing kittens or puppies or pregnant or nursing animals. The best way to ensure that your pet’s home-cooked diet is healthy is to obtain a recipe from a veterinary nutritionist and follow it to-the-letter.
Cailin R Heinze, VMD, MS, DACVN References:
Larsen JA, Parks EM, Heinze CR, et al. Evaluation of recipes for home-prepared diets for dogs and cats with chronic kidney disease. J Am Vet Med Assoc 2012;240:532-538.
Heinze CR, Gomez FC, Freeman LM. Assessment of commercial diets and recipes for home-prepared diets recommended for dogs with cancer. J Am Vet Med Assoc 2012;241:1453-1460.
Stockman J, Fascetti AJ, Kass PH, et al. Evaluation of recipes of home-prepared maintenance diets for dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc 2013;242:1500-1505.
Johnson LN, Linder DE, Heinze CR, Freeman LM. Evaluation of owner experiences and adherence to home-cooked diet recipes for dogs. J Small Anim Pract 2016;57:23-27.
We’re still in lockdown, the world is still coming to terms with covid-19, and life still goes on as people adjust to the situation.
Coping strategies
Over the last month or so I’ve been asked to share coping strategies that might help people while they’re working remotely, feeling isolated and are concerned about what our new normal might look like. I thought I’d share a few with the CSJ readers.
My sports psychology research and learning has led me down some interesting paths over the years. One common thread I hear from many experts is ‘turn obstacles into opportunities’. And even though this phrase was around long before the coronavirus, it still applies.
For me this means, I could mope around at home longing to get out, socialise, travel and be free to wander. Or I could accept that the situation is the right one for everyone and turn this into an opportunity to get stuck into projects and activities that I never normally get a chance to do. There are lots of new opportunities out there at the moment, we just have to look for them.
Control the controllables
‘Control the controllables’ is another well-used tip. There is little point worrying and wasting precious energy on things we cannot control e.g. when is lockdown going to be eased, when are canine competitions going to restart. We can be mindful of these things, but we cannot control them. We’re better off putting energy into things we can control. Like:
What can I do to maintain my physical and mental health and fitness;?
How can I offer support to family, the community and friends?
Controlling how much/little news and social media I absorb
Focusing on contrallables helps to build resilience, confidence and self-esteem, which are good traits to have in these times.
Don’t let the external affect the internal
My third ‘top tip’ this month is ‘don’t let the external affect the internal’. Start by writing down your key values and beliefs (if you haven’t already). Revisit them and think about how they influence your life and your decisions. Don’t let external influences distract you away from these values and try not to let external pressures sway you. Maintain a growth mind set and live to your values.
Stay safe and make the most of this opportunity to grow.
Vickie Pullin’s four-dog team Rio, Maverick Luka and Luna, at the 2018 Italian snow championships (Massimo Mazzasogni)
A log cabin sits at the heart of the idyllic Gloucestershire property where 12 of Britain’s top sprinters live. There is a hydrotherapy tank next door for resistance training and rehabilitation, and the on-site menu offers performance-ready, protein-packed meals for its clientele.
Most of the elite athletes who live there are huskies, but greysters and hounds are among the 34 dogs who call the place home.
The lone human in the mix, Vickie Pullin, 35, might be the most successful British athlete whose name you’ve never heard.
Pullin was once touted as a potential Team GB snowboarder for the Vancouver Olympics in 2010. A decade later, she’s donning the Union Jack in an entirely different sport: sled dog racing.
The Tewkesbury native is the country’s best female musher. This year, Pullin became the first athlete to claim four British Sleddog Sports Federation (BSSF) championship titles in a single season. She’s staged a meteoric international rise since her first race in 2013 and finally believes she has the experience—and her ‘dream team’ of canine competitors—to become a world champion.
Pullin once seemed destined for the Olympic slopes
Bikejoring is one of Pullin’s best events—she finished eighth in the world with Maverick in 2019. (Jackie Burrell)
Adopting Willow, Pullin’s first dog, marked the beginning of her new dream
Pullin’s 34 dogs go through a 15kg bag of food every day
Rio the black Labrador is 2 years old… He’s done well in tests and has started to take part in trials.
Drake is a 4 year old labrador, who I bought when he was 17 months old. He has won a great number of prizes over the 3 years of competing in gundog scurries. Through the shooting season he also picks up with my other 3 labradors, sometimes doing 5-6 days a week.
Cupar, the German Short Haired Pointer was re-homed with us 7 years ago at the age of 5
He was in a racing kennel with approx 20 other dogs, the majority of them were huskies. He was kept outside all year round and had never been inside the house and at first he struggled being in the house with us, but he settled in after a few weeks. He had been training and racing in his previous home and we got him on the Sunday and raced him in a bikejor race the following week and we won our first race together.
Cupar shows how it’s done
We had 5 huskies, all young dogs when Cupar came to us and through training with him the teams improved their commands, turns and focus and now runs past deer, people and dogs, off-lead with no issues.
Love him to bits
It is down to working with Cupar that our teams have had and continue to have success on the racing circuit. He has also helped trained countless other peoples dogs, as well. If people are having issues with their dogs running or commands etc. we bring them along and run them with Cupar. He shows them how it should be done. They follow him and a few runs later, the issues are usually rectified. We’re currently running him with 2 other dogs – one a young rescue. to get them on the right track. He has taught me so much.
“We have used CSJ CP30 and Hike On since 2014 – the dogs love the food and always empty their bowls at every feed. The dogs train and race hard and CSJ provides them with the energy goodness and stamina to achieve top level results season after season”
Contact Colin and Suzy Spalding on: 07877739590 or email: suzy15@hotmail.co.uk
Wow, the world has changed massively since my last blog. Who would have thought nearly half the world’s population would be in a lockdown situation under the threat of a nasty virus back in February.
I hope all the CSJ readers are keeping safe in these difficult times
It’s a huge challenge to the world. I have been home based for the last six years, so I’m lucky that I’m used to this way of working. We also have space to get out for daily exercise and living in a rural area means social distancing isn’t a problem either. However, I do understand the challenges, the worry and uncertainly other people are experiencing and readily offer my support where I can.
I’m confident we’ll pull through this and move on to a stronger future
In March I announced my retirement as the Team Manager for Agility Team GB. I had always planned to review my position in 2020, and after seven years in the role I decided that the time was right to hand over the reigns.
My time as Team Manager has been immensely rewarding. Of course there were challenging times and some incredible highlights too. In a role like that you grow broad shoulders and learn a lot about people; I’m sure there’s a future book in my journal somewhere.
I thought I’d have a lot of time on my hands now with no agility shows and no team manager responsibilities. However I’m finding myself busy with other projects and interests that have been on hold… a subject for future blogs.
I hope all our readers keep safe in these difficult times. And if anyone wants any hints and tips about working from home I’m more than happy to share.
Maddi is enjoying her new found freedom from school, it means she can spend every waking minute with the dogs. I’m sure they are looking at me asking when will she return to school!!!!
All races may be cancelled but Maddi has been out training daily, 1/2 times a week a short 2km canicross run with her training dog Bella the spaniel. She even tried 100m sprint with the Pup (11 months) and managed to stay on her feet!
Daily scent work and games with the dogs in the garden. Lots of off lead walks and free running. Most importantly daily trampolining!!
I have taken time to write this email as I wanted to make sure that having followed your advice and that of our vet to change Chester over to a different food, it had worked!
I’m pleased to say that I also spoke to Lesley Slade, a stockist on your list and quite local to us here in Fleet, Hampshire, who also suggested the foods that you had mentioned but felt that the CP All Rounder would be her first choice based on Chester’s symptoms and her personal experience of using it.
Meet Chester, watching avidly at The Game Fair – fed on CSJ – “Everyone comments on how glossy his coat is and how bright he is” Lynda Cantelo-Jones
I decided to go ahead with this one and collected a bag the next day from Lesley. Over the next couple of weeks I introduced the food and Chester responded well. He has only had a couple of “off days” but those have been helped by giving him half of the vet prescribed Buscopan tablet.
He is now onto his second bag of CP All Rounder, again collected from Lesley, and all is going well, so fingers crossed we have come through the worrying time we had with him in January.
Your advice and the service you at CSJ provide with samples etc is so helpful and I can’t thank you enough.
Best regards
Lynda Cantelo-Jones and Chester the happy working cocker spaniel
