BillyMalc Posted June 5, 2008 Report Share Posted June 5, 2008 I have finally managed to get Kiera into an agility club! Hope she is going to like it now, as I don't think she ever took to flyball Question is though: they are training on Thursday nights from 8:30. How do you go about feeding? My guys get kibble in the morning, that's easy enough, but I cook for them at night. Now obviously I can cook a meal for 2 days the day before, but coming home from work (hopefully I'll be having a job again soon!) at say 5:30, and then having to take them out first, how would I go about feeding Kiera? She won't have the energy to race around an agility track without any food in her tummy, but obviously if she gets a full meal she'll be sluggish as anything. Would you advise half before and half after? I'm not too keen on the idea of her having a lot of food at, say, 10 at night either though, but I guess one day a week won't matter? Thanx for advice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billydog Posted June 5, 2008 Report Share Posted June 5, 2008 Glad Kiera is going to be able to have a go at agility! I think what I'd do is feed them when you get home at 5.30, then let that settle for at least an hour before going for a short blast before agility. She'll find agility tiring not just physically but mentally too. I give Finn a quiet walk on agility days as otherwise he flags towards the end of the class. Hope this helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyMalc Posted June 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2008 Glad Kiera is going to be able to have a go at agility! I think what I'd do is feed them when you get home at 5.30, then let that settle for at least an hour before going for a short blast before agility. She'll find agility tiring not just physically but mentally too. I give Finn a quiet walk on agility days as otherwise he flags towards the end of the class. Hope this helps! Thanx billydog! Thing with Kiera seems to be, she takes her time digesting I fed her before obedience, at 5.30-ish, when obedience started at 8, and she'd be right sluggish the entire session. I would be tempted to not feed her till afterwards, but as agility requires a lot more energy, I'm afraid she won't last without having food? I'll also have the problem that for the next 6 weeks Mal will need to be fed before 8, as he'll be having radiotherapy the next day - either that or if and when I'm back to work I'll have to drop him off at the hospital the night before, so will have a 2 1/2 hour drive to do between leaving work and agility Not ideal at all, but it's taken me so long to get a space with a club that I don't want to leave the space we've got now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billydog Posted June 5, 2008 Report Share Posted June 5, 2008 (edited) How about giving her a bigger than normal breakfast then a small tea at 5.30 in a kong (or not!) while you take Mal to hospital. She could then have a little snack just before bed? ETA Will be thinking of Mal during his treatment. Edited June 5, 2008 by billydog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyMalc Posted June 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2008 Hi Billydog! Well in the end Kiera had about half the size of her normal dinner, and I chopped up a couple of sausages and took a handful of biscuits by way of treats. This worked really well, and she had the 'leftovers' in the car on the way back, so kind of what you suggested I 'think' Kiera might have enjoyed agility, we did jumps - we got as far as calling her from 3 jumps away - and the tunnel. Basically Kiera saw sausage and pretty much did what was asked of her :wub: I was told off for saying 'no' though, when at the end she wanted to skip the last jump and go round it I think that by that time she was really tired though, so we did leave a bit before everyone else. The little one is now curled up in her basket, fast asleep, too tired to enquire if any of the bread that I'm eating is going to be left over Thanks for thinking of Mal too! I felt a bit bad for leaving him for so long, but when we came home he looked like we'd just woken him up from a nice sleep on the sofa, and he didn't even bother coming to the door Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksmum Posted June 6, 2008 Report Share Posted June 6, 2008 I had the same problem when we went onto summer evening class as I find that if I don't give Jack anything before I go he gets too hungry for the treats and doesn't concentrate as well. I have been doing 2 classes, one at 5.30 and the other at 7.00, it doesn't give me enough time to feed him before class on the first one and I really noticed the difference so have started giving him a half feed to take the edge off his hunger and like you give him the rest of his treats to eat in the car on the way home. It seems to be working so far! Sounds like you done really well on your first class, to wait for 3 jumps is really good, it's one of the things that we can do but not many in my class can leave their dogs more than 2 jumps if any at all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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