Working dog food

[rubytuesday007]

Hi, I'm new to being a puppy mum and to the forum so apologies if this is in the wrong place.
This may sound a silly question but whats the difference between working puppy food and non working puppy food. We got Ruby at 9 weeks old and she was on chudleys puppy food, and although its hard to get hold of where i live its what we've kept her on. She's now 14 weeks and doing really well, at 16 weeks she is supposed to progress to Junior but wanted to weigh up my options before we start the change over??
any advice gratefully accepted.

[LurcherGirl]

Working dog foods are usually higher in energy - and no VAT, so usually cheaper  . However, working dog food for resting dogs is usually ok for your average pet dog and normal working dog food is fine for fairly active pet dogs.

My pet dogs have been fed working dog food for many years doing well on it.

[Geordietyke]

Odie (21 months) is on a working dog food even though he's not a worker.  He does extremely well on it, especially in his toilet habits if you see what I mean   His coat is lovely and glossy and he finishes it all in one day, something he never did on his 2 other brands.

I asked my vet at his last check up if the food was OK and she said it is fine until he is about 5/6 years old and I may then want to review it. 

I had Odie on adult food from 6 months old btw.

Welcome to the forum

[rubytuesday007]

Thanks guy, that's a great help, if it's not broke why fix it.. think unless she starts bouncing of the walls with energy then I'll keep her as she is
thanks again

[Catie74]

my show strain is on field and trial skinners duck and rice.  According to skinners the difference is the VAT.  A £23 bag lasts about 3 months so I am happy and it is the best food so far for him,  he has inflammatory bowel disease

[Petepreston]

It's interesting to see a few people feeding their non working dog on "working" food. I asked a couple of people - two pet shops, folk at the recent dog show, our vet and even the manufacturer, Burns - and they all said the same thing: working food is intended for dogs that are highly active for 5+ hours per day.

Posie is very active and can keep the effort up for hours at a time but because this isn't the norm I was advised to stick to the regular food.

We recently switched her from a juvinile dry food to a proper adult one and the change in her behaviour was quite marked. To explain, I had misread the label as "small adult" when it actually said "adult toy breed" so she was getting far too much protein. Now she is much calmer (apart from some recent yapping).

As I understand it, the issue with working food is the very high protein levels.

We still subsidise her kibble with fresh meat so her protein intake is still higher than may be needed, but she has shown no sign of putting extra weight on despite being given portions that are supposed to be for a dog 2-3kg larger than her.

She is a very lean and fit dog, and resembles a body builder in her muscle tome, rather than the sleek, almost skinny tone often associated with Working Cockers

[JeffandAnnie]

VAT 

[Bluebell]

VAT 

Absolutely
My dogs are fed on Skinners Field and Trial, Salmon and Rice atm. It is only 20% protein compared to most of the adult JWB which are about 23% protein or Burns adult that are about 19% protein
They have lovely shiney coats and nice firm poo
I buy a 15 kg bag from my agility instructor for £24  which lasts my 3 about 6 weeks

[ollie nathan's mum]

VAT

[Nicola]

my show strain is on field and trial skinners duck and rice.  According to skinners the difference is the VAT.  A £23 bag lasts about 3 months so I am happy and it is the best food so far for him,  he has inflammatory bowel disease

That is very interesting, Tilly has severe eosinophilic IBD and I struggled for over a year to find a food that she could tolerate, she was so ill I came within days of having her pts twice  Eventually she semi-stabilised on Purina DCO (diabetes colitis) but still didn't put back on any of the 5kg she'd lost. Anyway, we were visiting a friend earlier this year and Tills managed to get into a bag of Skinners duck and rice hypoallergenic and ate a lot of it. I was really worried as I expected her usual severe reaction but I was amazed when she was fine afterwards so I decided to try her with it again and she's now been on it for about 6 or 7 months. So far it has worked brilliantly, she's managed to regain nearly 3kg and looks the best she has since she became ill. She had a scan a couple of months ago and her stomach is still a mess and she's still on daily steroids but in terms of how she tolerates food the Skinners duck and rice has been nothing short of miraculous and it's 1/3 of the price of the Purina prescription diet too

[Catie74]

I nearly lost Archie to the IBD about 6 months ago.  It was awful.  Thank god for Skinners and a bargain too

[JeffandAnnie]

Mine used to be on Burns (v. expensive), then CSJ (cheap, and the Herbie Rings really did seem to deter ticks throughout the summer  ), then when I saw how cheap the Skinners Duck and Rice was they've been on that ever since!

[*Jay*]

I'm tempted to try Dallas on the Skinners. Does it have a strong smell? If so, I might be able to convince Disney to eat it too and get them both eating the same food (and they have a salmon version which he might like)!

[JeffandAnnie]

Not particularly strong smell - mine have taken longer than usual to get bored of it though.

[SteveB]

Feed both the Cockers on Skinners. Puppy for Tia and Crunch when Lulu is working and Maintenace when she is not. Make it up with dog gravy or sardines with oil