What do you feed your four-legged running buddy? (Read 134 times)

My four legged friend runs with me pretty routinely, walks a lot, and has done 20+ on trails before.  She generally eats Iams Large Breed.

When she runs with me a lot (fall, spring), I have sometimes switched her to the higher-calorie Pro Plan Sport.

I just feed her twice a day, but I admit to "supplementing" with treats.  If she's running a lot, she gets 4+ cups a day.  If she's not running a lot, she gets more like 3-3.5, so the change is significant for mine (she is, however, a 90lb dog).

We feed our dog Purina One Lamb. Not because it is necessarily the best, but because out of all of the dog foods that aren't made of mostly corn, this one has the most calories.  We giver her 2 heaping cups for breakfast, and 2 heaping cups for dinner.  When we got our dog, she was severely underweight.  We've managed to add some pounds to her frame, but she probably could still stand to gain at least 5 more.  That coupled with her love of trail running means that she needs to eat a food that is very dense in calories.

When we do long trail runs, I always stop mid way and give her a little treat made of rice & peanut butter.  Afterward, she gets treats as well.

I have two labs, 2.5 yrs old, and about 1.5 yrs ago we switched them over to Merrick Whole Earth Farms. They've done real well on it, I'm happy with the positive reviews and lack of recalls. We also supplement about 4-5 times a week with homemade topper of scrambled egg, chicken and whatever leftover plain veggies we might have, such as green beans, carrots, beets, yams, etc.

THAT sounds like a horse .......... though I was referring to dogs, I guess horses are another 4 legged running buddy.

 

Yup, I occasionally take one of the horses out on a long trail run; I run until I'm about to collapse, then I hop on and ride back. 

That must be awesome

 

Yeah, works pretty well, errr, except on weekends when there are lots of families on the trails; all the kids want to "pet the horsey".  I always make sure I bring one of the horses tolerant of little kids, but even still, all of the interruptions can turn a two hour run (plus an hour to ride back) into a half-day event.

Lol, I'd want to pet the horsey too!!! Does your horse just do a fast walk while you run or is it a fast enough pace for him/her to trot at?

They pretty much all trot when I run with them (or between two at once, which can be a bit exciting sometimes).  One of the older horses (he's nearly 30 and boarded and I have no idea what his lineage is, but he looks kind of like a long American Saddlebred) has this very interesting gait which I'll call a "walking trot"; he prances as if he's trotting but his forward momentum is so slow he's barely moving.