Diet And Stress In Labrador Retrievers

August 28, 2006 on 11:45 pm | In Labrador Retriever Artcle Pages |

Physical conditions that can create stress in your Labrador Retriever include surgery, pregnancy, mange, dermatitis, diabetes and other types of diseases. Some of the major social conditions that induce stress are monotony, inconsistent treatment by people, excessive activity, noise and changes in routines. Canine nutrition experts recommend that you should feed your stressed Labrador a high-protein diet with moderate amounts of fat and high-quality carbohydrate. Increased potassium in the diet further calmed excitable types if a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet was fed. However, this sort of dietary adjustment needs more serious investigations by canine nutritionists and behaviorists. One difficulty in assessing dietary effects on dog behavior lies in the fact that several days to several weeks are required before changes are noticeable. Because behavioral work involves external environmental and social changes as well as dietary adjustment, it is impossible to accurately assess dietary effects alone. However, the following dramatic changes in excitable animals when diets are adjusted by feeding properly supplemented higher protein and lower carbohydrate levels are: Conditioning to commands and signals is better retained and the dogs are less hyper-reactive to incidental, unexpected, startling stimuli from the environment, such as other dogs barking . These diets are supplemented with a high quality lti-vitamin/mineral/amino acid/enzyme product. The well-known detrimental effects on the nervous system and behavior in thiamine and niacin deficiencies are often revealed in poor conditioned reflex formation before they become clinically apparent. Therefore, it is good “insurance” when working with problem dogs to give a high quality supplement even though they appear to be healthy. Generations of domestic dogs have now evolved while eating exceptionally high carbohydrate diets. Until recently, the idea that this may have produced animals that are more susceptible to nutritional hyper-sensitivities has either been ignored or sometimes disclaimed by animal nutritionists. However, attitudes are changing, mainly due to pioneering clinical work and a commercial awakening to the growing market for specialized diets. While most Labrador owners feed their animals for economy, more and more of them are becoming quality conscious and seeking alternatives. So many specialized diets are appearing every year. However, applying certain principles can be helpful for problem dogs. If your Retriever displays personality changes such as sudden bursts of activity, avoidance of formerly appealing people or situations, hypersensitivity to sounds, light or touch, etc., and for which no compelling environmental-behavioral cause is apparent, then he is a candidate for an immediate, complete physical check-up and nutritional evaluation, and a combination of medical/nutritional/behavioral program.