Scratchings-and-Sniffings

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Back Packing with Miles Posted: 09 Mar 2010 02:07 PM PST Miles got his first taste of back packing last weekend. I posted some photos on Monday and have more for today's post. Phil and Alice went along with us and we all had a great time. Miles got a little beat up but it's all part of the learning process for a puppy. He may look like an adult dog but he's still a puppy when it comes to common sense and he'll be that way for another year at least. One thing he is learning is that not all dogs want to play puppy games all the time. Alice is only three, but she is way more mature than Miles and she had to lay down the law a few times. For instance, she's up for a game of chase but only to a point. She let Miles know in no uncertain terms when play time was over.    She likes peace and quiet when she is eating, too. She does not like to share her PVD HA formula for a couple of reasons. HA is all she can eat due to her sensitive gut and it's not cheap either. It's kind of like sharing your caviar. Miles made the mistake of getting too close to her pile of food and he's now sporting a small gash over his right eye as a reminder. Alice had him pinned to the ground. Lesson learned.   Miles is learning that he can't just bust through thickets, too. He went headlong into tangle of trees and bushes chasing some Wild Turkeys and came out the other end with some wounds. Scratches really show up well on a Yellow Lab and Miles looked like he'd been in a fight after this trip. Chris commented about how it's a good thing he's not a show dog.   It took some time to adjust to his pack, too. We carry about 20-25% of our body weight in our packs. That's around 30 pounds for me and about 20 for Chris. Miles weighs in at about 80 pounds so we wouldn't put more than 18 pounds in his pack. On this trip we went for bulk. He carried our five pound tent and fly and about two pounds of his own food. Once the pack was on and after a little consternation on his part, he forgot all about it.    His pack came from REI and it may be too big for him. We got a large size pack and even with the adjustments as tight as they'll go, it's a little loose on him. We bough Alice a medium for her birthday and we plan to try that on Miles next time out. I guess a large is for really big dogs.   We'll bring more food for Miles on the next trip. He snarfed down two thirds of his grub on night one and we had to parcel out the remainder over the next two days. As a Vet and as a nutritionist I should have known better. He was burning lots of calories swimming the ice cold river and chasing after Alice. He slept out at night too and that can burn the calories just staying warm. We should have allowed for twice his normal amount of food. We may be carrying the tent ourselves next trio to make room for more dog food. One alternative would be to buy him some more energy dense food for trips like this. He eats Pro Plan Large Breed formula everyday. This product has fewer calories than other adult products so large dogs don't get over weight and stress their joints. Pro Plan Large Breed has around 385 Kcal's per cup and Miles should get about 4 cups a day.   We feed him a little less than that and he's at ideal body condition. Pro Plan Performance is a high energy food for sporting or competition dogs. This fine product has 493 Kcal's per cup. If my remedial math skill are correct that's 28% more calories per cup. That's probably 30% less space in his back pack.   We may need to transition a little but one of the nice things about feeding within the Pro Plan family of foods is the similarity of ingredients used. Both products are chicken based and the other ingredients are similar. Pro Plan performance owes it's energy density to more fat and protein. It contains over 20% fat and over 30% protein compared to 13% fat and 26% protein for Large Breed Adult. This kind of a switch for high energy pursuits like back packing makes sense.   We probably jumped the gun a little on this trip. It's still winter in our mountains and it was a little cold. The river water was freezing. That made the fishing slow and the wading painful. Except for Miles and Alice. They swam with impunity.    Next month things should be greening up and the water should be lower and warmer. It could still snow but that's unlikely. I'll let you know if the Pro Plan Performance trick works out after that trip.

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