How To Feed A Guard Dog So Minimal Waste Is Produced

Engaged in military as well as civilian occupations, guard dogs serve on sentry duty, patrol duty, shore watch, riot control, store and warehouse security and many other similar missions. Whatever the nature of their mission, all guard dogs have one thing in common: their high degree of training.

Every guard dog is trained to maintain a peak performance for the entire time it is on duty. Ordinarily this is for extended periods of time. Such sustained performance requires huge amounts of energy. The guard dog also needs large amounts of energy to cope with the extreme emotional stress that occurs while the dog is on duty. Often, during periods of sustained performance, a guard dog's energy needs exceed that of a female during lactation.

Because of this greatly increased consumption of energy, not even the bad dog foods or dry foods, with their 1500 to 1600 calories per pound, have a caloric density high enough to satisfactorily provide all the energy needs of a guard dog. Because they are customarily fed only once daily, guard dogs must eat great quantities of these foods to meet their energy needs.

To adequately supply a guard dog with enough energy it must be fed a diet that is more concentrated than ordinary maintenance diets. Such a diet must contain a large amount of energy in a relatively small quantity of food. At the same time, it must contain all of the necessary nutrients that are balanced to the increased caloric density.

One of the major problems with civilian guard dogs that patrol within a building or shopping center mall all night is the stool that they produce. Not only do these stools present a clean-up problem, but their odor often lingers several additional hours after the stools are gone. Most customers and employees do not enjoy smelling the odor of dog stools during their donuts and coffee every morning! Some guard dogs may leave as many as two or three odoriferous stools at different locations throughout the building, each night they patrol.

To reduce this stool problem to the barest minimum, a food containing large amounts of energy, in the least quantity of dry matter possible, must be fed. This can be accomplished by increasing the digestibility of the ingredients put into the food, or by reducing the amount of indigestible dry matter. When either is done, most of the food will be digested and absorbed to be used for energy, while only a small amount will remain to become stool. What's more, when the digestibility of the proteins and carbohydrates is improved, the odor of the small quantity of stool that is produced will be considerably less.