{"id":7556,"date":"2019-07-23T10:00:25","date_gmt":"2019-07-23T15:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/?p=7556"},"modified":"2026-02-17T10:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T16:08:10","slug":"fueling-athletic-dogs-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/blog\/performance\/recovery\/fueling-athletic-dogs-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Fueling Your Athletic Dog&#8217;s Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Whether sniffing for birds, bombs or drugs, chasing Frisbees<sup style=\"font-size: 70%;\">\u00ae<\/sup> or criminal suspects, jogging as a training partner or racing around an agility course, dogs participate in diverse physical activities of varying intensities. Each of these different activities have unique performance requirements that influence an individual canine athlete\u2019s metabolism and energy needs.<\/p>\n<p>Fueling your canine athlete \u2014 providing the <em>right<\/em> amount of energy from the <em>right<\/em> fuel sources at the <em>right<\/em> time \u2014 is critical to optimal performance. Read on to learn more about how a dog\u2019s body fuels exercise.<\/p>\n<h3>Three nutrient categories provide energy<\/h3>\n<p>Like people, dogs have energy requirements that must be met to fuel body functions. Energy isn\u2019t one of the major <a href=\"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/blog\/nutrition\/ingredients\/nutrients-ingredients\/\">nutrients<\/a> \u2014 those are water, carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins and minerals. Yet after water, energy is the second-most critical component of the diet. Why? Because the body needs energy to fuel all of its metabolic reactions.<\/p>\n<p>Bodies will always use food energy to first meet their basic energy demands, such as maintaining tissues and regulating body temperature. Once those needs are met, energy is used for other functions, including movement and physical activity.<\/p>\n<p>All of these energy needs are met by eating food, and are satisfied by three nutrient categories:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fat<\/li>\n<li>Carbohydrates<\/li>\n<li>Protein<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Fat, carbohydrates and protein generate different amounts of energy (measured as calories) when metabolized. Dietary fat is the most concentrated energy source, providing more than twice the amount of energy as carbohydrates or protein. Carbohydrates and protein provide about equal amounts of energy. Since additional activity typically requires more energy, knowing about energy density and the differences between nutrients is important to meeting the energy needs of working and sporting dogs.<\/p>\n<h3>Call it exercise, physical activity or work \u2014 it\u2019s all about muscle metabolism<\/h3>\n<p>Physical activity \u2014 or call it work or exercise, if you prefer \u2014 results from a complex series of muscle contractions. This muscular work requires energy, which is obtained from \u201cburning\u201d dietary fuels. The two primary fuels used by working muscles are glycogen, a storage form of carbohydrates, and free fatty acids, which are produced during the breakdown of fat. Under most conditions, amino acids from protein contribute only small amounts of energy to what\u2019s used during exercise.<\/p>\n<p>A dog\u2019s muscle metabolism is unique compared to other species. Canine muscles consist of fibers capable of using large amounts of oxygen (known as oxidative capacity in exercise physiology circles). The muscles of dogs also have high numbers of mitochondria, which are the \u201cenergy powerhouses\u201d of cells. But what makes a canine athlete\u2019s muscles truly unique is that they also include fibers that have high anaerobic (without oxygen) capacity. These muscle fiber types have high levels of enzymes required for glycogen metabolism. As a species, dogs are \u201cbuilt\u201d for both endurance and high-intensity sprints.<\/p>\n<h3>Fueling canine muscles during exercise<\/h3>\n<p>Energy demands (and other nutrient needs) for canine athletes are determined by exercise intensity, duration and frequency. While the preferred fuel source of dogs\u2019 muscles at rest is fat, exercise intensity causes the source to shift.<\/p>\n<p>At low-intensity exercise, muscle relies on aerobic (with oxygen) metabolism and uses primarily fat (as free fatty acids) for fuel. Interestingly, studies show that dogs burn (oxidize) fat at a higher rate than other species at rest and during exercise, meaning that their muscles are better adapted to using fat as a primary fuel.<\/p>\n<p>During moderate-intensity exercise \u2014 which is the category into which most canine athletes fall \u2014 energy to working muscles is provided by both fat and carbohydrates, with a very small amount coming from protein.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, high-intensity exercise is fueled through muscle glycogen and glucose stores.<\/p>\n<h3>What this means for feeding your athletic dog<\/h3>\n<p>When choosing a dog food for your sporting or working dog, you\u2019ll want to consider the type, intensity, duration and frequency of the physical activity that your dog performs. Dogs involved in sports that involve short periods of high-intensity exercise \u2014 such as agility, flyball or dock jumping \u2014 may not have higher energy requirements than moderately active pet dogs. These dogs can be fed an adult maintenance dog food.<\/p>\n<p>Dogs who participate in endurance activities, such as field trials, hunting and herding, will require more energy given the longer distances that they travel. These athletic dogs benefit from higher proportions of fat in their diet such as those found in performance or high-energy dog foods. Not only will fat deliver more calories to meet a canine athlete\u2019s energy demands, but it can actually \u201cprime\u201d or \u201cmetabolically condition\u201d the dog\u2019s metabolism for efficient use of fat for energy.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re wondering if your sporting or working dog\u2019s performance would benefit from a dietary change, talk with your veterinarian first. She or he can help determine if your canine athlete needs a food that provides more energy from fat or carbohydrates and if your dog is getting enough protein.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>RELATED POST: <a href=\"\/blog\/culture\/working-dogs\/working-dogs-need-different-nutrition\/\">Do Sporting and Working Dogs Need Different Nutrition?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whether sniffing for birds, bombs or drugs, chasing Frisbees\u00ae or criminal suspects, jogging as a training partner or racing around an agility course, dogs participate in diverse physical activities of varying intensities. Each of these different activities have unique performance requirements that influence an individual canine athlete\u2019s metabolism and energy needs. Fueling your canine athlete [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":7561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Fueling Your Athletic Dog&#039;s Performance","_seopress_titles_desc":"Dogs participate in a myriad of different physical activities. Learn more about how different activities can impact a dog&#039;s metabolism and energy needs!","_seopress_robots_index":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[158,278,322,684],"tags":[10,320],"class_list":["post-7556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-lifestyle","category-performance","category-recovery","tag-dog","tag-pro89"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}