Update from the future – this page gets a lot of views – what prompted you to search for this book? Send me an email – afmdog@gmail.com.
I heard reference to this author being a good resource on nutrition and conditioning information for sporting dogs. Through an online search, I found this book. I like this book a lot. The author works for/with Royal Canin (a French dog food company). The book was originally published in France, though the author is in Canada. He’s done a lot of research on dog in various conditions, especially sled dogs and hunting dogs. Dominique Grandjean has also worked with the Unite De Medecine De L’Elevage et Du Sport, a special department of a French vet school. This department specifically focuses on research relating to breeding and working/sport dogs.
We’ve had some trouble with Griffin and an illipsoas injury. Nutrition and exercise are important for all dogs. And it’s really hard to know what to do. Though there are a lot of opinions and anecdotal resources, there isn’t a lot of readily accessible science type information on these subjects.
Format
This book is huge, 400 pages. Normally I only write about books that I have completely read. I’ll admit I haven’t read this whole book. The first 1/3 is on all the different working and sporting activities and it gives weird semi-training step type information (not all correct and not impressive). The next third is on nutrition and exercise and bio mechanics. The last part is on parasites and health. I’ve only read the nutrition and exercise chapters and the section on bio mechanics.
Content
This is wonderful. I’ve read and re-read those parts many times. The information doesn’t lay out specific information as in “this is what you should do.” It does list the different needs for energy, water, metabolism, heart rates, and more things for dogs in different stages of life and dogs doing different types of activities. Most research is on sled dogs and racing greyhounds (sprinting and endurance comparisons.) There’s some information on hunting and search and rescue other activities as well. The sources are cited and I’ve been able to get way more of this than nutrition textbooks I have purchased.
My experience
It’s not an easy book to read. The training parts are very basic. The language in the other parts is far more complex and a lot more technical terminology is used without explanation. I wonder how much is by Grandjean vs other authors. I’ve taken some nutrition and physiology classes and still occasionally needed help from google to better understand what I was reading.
This book has greatly changed how I approach managing my own dogs. I’m far more aware of how I modify their diets and exercise. I realize how impossibly complex these topics are for working and sport dogs. While my dogs aren’t the most active dogs, I have a better understanding of why some typical feeding and exercise practices may have been adequate, but not optimal, for my dogs. This book won’t change what I say to clients – I don’t talk about specifics in regards to nutrition and exercise – but it does make me see how complex the topics are!