Adequate Nutrition is Essential For High Performance in Dogs

A body builder takes more protein or a runner eats more calcium rich foods. Animals and pets must also use pet supplements or pet vitamins in order to have a long active life. Especially dogs, with their slightly different metabolisms use dog nutrition supplements from birth to old age. Dog nutrition must have appropriate support depending on the activities of the dog. Calcium is one of the most essential dog supplements for puppies especially if they will grow up to be K9 athletes. Calcium rich dog health supplements would make their bones stronger and more resilient to excessive activity when grown up.

Iron is another important component found in canine nutritional supplements. As the activity of the animal increases, the need of its body for iron also increases. Therefore iron is one of the most essential supplements for dogs. However before using iron rich canine supplements, you must have a blood test to determine the exact amount of iron your dog needs because excessive iron may cause health problems like heart disease and colon problems.

Vitamin E is an antioxidant. It can be found in vitamin complexes sold as dog vitamins or k9
vitamins. Active dogs when not supported with Vitamin-E may have oxidative damage in their muscle tissues. This causes soreness and fatigue decreasing the activity levels of the dogs. A race dog may start to slow down and its running urges may become atrophied.

There are other important minerals for the performance and health of dogs. Magnesium, potassium, zinc and selenium are some of them. Magnesium helps muscle relaxation while potassium helps stabilize muscle contractions. Selenium is known as a free radical and it supports the immune system. Zinc is also important for the immune system. Other functions of zinc are increasing endurance and decreasing fatigue. Amino acids like glutamine and protein must also be supplemented in more active dogs like racing or hunting hounds.

K9 athletes or dogs trained for competitions have more nutritional needs than their inactive fellows. If they are supplemented with adequate nutrients they can recover more quickly, have stronger immune systems, don’t get tired easily and have better performance.