Your feeding Tom?

Hi Tomjs,

Sorry mate but I'm going to have to disappoint you for the simple reason that there is no such item as a standard dog, they are all individuals, and because of that they all have different requirements in regard to both work and food requirements to achieve their peak performance and condition.

To the extent that even just a three month difference in age can make a difference in requirements, not to mention the situation that occurs when one dog has had just one run that was a fraction too far or too hard as that then alters the requirements of that greyhound for the next three weeks.

I know it is an absolute pain to search through heaps of information but the basis of what you need to know are in this website somewhere.

The most important single thing any greyhound trainer needs to learn is how to judge the state and condition of each individual greyhound, and then adjust both food and work to suit. In some instances these judgements need to be made on a daily basis, and may only require a minor adjustment in food quantity, or one additional 300 meter handslip.

The one other item that makes all of that easier is to have a whiteboard clearly marked out with a section for each dog in work that lists food quantity, current weight and preferred weight, and a rolling calendar that allows each day's work trials and races to be listed. There also needs to be a section to list medications and treatments.

Working around 14 to 21 days ahead you look at what you need to achieve with that greyhound at that time. It may be a specific race or a specific point in the greyhound training program, and working back from that future event list everything that needs to be done with that greyhound up to that time to achieve what you wish to achieve.

It is alway easier to work back from a future date back to today to visualize exactly what needs to be done.

Cheers,
Tom