Dog performance appears to increase with food consumption
 

"Golfer Lee Trevino once said, “A hungry dog hunts best.” Recent research suggests that hunger might actually not be the best way to improve a dog’s performance..."

Nice,
They say hunger and hunting are distinct and separate. So, you can have the stalking behavior a Border Collie or Pointer shows, with no actual eating of the sheep or birds, and you think better when your at ease instead of hungry.

I always wondered why dogs are special cases, no other animal including humans performs better hungry. Unless it is a burger eating contest.

I think this is a very good subject and very interesting to think about and talk about...

I think you have to go back to the beginning and talk about Drive and Motivation...What is Drive and Motivation...

What Drives a dog to do something...or...What Motivates a dog to do something...

I believe when you boil everything down there's only two Drives...people will probably disagree with this but to me everything evolves around these two Drives...You can call them by different names but it comes down to Food and Self Preservation...Food is exhaustable whereas Self Preservation is not...

There are different stages or levels of hunger...If your starving you don't do well at anything but if you're the opposite...(very full-just finished a BIG meal) then you don't do well either...So it comes to reason that something in between is the answer...

Example: I use Food Drive for both Obedience and Tracking...I want my dogs to come out and want to eat on the field to work these two...But I don't want them starved...So I will make sure my dogs have had something to eat...Not much...But not hectic and plain out crazy to get to the food either...This is one reason why I feed my dogs twice a day...

~Bob~

human athletes do not starve themselves to increase performance except maybe a race horse jockey.

Even the jockey isn't withholding foor to enhance HIS performance--he's just trying to lighten the load for the horse, and in turn enhance the animal's performance.

As they say, 'Common sense isn't all that common.'  You know how many people justify not feeding barn cats 'so they'll be better mousers', and then bitch that they've got mice overrunning their graineries?  The smart owners know that well-fed cats catch more mice than hungry ones.

Is this an "exception that proves the rule"  ?

Granted that starving, emaciated lions do not hunt very successfully;

but:  fully fed, contented lion pride  =  sleeping long hours,

whereas:  hungry lions  =  alert and looking for next meal !

I don't think anyone is suggesting you run a marathon within minutes if scarfing down an entire xmass turkey.

In the show and OB world we generally feel that most dogs do better when they are not fed before they go in the ring. They seem to focus more on the handler. There are always exceptions; other dogs seem to do better if they are served a snack or a small meal before ring time. You need to know your dog to figure out which is best for him or her at any particular time. My dog scored better in OB when she was given a small meal before she was shown. If she were really hungry she would have been so focused on looking for food that she would probably would have DQ'd.

http://jn.nutrition.org/content/128/12/2686S.full

"The nutrient requirements of canine athletes are unique. Dogs have a greater capacity for fat oxidation than humans both at rest and during exercise. In dogs undertaking endurance exercise, such as sled dogs, high fat (>50% of energy) diets increase stamina and maximize energy production, and high protein (>30% of energy) diets prevent training-induced anemia. Nutrient requirements differ, however, for sprint racing dogs, such as greyhounds. Greyhounds run faster when fed moderately increased dietary fat but run more slowly when dietary protein is increased. ....."