On the latest episode of the Trending: Pet Food podcast, Dr. Erin Perry, an award-winning scientist and author with more than two decades of experience with working canines, joined host Lindsay Beaton, editor of Petfood Industry, to discuss the complex nutritional needs of working dogs and how research in this field benefits the broader companion animal population.
The conversation explored everything from defining what constitutes a working dog to the latest research on gut health and dietary diversity. Dr. Perry shared insights on managing nutrition for dogs working in extreme conditions, the importance of customized feeding approaches, and how advancements in working dog nutrition science can improve health outcomes for all dogs.
Below are 10 takeaways from EPISODE 97: What are the unique considerations for working dog nutrition?
1. Working dog definitions vary widely. While Congress defines working dogs as those receiving formal training to perform productive tasks, the broader definition includes emotional support dogs, therapy dogs, medical alert dogs, and traditional military, law enforcement, and search and rescue dogs. "Their value to their human partner is without measure, and we want to make sure that we're doing the very best that we can for them in terms of nutrition, because they take such good care of us," Dr. Perry said.
2. Nutritional needs differ significantly based on job requirements. Military and law enforcement dogs working shifts have much higher energy and protein requirements for muscle repair and regeneration. Dogs working in extreme environments, such as Customs and Border Patrol dogs in 100-degree-plus weather, expend significant calories on thermoregulation alone.
"They're spending a lot of calories trying to just perform thermoregulation," Dr. Perry explained. "You can't just dump a lot of extra fat into their diet. That has to be balanced with a lot of other factors."
3. Managing working dog nutrition requires balancing multiple factors. Simply adding more calories or protein isn't enough. "It's not just as easy as let's add more calories or let's add more protein," Dr. Perry said. "You really have to consider the whole GI health system and the way that that's going to impact the dog in terms of not just nutrient needs, but then obviously there are elimination needs that have to be met."
4. Feeding frequency matters as much as food choice. Multiple smaller meals throughout the day help dogs perform more consistently than one large breakfast meal before an eight- to 10-hour shift. This approach also helps prevent bloat or gastric dilatation-volvulus, which afflicts working dogs more commonly due to their typically deeper-chested breed types.
"Feeding a dog one large meal at breakfast and then expecting that dog to work eight to 10 hours may not necessarily produce the best performance from that dog," Dr. Perry noted.
5. Dietary diversity strengthens gut health. Research by Dr. Perry with the Search Dog Foundation demonstrated that purposefully rotating ingredients weekly reduced E. coli levels and increased healthy bacteria in dogs' GI tracts.
"If you teach the stomach, if you teach the GI tract to tolerate difference, you can actually train it to be a more resilient and more healthy environment," she said. "Sometimes the healthiest dogs that we see that never had any GI issues whatsoever are the mutts that are just wandering around outside eating whatever they can find."
6. The pet obesity epidemic stems from misguided expressions of love. Many pet owners equate feeding treats with showing affection, not understanding they're fundamentally shortening their pets' lives and reducing quality of life.
"Every time I give him a cookie or every time I give him a treat, I'm telling him how much I love him," Dr. Perry said. "What they don't understand is that what you are doing is fundamentally not only shortening his life, but you're fundamentally reducing the quality of his life."
7. Olfactory science has advanced working dog selection and training. Research at Auburn University has revealed how genetics and maternal parenting styles impact working dog success. Puppies raised by more independent mothers tend to excel at independent problem-solving tasks like explosive detection, while those with more nurturing mothers may be better suited for support roles requiring constant human partnership.
Dr. Perry described research showing that females who made their puppies stand then walked away -- they didn't lay, they didn't snuggle and cuddle -- produced "puppies who were much more independent, who tended to be better at independent problem solving."
8. Working dog research benefits all companion animals. Studies focused on preventing GI distress in working dogs who operate in public spaces have broader applications for companion dogs experiencing travel stress.
"The research that's been done to minimize GI problems relative to travel stress in working dogs absolutely benefits companion dogs as well," Dr. Perry said, noting that fiber supplementation, probiotics and ingredient manipulation help both working and pet dogs.
9. Modern nutrition science requires holistic approaches. Simply adding more calories or probiotics doesn't solve problems if it increases diarrhea or loose stool. "It's not just about calories and protein anymore," Dr. Perry emphasized. "We have to consider the whole health and the whole system of the dog. If what you're doing actually introduces more calories into the diet, but it actually increases diarrhea or loose stool, then you haven't necessarily solved a problem, and you may actually have made it worse."
10. Collaboration is key to advancing canine nutrition. With decades of research accumulated since the last National Research Council publication, the field needs a formal mechanism to bring together leading researchers to connect the dots and make findings more broadly applicable and easier for veterinarians to communicate to dog owners.
"In my opinion, the solutions to a lot of these issues moving forward is collaboration," Dr. Perry said. "It's bringing these really smart people that are working on different pieces of this problem together and figuring out how we can connect the dots of all of this research that's been done."
