7 Essential Tips for Maintaining Your Dog's Health: Preventive Maintenance

When it comes to the well-being of your hunting dog, there is no owner's manual with specific guidelines. It is your responsibility to collaborate with your veterinarian in order to establish an effective preventive maintenance plan. This not only ensures your dog's health but also allows for early detection of any potential issues before they escalate into major problems.

“Regularly scheduled veterinary exams are the foundation of good preventive health care,” says Purina Chief Veterinary Officer Kurt Venator. “Preventive care is especially essential for sporting dogs, who are at a higher risk for certain conditions such as orthopedic injuries, lacerations and puncture wounds, foreign bodies, and gastrointestinal disease.”

To ensure your dog's health is in peak condition year-round, follow this checklist of routine inspections and checkups from Dr. Venator.

Run a Background Check

Performing a background check on your dog's overall health history and discussing their lifestyle at home and in the field with your veterinarian can yield significant benefits during their annual examination. Establishing a baseline enables you to easily detect any alterations in their eating, drinking, urination, defecation, weight, mobility, or field performance. Simultaneously, your veterinarian can promptly diagnose and address any behavioural or health concerns that may arise.

Prevention is Paramount

To safeguard your dog against communicable diseases, such as fleas, ticks, and intestinal parasites, it is crucial to establish a comprehensive vaccine and parasite prevention protocol in collaboration with your veterinarian. Additionally, it is recommended to provide year-round heartworm protection regardless of the region you reside in.

Easy on the Eyes

Considering how your dog operates in environments where eye injuries are common, it is important to remain vigilant for any signs of irritation or injury after they run through bushes, grass, or weeds. Certain breeds may be more susceptible to conditions like dry eye, progressive retinal atrophy, and glaucoma. To assess whether your dog is at risk, it is advisable to consult with your veterinarian.

Polish Those Pearly Whites

Dental disease can be caused by poor dental care or foreign bodies entering the mouth during fieldwork, wreaking havoc on your dog’s mouth and potentially causing other systemic health issues. Cleaning your dog’s teeth daily and following dog dental health basics are a must.

Ear to Ear

Besides routine checkups, you should also regularly clean your dog’s ears, especially during the warmer months when the incidence of ear infections across breeds runs high due to frequent swimming.

Brush It Off

Grooming your dog goes beyond just aesthetics. Regularly brushing their coat is essential to keep it healthy and vibrant, while also removing any debris or foreign material they may have picked up in the field. Additionally, this grooming routine allows you to check for fleas or ticks that may have burrowed into their coat.

Feed a Complete and Balanced Diet

Providing your dog with high-quality, complete and balanced nutrition, such as Purina Pro Plan SPORT Performance dog food is the cornerstone of good health and field performance. It’s important to feed the same food year-round, adjusting the amount fed to maintain ideal body condition. In fact, Purina’s 14-year landmark life span study in dogs showed that dogs maintaining ideal body condition throughout their lives can help extend their healthy years by an average of 1.8 years (for the dogs in the study). For a dog in ideal body condition, you should be able to feel the ribs with minimal fat covering, view his or her waist behind the ribs, and an abdominal tuck should be visible from the side. 

Purina® Pro Plan® is the #1 brand most fed and recommended brand by dog breeders in Canada.* Learn more about the what the Pro Club Breeder program has to offer, including up to 25% savings on Pro Plan dog and puppy food, a free bag of puppy food for your new pet owners and more!

^{*Canadian Dog Fancier survey results, November 2023}