Improvised explosive device detection (IDD) dogs explore up to 40 km of land daily and therefore have energetic demands that may be above the National Research Council’s requirement for working dogs. This study was designed to quantify metabolic energy intake (MEI) and total energy expenditure (TEE) in a group of IDD dogs. Two groups of dogs that had undergone different training protocols (CP1, n=8 and CP2, n=11) underwent a 5-day deployment simulation that consisted of combined road clearing, orbit and point-to-point activities and lasted approximately 9 h per day. The CP1 dogs were fed according to the IDD Marine Corps Manual, while CP2 dogs were offered additional calories based on pilot study data of energy expenditure. The MEI was calculated based on feed intake rates and chemical composition of the diets. TEE was quantified using the doubly-labelled water technique in 2 of the CP1 dogs and 7 of the CP2 dogs. During the 5-day deployment simulation the MEI ranged from 189-310 kcal/bodyweight (BW)0.75 per day, with the CP2 dogs at the higher end because they were offered more feed. The TEE ranged between 375-507 kcal/BW0.75 per day, above the MEI, suggesting the dogs were in negative energy balance and metabolic reserves within the body were combusted for energy production. These findings reveal that energy requirements of deployed military working dogs are higher than previously published metabolic energy requirements of working dogs.

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Management techniques that reduce the insulin response to feeding in horses have application in preventing insulin resistance (IR) and potential associations (e.g., laminitis). Eight mature idle horses of BCS between 5 and 6.5 and with no previous indication of IR were fed a meal of concentrate under 4 feed delivery treatments in a repeated Latin Square design. Treatments were all based on a bucket of equal dimensions. The treatments included a control (CON) and 3 treatments hypothesized to increase time to consume feed (TCF): mobile obstacles above the feed (BALL), stationary obstacles below the feed (WAFF), and feed with water added (WTR). Jugular venous blood samples were taken at feed delivery, every 10 min for the first hour, and then every 30 min until 300 min after feed delivery. The TCF was different across treatment and was greater (P < 0.05) for BALL and WAFF when compared with CON and WTR. Glucose and insulin concentrations increased after feeding (P < 0.05) and tended to differ among treatments (P < 0.10). Peak insulin and glucose concentrations were affected by treatment as were the time to peak insulin and the area under the curve of insulin (P < 0.05). Therefore, feed delivery methods that include obstacles effectively increase TCF and attenuate postprandial glucose and insulin concentrations. A second experiment was designed to determine if the TCF changes associated with BALL and WAFF in Exp. 1 remain effective over a 4-d period. Four horses with no recent or regular history of consuming concentrates were fed concentrate meals for 4 consecutive d using the same treatments described in Exp. 1 and a Latin square design. Horses were subject to a 4-d adaptation period and were randomly assigned to 4-d treatment periods using the 4 previously described treatments. During adaptation, TCF decreased over time (P = 0.02). After adaptation, WAFF had greater TCF when compared with CON and WTR (P < 0.05) whereas WTR had the lowest TCF overall. Using obstacles to increase TCF on a daily basis may be an effective method to reduce postprandial glucose and insulin concentrations, thereby decreasing the risk of IR development in horses.

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