Learners know the effects of canine diet on health, welfare, and behaviour. They understand how legislation impacts canine food production.
Canine nutrition is the science of feeding dogs to maintain health, support growth, and prevent disease. This topic covers the essential nutrients—proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and water—and how they function in a dog's body. You'll learn about energy requirements, life stage feeding (puppy, adult, senior), and special dietary needs for working dogs, pregnant bitches, or dogs with health conditions. Understanding canine nutrition is crucial for anyone working in animal care, as diet directly impacts behaviour, coat condition, digestion, and longevity.
The SEG Awards Level 3 Certificate in Canine Nutrition requires you to apply nutritional principles to practical scenarios. You'll evaluate commercial diets (dry, wet, raw, home-cooked) and learn to read pet food labels, including the guaranteed analysis and ingredient lists. This knowledge helps you advise owners on appropriate feeding regimes and recognise signs of nutritional deficiencies or excesses. Nutrition is a cornerstone of preventative healthcare, and mastering it will enable you to support dogs' wellbeing throughout their lives.
This topic fits into the wider Animal Care & Veterinary curriculum by linking anatomy and physiology (digestive system) with practical husbandry. It also prepares you for further study in veterinary nursing or animal science. By the end, you should be able to calculate a dog's daily energy requirement using the Resting Energy Requirement (RER) formula and adjust for factors like neutering, activity level, and body condition score.
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