I remember Jim Dandy dog food. It was slightly more expensive than Field Trial. We fed Field Trial. Back then it was $6 for a 50lb. bag. The chunks would sometimes have feathers. One of the quality checks people used was to soak a chunk in water. The bigger it swelled the cheaper the food. Field Trial would double in size. We filled a 5 gallon bucket 1/2 way. Filled the rest of the way with water. In a short period of time it would be 5 gallons of mush. There were bulldogs and coon dogs on chains. Rabbit dogs, two bird dogs in pens and a monster of a Doberman Pinscher that ran the yard. All fed from 2-3 five gallon buckets.

These dogs performed with the best of them. The keep feed was this same food, but the supplements were added, along with chicken necks/chicken backs. Back then the supplement of choice was Clovite ( a horse supplement). Greens and jack cheeses.

When the dog dumped a stick was used to cut a turd in half. If it were brown and hard more greens were added. If it was a mush pile the dog food was lowered and the backs/neck were increased. When he pissed if it were dark or darker than the day before the Clovite was lessened from two spoon-fuls to one, the salt was removed and the water intake increased. When it lightened up the second spoon of Clovite was added and the salt was re-added.

This was just about a prehistoric stool sample and urinalysis. In a couple of weeks the feed/supplementation would be dialed in for that dog and the hard work would begin. An occasional adjustment would be made but it would be minor. From then it was all about work and rest.

One of the last really busy roads to be paved in our area was called the 'hog parlor' road. The road is at least 10-12 miles long. It has a real 'city' name now but anyone close to 50 or older still refers to it as the 'hog parlor road'. In turn, as a kid he used the 'hog parlor keep'. He had a 8ft. lead and a really nice 1975 Chevrolet station wagon. We held the lead out the side window and he drove up and down that road. He changed speeds as his side view mirror suggested. It is funny but I never remember a pad issue running on that gravel/dirt road. The next day it was slat mill runs followed by long slow walks. Sometimes pulling chains, some times not.

After that it was back to the Field Trial/chicken neck feedings. We would make the feed in a large dish and go work the dog and when we got back it was quite the soaked down concoction. Spoon in the Clovite/salt and off to the keep box for a night of rest.

These dogs competed very well back then. And looking back I would just about laugh at someone using Field Trial as any means of nutrition for a dog. And at the same time I would freak if I were riding in a car towing a bulldog down a road passing car after car, and car after car passing us. Prehistoric times.

EWO