nothing worse than a promising dog go to ground,find his quarry,work it for ten minutes then come up for a shit, I've seen it happen & the lads were lucky for the dog to drop back in & get back on term's with it's quarry before it dig's away. Feed according to work schedule but not before work & if an early start then drop feeding back from night to afternoon before. Not saying its right but it works for me & + I like to let mine out for a quick run before work as sometimes they wont empty out in kennels but will in the yard so no problem when you get to an earth.