Overweight Dogs
To tell if your dog is overweight, do what I call "the rib test." Firstly start by rubbing your hand over the dog's side: If you can feel the spacing between the ribs the weight for your dog is just right. If you feel just ribs with no spacing - minor weight loss is needed. If you cannot feel spacing or ribs, it is time for a major diet.

Next, look at the shape of your dog's belly, by looking down on the dog, observe the contour of their sides.

  • If the belly swings up - great.
  • If the belly is rounded - not so good.
  • If the sides show a nice hourglass shape - good.
  • If you find a straight shot back - again, not good.
Last, feel the base of your dogs tail. A nice slim tail is what you want. A well-padded tail base --- it's time to think diet.

So the point has been made, we need to put the family dog on a diet.

Overweight Dog Diets:

Let's talk about ways to get the weight off.

First, look to lower calorie food. Most of these diet foods don't contain much tasty fat - that's why most dogs turn their noses up when it comes to diet food. I recommend flavoring these diet foods---add the water from canned tuna, or warm up beef broth, or chicken broth to pour over the diet food. Good taste without the calories.

What about decreasing the regular amount of food we usually feed? Believe it or not, the ASPCA recommends 25-33% cut back to get the weight off. The only way I have a dog put up with this dramatic reduction in food is if their owner divides the daily ration into 3-4 separate meals. Once the weight is off, increase volume to the recommended maintenance level.

Exercise is the key to weight loss and keeping weight off!!! Start with slow easy walks around the yard and then progressing to neighborhood walks. If your dog wants to stop, let them take a break, then head to the house.

Certain breeds like hunting or working breeds gain weight quickly without regular exercise. Also, these dogs get bored easily and become destructive around the house. Once you get even a little weight off your dog most are surprised at the amount of spirit and bounce they have.

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