My dog is on a diet and I feel so MEAN

[StillMedusa]

She keeps looking at me... 'where is my cheese?' ' 80g of kibble..is that IT?!'
I know it's for her own good (put on a bit of weight post spay ) but honestly it's so hard when those big brown eyes are looking at me so pathetically!
I'd rather diet myself!!!!

Bulkout her meals with vegetables and add lean meat to her boring kibble. A diet of kibble is the same as factory farmed animals eat every day of their miserable lives.

Can you feed her something a bit more...interesting?

Some wet food, veggies or lean meat/broth with her kibble, just to add some variety to it?

Does she like carrots?

My dog loves them, whole, as a nice cronchy treat!

I am giving her lean meat with her kibble (reducing the kibble accordingly) and I vary it so she's not just having a totally boring meal. She won't touch carrots and any veg has to be well hidden (like a toddler!) or she'll eat round it

She will eat wet food now and again but isn't overly keen. I'm not a fan of kibble (she does have the best stuff according to the Allaboutdogfood site) not cheap supermarket stuff , but can't feed raw due to immune issues ..plus she really didn't like it.
She gets roast chicken, roast beef, the odd bit of ham or turkey so her diet is varied.

But she wants cheese This is the issue. She loves cheese, has had cheese for training and isn't getting cheese!!!

On the plus side neither am I as I can't sneak a bit without feeling guilty

Oh they know how to make you feel like an uncaring monster. We need a picture of the wee soul!

I am on a diet, and I wish someone would do the same for me as you are doing for your dog!

Yep - doggy weight loss thread with lots of lovely pictures! Think of it as like sticking a motivational photo on the fridge. We're the fridge.

When I got my dog he was 18 months old and weighed 22.5kg (he’s a cocker spaniel. That is a LOT. He looked like a rugby ball with legs).

He weighed 15kg at his lightest and fittest, and now is 14 years old and weighs around 16-17kg. No one can ever believe his age, the vets always say he looks about 10. He can still leap onto the sofa, jump a fallen tree, or do a five mile walk - until recently he was running 5k with me.

So keep going! I know exactly how mean they make you feel, but there are many good years to be gained He is modelling his coat that I made for him here - he wasn’t impressed with it but he is an old dog now and feels the cold. He went swimming in the river while wearing it on Sunday... 🙈

We have to whisper the word cheese in our house otherwise the doggies nuts. She stops dead in her tracks or immediately wakes up, it’s like crack.

Dog goes nuts

@FAQs

We have to whisper the word cheese in our house otherwise the doggies nuts. She stops dead in her tracks or immediately wakes up, it’s like crack.

Same - and we can't say Jesus either because it sounds too similar. Not that we regularly sit around of an evening chatting about Jesus, but even if we wanted to, we couldn't.

Try raw broccoli, carrots and cabbage leaves.

My spaniels go mad for raw white cabbage leaves.

@Spudlet your spaniel is gorgeous and looks fab for his age.
One of my spanner’s weighs 20.1 kg never much fluctuated and always give those sad eyes when the vet nurse tells me in front of him that he is fat and needs to diet. He is a chunky, broad, muscular fella and very fit, walks miles daily, swims, plays, vet often says he wishes more old dogs were still in such good shape. The eyes though,

The eyes and the poor me look!! It’s too hard!

I looked after my friend's dog recently and wondered if she could have a small bit of cheese. I googled it and apparently it isn't good for them. I later found out she does have cheese but I'm glad I didn't risk it.

Bashfulclam See, how am I supposed to resist THIS?!!!

One of mine is in steroids and has hypothyroidism and is permanently hungry! She has a carrot everyday and I recently bought canned pumpkin from Amazon and she has / tablespoons of it added to her meal-helps her to feel fuller but virtually no calories and fat free -it’s very hard to see as uni to get so I feel for you

@StillMedusa look at that face 😂

OMG how adorable! I know how you feel my dog has put on a bit of timber, she is 12 now so although I’m being more careful with her diet I’m not doing anything too radical because I’m worried she could die anytime now and I don’t want the remaining time she has with me for her to be hungry, so I’m doing it at a very slow rate and upping the exercise.

When my dog was on steroids I felt so bad for her like I was starving her she really was that hungry it was harsh so sympathies op.

@StillMedusa. That beautiful black muzzle...needs kissing

...and cheese!!

But..but.. HOW do you get a veggie refusing dog to eat carrots, pumpkin or anything like that?
I'm not kidding when I say she refuses... one time I did her a roast (that is a rare treat) and she managed to pick out the carrots and peas and left them in a ring on the floor around her bowl!!! She's only 2, spayed last december, and went from 23kg to 25kg.. so not massive but definitely needs to chip it back off .
The first time I offered her a carrot..as a tiny puppy.. she gave me a look of utter disgust and walked off. She's a diva!

She’s gorgeous op! But you must be strong 💪

Ddog is a foodaholic and would eat himself to death given the option. He sits and jiggles DS’s elbow when he’s eating (if he thinks I’m not looking) to try and get him to drop things and we have to have child locks on his food storage or he will eat himself into oblivion. He is also a bin dipper, who managed to eat 1.5kg of rubbish in one night and ended up needing surgery to deal with the resulting blockage - the vet said she’d never seen anything like it 🙈😬 He weighed 25kg when he went into the rescue centre, so you can imagine what he must have been fed as a young dog 😱 But it’s worth the guilt eyes to have a healthy older dog, IMO. He’s climbed mountains and all sorts in his prime, he wouldn’t have done that weighing 25kg.