to be upset mil has a new dog?

[QuintessentialShadows]

The last dog she had was overindulged, overweight, and died suffering diabetes and blindness.

I had the pleasure of reading through the dogs medical notes, 7 years of the doctor giving advice on nutrition and exercise. The dog was fed every treat in the book, spending his life on the sofa, and never walked longer than the bottom of the street. (I had to help her with an insurance claim for the dogs medical bills)

Now all I can think is that Merry Christmas, another Yorkshire terrier to spend a life fed treats and spend his life on a lap.

I hope to be proven wrong!

Oh Theodorous, how sad. Dogs are reknowned thieves, ours 'got away' with quite a few things that we would never have given them. It wasn't your fault. :(

OP, I expect the next pet will suffer the same fate. I feel sad when I see a new dog go from normal body condition to ever-more obese when a "feeder" buys or "rescues" it. It makes me sad when I see several years' worth of notes saying "obese; warned owner re: diabetes, pancreatitis etc; discussed diet and exercise"...and then the prophecy is fulfilled. I've heard every whingy excuse in the book.
My best results at making people listen is trying to convince owners that food does not equal love; that the dog hoovers up all the treats partly for the same reason that if you gave a young child a Mars Bar every time he asked for one, the child would not know to stop asking and would become obese; but also partly because the dog likes the whole love-in experience. The owner gives the treat with warm words and expressions and praises the dog as it's eating. The dog loves it's owner and wants to please - so eats as much as it physically can, because eating appears to make the owner happy. I try to convince the owners to have the confidence to give the attention and love without the food - because what the dog usually prizes most of all is love and attention from beloved owners. It'll probably still beg for the treats as it has been conditioned to; but won't love them any less if it doesn't get stuffed with food. "He doesn't really love the food - it's YOU he loves" is my parting shot. Sometimes it works. Try it.

We have had 50+ foster dogs from skeletal to overweight. My husband does the feeding and refuses to "feed them up". They get the relevant portion of Royal Canin appropriate diet and their weight and it has worked well. He is harder than me