Dog diet

[SauvignonBlanche]

Our rescue Lab has put on 6 kilos in the 9 months he has been with us!
I know you'd expect him to or some on as he'd been a stray for a while but as he's about 10 and has arthritis in his back legs we don't want this to continue.
The DCs are terrible for always giving him treats and we've talked to them about this.
Apart from the blindingly obvious i.e. reducing his meal size and increasing his activity is there anything else we should be doing?

You have to start being very strict with the DCs. Lay it on the line getting to much to eat is making him fat and will make his legs worse.

Suggest supplement such as Yumove to help the joints. When my retriever starts looking porky I just reduce her portion sizes slightly and it really doesn't take long to get the weight off. How about putting a daily treat allowance in a dish and telling DCs only to give him treat out of the dish?

Having a daily treat allowance is a great idea.

What about giving him some of his food allowance in a kong, buster cube or treat ball as well, to make him work for it? It may help him burn off a few extra calories while he's chasing his dinner around, iyswim.

I love the treat allowance idea, thanks.
He's on glucosamine for his joints.
I did get him a Kong but he just can't be bothered. He really is such a lazy Lab, DH gave him a apple core the other night and he wouldn't eat it until it was places near enough that he didn't have to move!

lurcherboy was the same with kongs - just too much effort involved apparently. We gradually got him used to it, by putting a few loose (really tasty/smelly eg garlic liver treats) treats in, so they fell out easily. Then adding a smear of peanut butter so they stuck a little but were easy to dislodge, then gradually packing them in a little more each day. He gradually decided/realised it was worth bashing it about a bit to get the at the treats and just today has actually managed to excavate a packed one for the first time!

You could try something like philadelphia extra light to replace the peanut butter if you wanted to give it a go, but needed something lower fat.

Had to laugh at the apple. Lurcherboy decided last week that he loved his carrot too much to eat it. He would lie there hugging it between his paws, carry it from bed to bed, but never actually eat it. You should have seen his face when I finally decided it was getting too manky and put it in the bin!

I inherited a very overweight cocker spaniel and getting the weight off him was an endless and not 100% successful endeavour. But what I did do was reduce portion size and be very, very strict indeed about treats. It turned out that he loved apples and carrots so I substituted what I suspect had been regular daily helpings of cake - he had been my friend's elderly father's dog and it was clear that they'd been sharing rather too many human meals!

I also had a friend's horrifying obese Lab for a holiday earlier this year. At only 3 years old he was the size of an amiable bear and his health was clearly suffering. She assured me that he needed all sorts of treats but in the week I had him he didn't seem to suffer from the lack of any.

So if you must give treats and I'm afraid I rarely do unless as a training aid, I'd look to substitute healthier alternatives and certainly put the dog on a daily allowance.

I would make the treat allowance a proportion of his daily meal, rather than in addition to his meals.

As Pandemoniaa says, he wouldn't suffer from the lack of treats, but if your dc must give him treats it would be better if it was part of his daily food allowance rather than extra calories on top.