Right, a lot happened in the past hour and half.
DH was taking mine to the Vet for her post illness check, and I decided to do this now. We took guest dog along with us and took her in to our Vet's office.
He examined her for a long time, feeling her all over, checking her eyes, gums, mouth etc, but largely feeling her, a lot. I recounted everything I have said here.
First of all - weight - He says, this is not a true specimen of the breed I have in mind. He says it is clearly the dominant breed, but that he can see distinct Chihuahua traits and that this is one of the many untested, unthought out crosses that backyard breeders and puppy farms are notorious for. He explained with reference to features in her that he does not recognise this as a true specimen of the breed but rather one of the many versions of "Chi" mixes. He said - he would be happier if she was about a kilo heavier, she meausred 3.3 kgs on both reception and inner office scales. But that he was not extremely concerned. I pointed out that to my eyes she looks thin. The Vet said - with reference to her frame and with his hand on various parts of her torso, that she is very muscular, lean, yes, but not what I am calling "a bag of bones". He said people often come into the surgery saying their dog is "just right" when in fact they are obese, and he has seen dogs being called "a bag of bones" when they are in fact just right. He felt her ribs which I pointed out and said - yes, a kilo more would make him happier, but this is not a bag of bones to his eyes.
Food - no question. Crap food is being fed. she needs to come off it ASAP on to a nutritious diet and gave options A B and C.
Punishment and cowering - This was a serious chunk of our talk. He said this practice has in the past taken animals off people for neglect and abuse. He can see she is timid, but equally, the animal he is seeing is alert, confident, and engaging every step of the way. He says he would be very concerned about the declarations (long ago now) of hiting her, but that he cannot see evidence of abuse in particular - her timidness is something he has seen in many animals, and he cant conlude that this is direct proof of abuse.
I called my freind on the way back immediately and reported a different version of this conversation. I said we had been to the vet for mine and she came along. that Vet is "very concerned" about her weight and she neds to gain at least 1 kilo and needs to be ASAP moved to diet A B or C. Said that Vet is "very put off" by the cowering and was suspecting me of hitting - so I need to ask you - do you hit her. She said absolutely not. So I asked why say it to me then, and she said - I meant we punish her. I asked to clarify - she said oh we tell her off very very harshly as we are firm about rules. But we dont slap, hit, or push her. I said - look,. my Vet is very very concerned and has his antenae up now and probably has the microchip details. I am moving her on to a good diet ASAP and when you return in 14 days she should just continue on it. I also said they have noticed her cowering and grilled me throoguhly on how we treat her and have the microchip, so I would geenrally pay a great deal of attention to her emotional well being. I mentioned its very common for dogs to be seized these days for signs of neglect, and you do need to sort out her cowering, show her lots of love and have her gain this extra weight - because its caught the eyes of other people now.
She seemed completely oblivious of Pedigree and was convinced she is feeding him a great diet.
I am ASAP moving dog to good diet, I knew something looked un-breedlike about her, and if there is some Chi mixed in, and if my (very respected, experienced) Vet says she is muscular and lean, and smaller than her absolute ideal but not malnourished, I am going to go with it. i am also going to follow up on her progress from now on and see how things go. But at the moment I am not doing anything further except focusing on getting her to eat better over the next 14/15 days or so.