New/inexperienced dog owners, please do not let your dog become overweight.

[lilacblossomtime]

My next door neighbour is a lovely elderly lady who has recently lost her Dh. I feel very sorry for her and wouldn't upset her for anything. She loves dogs and is very kind, however her own dog is in very poor health mainly due to being very overweight, imo, lack of exercise and poor diet. I think some of the problems might be due to its age and breed, but the overweight does not help at all. It is very sad to see this poor dog. Keeping dogs at a lean healthy weight is so important, and try to ignore those pleading looks when you have a biscuit.

In my experience the only overweight dogs I've known have had older owners.

Older owners who treat them like humans who deserve lots of 'treat' food and who don't walk them enough.

Anyway, my pooch is a perfect weight, confirmed by our vet a few weeks ago. It's something I'm conscious about. Letting an animal get fat is just cruel.

I rarely see a dog that I wouldn't take at least a bit of weight off if it was mine tbh.

If you took any weight off my boy he would pass through the eye of the needle. Our girl is the ideal weight for her size. Both raw fed dogs who are not given human treats like digestive biscuits although both are partial to cheese or sausage for training purposes.

So many overweight dogs now, sad to see.

I am at risk of getting abuse by saying this, but I think peoples perception of what is overweight for humans and dogs is a bit skewed, Bit of a generalisation I know, but I see fit, lean healthy dogs owned by folk with a similar outlook in life.

I have a friend with a lab puppy. At 8 months she's already overweight. She's a working lab, should be lean. Sadly, she and her family might benefit from losing weight, which she freely admits.

That being said, our cocker looks like a famine victim at present. I kind of thought he was fine until I really looked at him today. He had Millie's Wolfheart for skinny dogs for tea and I gave him an egg and half a tin of sardines. You can see every bone in his body. We are at the vets Friday for worming (they are up to date, just getting the next batch), I will certainly get him weighed. The Springer is very lean, but muscular with it, the cocker is just thin But has lots of energy and happy too... ho hum.

needastrongone - I don't think that's always true though, I think a much bigger issue is that people don't seem to know what shape dogs are supposed to be.

I mean it's similar to people not realising children are overweight because they're not what they consider to be 'fat' but I don't think it follows that overweight people have overweight dogs or that healthy weight people have healthy weight dogs.

The reason I addressed this to new dog owners is that we overfed my dog at first and she got a bit tubby. It was quite hard to get the weight off again. Since then i have learned that keeping the dog at the lowest healthy weight is much better for them.

Like I said, a bit of a generalisation based on no scientific evidence whatsoever , but I can't remember meeting an overweight dog that is owned by a lean owner, nor a lean dog owned by some one that might benefit health wise from losing some weight.

I also think our perception of what an overweight person actually is has changed, as more of the population are classed as such, without being classed as obese. Beside the point of the thread though.

Similar dogs, as you say. Fed up of folk asking if our Springer is actually a Springer iyswim? He just doesn't look like most Springers, who are overweight. Our vet suggests most Springers would benefit from looking like ours.

Um, my dog is lean enough that people say he's too thin or ask if he's a cross, I certainly am not lean, lol.

lilacblossomtime - yes, it's way easier to maintain a nice weight on a dog than to get it off them again.

It's more that I think every owner should be checking if their dog actually is a nice weight, because I see a lot that are a bit overweight and quite a few that are definitely obese, but their owners seem unaware of it.

I have a friend who makes me look elephantine (I'm not but she's extremely slim) - her whippet is obese :(

When Eric has been clipped really short I've been told a couple of times that he needs a good meal but in fact the vet has said he is the perfect weight for his size. He's a small and dainty dog he's never going to be hefty. Once he's got a good covering of hair on though he's considered to be a proper weight.

Well I am not "slim", but both my Goldies are slim. The thing is, it is much easier to measure their food than mine, iyswim!

"a lean dog owned by some one that might benefit health wise from losing some weight"

that would be me and skinny sprocker...

I've never had an overweight dog

I see a lot of overweight dogs where I live, and yes, usually the owners are on the heavy side.

avery

Sorry, didn't mean to cause any upset. This is merely my own observation, based on where I live, and the weight correlation that the dogs/owners have in the main that I see round here.

I'm fat and my dog is fit as a butchers dog. I eat more chocolate than her though.

My goldie was slightly underweight at 30kg but has now regained his weight and is 34kg. Mainly due to the fact he's realised that DD drops a lot of food while eating!

I'm overweight, but my dog is a healthy weight - the vet always comments on how lovely it is to see a Labrador that isn't overweight.
We do get stopped on walks though and people comment on how thin she is. They also can't believe that she is the age she is, she looks and acts much younger. Wonder why that is

It's sometimes quite difficult to know what shape your dog is supposed to be if it's a mutt cross. As mine has grown up she's bulked out a bit - I hope she's OK but it's difficult to know whether she should be more "whippetty" or "beagly" in build. You can still see a trace of her ribs, and the muscles and sinews in her legs.

Is it a city thing?

Out here in the country (woods, rivers and open spaces for free running) dogs get plenty of off lead runs.

Rarely seen a chubby dog.

Am shocked at thought of an obese whippet. Whippeties are supposed to be dainty and slender!

I'd say over 80% of British companion animals (I include horses here) are overweight or obese. I got an emergency call one night to a pony who probably weighed 500kg and should have weighed 300kg. The reason for the call? The owner had suddenly noticed dimpling on the poor miserable animal's neck. I explained that it was more or less cellulite. She was adamant that she "never fed" her animal, as such owners always are, and simply could not see what a mess he was in. There are thousands like that.

lilac would your elderly NDN be offended if you offered to take her dog out for a little walk when you took yours?

5 people this week have commented on 'how thin' ddog2 is, to the point where I have been questioning myself. As it happened, I was at the vets on Friday to collect worming and flea treatment, so I specifically asked.

Unsurprisingly, it was confirmed that he is absolutely fine, and totally how a working cocker spaniel should look like. He's 12kg exactly.

You can actually see all his ribs, and his back bone, so I can understand to some extent, but I agree that peoples perceptions are not quite realistic.