Do I need to worry about my dog's weight?

[Pipsquiggle]

I have an Australian Labradoodle who is 16 months old. She weighs between 7 to 8.5kg. She's very lean, very fast and very lively. She's the same size as a spaniel.

She's been on dry food for a while - about 9 months, in the past we put her on raw. She has never guzzled down her food. Some days she eats all her food, some days she doesn't. She does eat her treats - mainly hot dog, cheese and chicken wings.

You can feel her ribs a bit. Is this normal? Do I need to worry? She was the smallest in her litter. She loves to run and run, there aren't many dogs that beat her in the park. She beat a whippet the other day.

You should be able to feel their ribs and see the end of their ribcage from above, so they have a waist. From the side the line of the ribcage should go up into their groin, though this is usually a bit less marked in bitches. When I took my puppy for his six month check up, the veterinary nurse said they used condition scoring (like my description) not weight.

You should be able to feel their ribs.

as others have said you should be able to feel the ribs but not see them and they should have a nice tuck at the tummy. If you are worried I would stop in at the vet if you are passing and just ask a vet nurse if they have a second.
there are so many overweight dogs around it kind of skews your perception of what’s healthy.
I worked at a couple of the dog festivals this year and I saw more overweight and obese dogs than healthy- it is quite sad

@Pipsquiggle you should be able to feel ribs. I think the problem is there are too many overweight dogs. My dog is on the lean side. The vet said he's perfect but I get comments he's too skinny. He's not its just people are accustomed to seeing fat dogs. Rub your hand over the top of your hand ( above knuckles below wrist) this is what a dog should feel like.

From experience, of people aren’t saying, “Is your dog okay? He’s so skinny!”, then he’s too fat. As @Sitdowncupoftea says, so many dogs are fat that we’ve lost a sense of what healthy looks like.

she’s very fast and lively so she’s not malnourished. I wouldn’t be concerned, but check with your vet as and when.

I keep my dogs very much on lean side they are well fed a carefully weighed out high quality dried dog food and the the occasional healthy treat, they are exercised 2 -3 hours a day. The vet recently commented on how great it was for a change to see a thin healthy dogs that weren’t working dogs.
Both mine have shinny coats lovely bright eyes and loads of energy.