Overweight dog

[Yatzydog]

No judgement please. We have a rescue dog. We think he is a jack russel / border collie cross. Although he could be a heinz 57 dog. He has the body shape of a jack russel and become very barrel like.

We think he is 5 years old and castrated. When we got him 3 years ago he was 14 kg. Now his weight has gone up to just shy of 20 kg.

We have had an eye on the situation for the past 2 years. Measuring his food, changing to higher quality dog food. Still putting on weight. Then back in november we switched to doggy diet food. Since then he has gone up from 17.5 kg to 20 kg in 3/4 months!!! We also discovered he had a tapeworm a couple of weeks ago (and still put on weight!).

He gets 220 g per day, split over 2 meals, according to instructions for his target weight (15 kg). No treats, no human food ever (except the odd crap on the street he manages to scavenge occasionally). He is walked for an average of 2 hours a day over 4 walks. Usually more at the weekend. I admit we used to walk him more, but 3 hours a day has not been possible recently.

Honestly we don't know what to do. We are going to cut back on his food more. Will take him for bike rides a 3/4 times a week (he can't go off lead and refuses to chase and fetch a ball or a stick).

Any helpful advice would be welcome.

Forget the instructions for his weight - what you are feeding is clearly too much for him. Cut it by at least a quarter, if he’ll eat veg then give h8m some of that to bulk it out a bit.

it is the food that will make the difference, unless at extreme levels of exercise.

Sorry if you are already doing this but we were told weigh what we usually give and then cut out 10 per cent and to always weigh.

I see pup can’t go off lead, would hiring a secure dog field a couple of times a week help so you can let him off if it’s recall or reactivity related reasons?

Sounds really tough.

That seems like a lot. Mine are raw fed and about 14kg and get 140g a day.

Forget the instructions for his weight - what you are feeding is clearly too much for him. Cut it by at least a quarter, if he’ll eat veg then give h8m some of that to bulk it out a bit.

I guess that is it. He is getting too much food. A good tip about bulking it out with veg. He is so food fixated that the food goes in 2 seconds and he is hard to walk if he has had less than normal.

I see pup can’t go off lead, would hiring a secure dog field a couple of times a week help so you can let him off if it’s recall or reactivity related reasons?

Not possibity as we live in a city (albeit with loads of forest). Also he refuses to move unless by my side. And I can't see the value of me running laps around a field while he gently jogs by my side 😂 He will run away though if he sees a squirrel or a hare. Then he is lost in the forest. Happened once. Never again.

Have you tried a slow feeder or scatter feeding or a snuffle mat to slow him down?

That's quite a bit of food for a small dog
Have you checked the ingredients to see how much is made up of carbohydrates?
The few doggy diet brands I know of have carbs of some type listed as the main ingredient

To give a comparison my 12kg dog eats 70/80g per meal so between 140g -160g a day and is very active

Just cut down his food. It clearly exceeds what he needs.

What are his poos like?

Other than his weight, if you can't pick a poo up from the pavement without leaving any mark at all, that's also a key indicator they're being overfed.

That’s a lot of food, my 20kg dog gets 200g a day split across two meals when fed kibble

I would probably cut that about by at least 25%

If he seems hungry, bulk it out with veg (spinach, cauliflower, green beans) and add lots of water. It will make him feel full.

As everyone else has said, that's a lot of food. I would cut it down to 175g.

Our dog hit 20kg and had to go on a diet. We cut down his food in all areas just a little bit and he still gets treats but not as many. We feed three meals a day so he isn’t going hungry and one of those is a bit of chicken mixed in with cooked vegetables and a bit of gravy (yes I know about the salt but it’s very watered down). He is now just over 14.5 kg and looks so healthy. Can’t believe we let him get so far but really glad his weight is now back to normal.

My dog is 33kg (ideal weight) and he only gets 300g diet kibble daily so I would reckon you are just feeding yours too much. The amount on the packet is always too much.

Mine went up to 36kg after neutering and was getting a bit chubby so we nipped it in the bud. We tried limiting treats (we still weigh anything he has) and switching to diet food but no result. The only thing that worked (and very quickly) was cutting back his food. The packet says he should have 400g but over time we found that he actually only needs 300g. He does get training treats on walks and the odd chew in the evening.

we have a slow feeder bowl and we also feed him some of his allowance in a Kong wobbler or a frozen Kong with some water or stock and veg or we scatter feed some in the garden. That makes him not notice so much that he is having less.

I agree with the slow feeder.
Whenever I've researched under/overweight dogs, they always say spread the food out over more meals, so maybe add a meal in but make them smaller? Others I know have added frozen veg and that's worked well for them.

I feed raw, so mine gets 1kg a day. Mentally 220g seems such a small amount of food, not sure if it's the same for you and maybe that makes it hard to cut down ... I can imagine it just doesn't look enough?

Good luck ❤️

I’ve got a 2 year old very active terrier who should be on 100 g a day of high quality food. She’s 6.5 Kg. She eats 75 g plus a bit of wet. You really need to look at amounts and ignore that they tell you. It’s a starting point. Also weight is irrelevant. Mine is ‘overweight’ on paper but is a perfect body score of 4.5. She competes in agility and obedience and the days I train her I cut the closest meal by 50%. I also use food quality treats.

To safely lose weight it’s advised to cut the daily food by 10% to begin with. No snacks and NO human food at all.

It’s a lot more challenging keeping a small dog slim as they’re don’t need much food. You can bulk out with veg and fruit but go easy on it. Mine gets fed in a licki bowl as it takes her much longer and she feels she’s getting more. Slow feeders are good too. As are toppls and kongs but don’t make it too hard. Terriers can get very frustrated if they have to work too hard.

I think you are just feeding too much.

I mostly find the feeding guides on the packets are too high - but you always have to be guided by how your dog does

My last dog was on about half what the packet said and I still had to decrease it occasionally because he’d put on weight. One of my current ones gets more than it says he should and I struggle to keep weight on him ( he won’t eat any more)

You just have to adjust for your own dog.

My dog started to get chunky after neutering. He now only has breakfast plus whatever we use as training rewards. It’s really hard to manage and I think every dog is different!

Have you thought about hand feeding if you’re finding him difficult to walk? As in taking it out with you and scattering so he has to sniff it out, or using it as rewards?

Youre feeding way too much. I have a jack russel mix, shes 7kg and gets 40g per meal time.
My mums dog is 15kg, young and active, she gets 60-70g 2x a day.

When i give treats etc. I reduce her dinner. 220g a day seems excessive.

My dog is 33kg (ideal weight) and he only gets 300g diet kibble daily

It's crazy how much it varies.

My dog is 21kg and ideal weight...and she gets 400g a day...a good bit more than what the packet advises. Springer though and unbelievably active on walks so I imagine she burns a huge amount of calories.

Goes to show just how varied it is though and how you really can't rely on the packet of dog food - it's an extremely rough guideline at best.

Try scatter feeding (aka throwing kibble on the ground 😀), before we did that DDog was practically inhaling it all in about 10 seconds. Now it takes her a couple of minutes and she eats and cruches each piece before moving onto the next. The final five minutes or so are going over the ground again in the hopes that if she searches hard enough she'll find another piece. All good brain activity 😉

One (out of three) meals per day is wet food, and I fill a Kong with the portion and freeze it, it takes her about 20 minutes to finish it and those 20 minutes are definitely a high point in her day!

But basically ignore the packet, cut down by 10 % a week.until they are gradually loosing weight, then stick at that amount until they are target weight. Much the same as humans, but easier to control the amount.

Does he have wet food? You can reduce it but help him feel full by adding water to it.

We do this for our dogs as it also aids digestion. They also have dry food as well.

Thanks for the replies. I feel rather stupid but it never crossed my mind that the instructions could be too generous.

We can use the tip about the veg. We have cut down his food and already add water.