do u think shes fat?

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serena2005

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excuse the mid hair cut pics! lol only phots i could find...

iv been told off at agility shes too fat. so im walking her more and even going running with her, and slowly cutting her food down.

how easy is it for a dog to loss weight? the vet didnt say she was over weight
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what do u think?
 
sorry just to add on to this, she also pulls out her hair on her back near her tail. its not too bad when i clipped her coz she couldnt actually pull the hair but as soon as it grows a bit shes there pulling it out.

shes worse in summer, but much beeter this year since iv moved out of the area i was living in.

what do u reckon?
 
I wouldnt say she was fat, but compared to agility dogs, she might look bigger?

As for the pulling of hair, is she able to empty her anal glands herself or do you think she might need help?
 
the last few days she has seemed to struggle a bit but she does go.

but even when she hasnt got a problem with going, she still pulls her hair out,
iv had her nearly 4 years and shes done it evey summer, iv tried loads of different flea treatments shes had some sort of pills for allergy the vet gave her cant remember what it was now but that seemed to work, but he said it wasnt that and fobbed me off with some frontline flea stuff, which didnt work.

she seems better this year but i havent managed to stop it. shes due her booster so i will mention it too the new vet.
 
If you are planning on doing agility with her then I would say she is a little overweight. I like to see a definite "waist" on my dogs. Regarding her anal glands, just passing a motion does not necessarily keep them emptied, particular if the faeces are soft (sorry too much detail I know). It might be worth getting your vet to check if her anal glands need emptying.
 
It's not a great angle, but yes, I think she's overweight. She should have a proper 'wasp' waist (the extent depends on her breed) and she looks 'sausage' like all the way along.
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She's not hugely overweight, but still could do with loosing a little.

You should EASILY be able to feel her ribs (with the flat of your hand, since dogs have much thinner skin) and if veiwed from above, she should have an obvious waist.

Lke with horses, owners loose sight of what a slim, healthy dog SHOULD look like, since 80% of them are overweight.

This is my dog (not great pictures - camera's rubbish) - she's 13 and very grey but an absolutly perfect weight - note her waist. She has being extremely active all her life but even now she has no sitffness or arthritis at all - very unusual for a dog of her age. The biggest contributing factor is her healthy weight. She is pure lab, of working line and actually has a very deep, wide chest. She's just not fat.

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This, on the other hand, is my friends chocolate lab. Lovely dog but very overweight. Plenty of people just thing's she's 'chunky' or 'solid' and her owners think she should look like that
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At 5 she is already starting to get stiff
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It's very easy for a dog to loose weight. Unless she's a serious scavenger, she only eats what you give her, so give her less! That most definitly includes treats - be honest about what you actually feed her! Then swap her dinner to a Light dog food and give her a handful less. If she's hungery, mix a wheatabix in with it to make it seem more. And more exercise is great too, but make sure you don't over do it, esp if she's a little older. You damage their joints with too much fast, hard work.

You're vet most likely won't tell you she's overweight unless it was severe - they don't like too as many people are overly sensitive about their animals weight and take it as a personal insult. You should see some of the huffs you get when an owner is told their animal is podgy! If you ask them if they think she could do with loosing a little, they will probably tell you yes, but not a huge amount.
 
yes i can see from your pics how her waist should look, and i can feel her ribs but only slightly.

shes only 4 and very engentic and gratful for the extra excercise. but after own first run she did seem to have a bit of a limp on a hind leg, which worried me a bit. of shes only 4 and struggling with a little jog whats she gonna be like when shes an old lady!

i was feeding her half a tin of winalot chunks in jelly stuff, with a small cup of biscuits once a day. agility woman said this might be giving her too much protein which might be causing her itching. so im trying her on a complete dry mix now.

she does like to beg for food but she doesnt get any from me. its just when my backs turned and my 2 year old is giving her naughty foods. i do give her the sticks that clean teeth. vet always says her teeth could do with a clean
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i started the agility to help with the weight loss, i thought it might help.
and as for the vet i did ask if he thought she was over weight about a year ago coz i thought then she was putting on a few pounds when she was living with my mums dog, but he said she was fine. will defo speak to new vet when she goes in.

thanks everyone its been a great help.
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plus your dog looks great!
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If she's already starting to get stiff, getting her slim is the very best thing you can do to help her. Honestly - being overweight (like the chocolate lab I pictured) can quite literally chop 5 years off their life
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- thats a 1/3 of their life span!

Stopping your daughter dropping food is difficult. Impress on on your small child (I'm all for terrifying small sprogs into doing as they are told
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) that feeding her certain things (most esp chocolate and grapes, which are very poisionous) will make the dog very very ill but there is not much else you can do. Everyone thinks I'm mean - I NEVER EVER feed titbits by hand. Ever. There are plenty of people who say they don't, but when they're make to think about it, they really do (little bit of your biscuit her, tiny bit of the cooking dinner there, scraps off the plate as well). I'm just in a habit of not feeding the dogs - I hate begging.

The amount you are feeding her sounds right, but the agility woman's right - high protien. Many very well known brands have high protien in them and yes, it can make them itchy. It can also make them loopy and hyper. On top of that, they can be intolerant to chicken (dogs don't naturally eat birds or fish - they eat rabbits and sheep) and cereals.

Trundle off to your local big petstore and browes the dog food bags (and try not to cringe at the prices). Compare all the low energy Lite dog foods and pick the one with the lowest protien and try and get it in beef or lamb rather than chicken. The Big Brands are not always the best. A complete dry dog food is a fine diet for a dog (and good for their teeth to crunch). Going with tins etc makes like a bit more complicated, esp if you start adding mixer. I'd definintly go for light, and feed a little less than the reccomended amount - they always over-feed. Really, 'normal' dogs feed are too much for the average good-doing dog. If you think she's hungery, add a little all-bran to her dinner.

Itchyiness is a hard one to solve. Are you sure it's itchiness and not a behavioural problem? Many collie type dogs are neurotic. A high protien diet or intolerance can make it worse, both with itchyiness and with behaviour (exactly like horses going mad on certain hard feeds). Trying different feeds would help. As would looking into a supplement for her (we supplement our horses like there's no tommorow, but never our dogs?) - there are some No-Itch ones going that would be worth a try.

When you go to the vets, rather than asking if she's fat, ask if she'd be ok to loose a little (making it sounds like you want her to) - they'll agree. She's really not that over weight, so the vets won't be conserned about her weight to suggest she looses some.
 
Having now realised that she is only 4 I would definitely recommend you get some weight off her, tbh I thought she was 6 or 7. Also at 4 her teeth shouldn't really need cleaning, so perhaps the change of diet will help there too. Tinned meat and a few biscuits doesn't really give their teeth any work to do. Hopefully the change to a complete will help, but if she is prone to allergies be careful which one you choose. And imo the feed recommendations on the bags of food are way to high, I give my dogs about half the amount it recommends on the bag.

I agree with Kallibear that vets tend not to comment on a dogs weight. I don't know if its just because they see so many seriously overweight dogs they tend not to be concerned over a slightly podgy one, or whether they really don't like to offend owners (which seems a bit daft to me).
Sorry Kallibear, hadn't read your second post but seems we have the same thoughts anyway.
 
thanks, ill be down the pet shop checking out all the feeds.

i think im gonna hide after iv told u what else i feed her as i dunno if i actually should, cod liver oil..... should i be? not a lot just a little drizzle in her feed.
 
Cod liver oil is fine for her. I echo what others have said, feed her a decent dry food, no treats for a bit, stop the tinned meat (read the contents of your can of Winalot, I bet it has 4% meat in it, and about 80% water, IMO a rip off!). Bite the bullet, and buy a wheat gluten free dry food, feed only that for at least a month. If she stops itching in that time, you've got a gluten allergy to deal with.
 
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