Fat Dogs

Drives me nuts, there's a man who walks a route on my drive home and his poor dogs can hardly walk :(
Met a Golden Retriever last week which kept moving a few paces and stopping and the man kept trying to jolly it along and pulled the lead to get it moving.

I genuinely think a lot of people don't notice when their dogs are fat or lame :(
 
Wow, that's shocking. Did you see the article about the 9 stone collie? I thought it was photoshopped til I read the story. Disgusting!
 
Theres a woman here who always comments that Dylan is too thin (hes a bit lanky but has a thin layer over his ribs). She decided to say this to me on a bad day, I ended up saying her puppys cute tummy is hideously over weight and is a walking advert for health problem when he gets older, I asked what she fed, Pedigree (adult !! ) explains it all. But its what the "breeder" said she was feeding so hasnt changed.

Nuff said...
 
I walk a dog 3 days a week for a local lady when she works. He is really fat and a bit arthritic, so he limps along :( I'm sure he'd be much better if he weighed less.
I'm also a bit embarrassed walking him in case folk think he's mine :/
 
The_original_Kao said:
I walk a dog 3 days a week for a local lady when she works. He is really fat and a bit arthritic, so he limps along :( I'm sure he'd be much better if he weighed less.
I'm also a bit embarrassed walking him in case folk think he's mine :/
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He almost definitely would feel better. Our dog was about 1kg overweight (now 7kg) about a year and a half ago, so we cut back on the snacks, and upped the exercise a little (nothing excessive, as she's getting on a bit, just made sure she gets a walk every day). Last autumn, after the hay was cut, she had been on her new diet/exercise plan for a few months, and she came down to the fields, and ran along, jumping over what would have been fairly large piles of hay to her, as a JRx who's getting a bit stiff. Before she lost the weight, she wouldn't have been able to do that, as she would have been far too stiff. She still gets out for her walk every day, and can still chase around the odd time, she's slowing down a bit, but she's in much better form than she used to be, as there's less strain on her body.

It can be tricky getting the weight off them, as there's that temptation to give into those big brown eyes when you're munching away on your sambo, but the difference in them when you get them to a nice weight in astounding.
 
My bitch is fat and nothing seems to get the weight off her, shes a 10 year old weimeraner and weighs about 27/28 kg but is the same width all the way down her body (no waist) she eats about 150g (3/4 mug morning and evening) of skinners field and trial duck and rice and thats it, no treats. Shes walked around the block everyday but she struggles with it due to having severe arthritis so can't really increase her exercise so am finding it really difficult to get it off (infact I don't like walking her as she is fat, but obviously do!)
 
Tbh I would cut your weimeraners food down a bit more. Evie weighs around 29 kg, she is very active and on the days she has Skinners she has a mug full in the evening and literally a handful in the morning. Would your girl chase a ball or anything, a slight increase in exercise and reduction in weight would probably help her arthritis.
 
Here's Henry when I got my hands on him:
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Here he is recently (this summer):
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Getting weight off them is totally possible - eat less, move more!;)
 
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When I took on Fred my previous Dobe I was shocked at how fat he was, I know he didnt get enough exercise and was probabley fed crap. I believe his problems stemmed from him not being socialised and was difficult to take out so they kept him home and fattened him up until he bit someone and ended up with me.
 
Arrrrgh please don't get me started! ooops, too late!

I'm like the crazy ranting woman in the corner when it comes to over weight dogs. I keep a condition chart at my front desk so I can show people. I hear every excuse under the sun as to why someone's pet is overweight. I hear that the vet said they look fine when they resemble a table! :eek: I hear that they TRY to diet the dog but it doesn't work. I hear that the other half/kids sneak the dog extra tidbits. I hear it all...There is NO excuse at all to have an obese pet. If they can break in to cupboards and help themselves, put a lock on it or move it to a place they can't reachd. If they won't eat diet (higher fiber food), well, they will if you stop supplementing it with biccies.

I agree that some dogs are difficult to exercise due to infirmity or age. But really, they CAN move more.

If I managed to get 80kg off a good do-er horse that looks at grass and puts on weight than a dog should be easy peasy. Horses need to trickle eat for 16-18 hours a day - so it's much more difficult for a horse owner than it is a dog owner who isn't out grazing all day. Well, they might -but it is avoidable!

I see some dogs that just get fatter and fatter each time they visit. I have one family who's dogs I groom that every one of them has increased in weight so it's not just a metabolism problem when it's each of them started off normal and healthy and just ended up obese.

Sorry, rant over.

on the upside - I have a client who has learning difficulties. He hangs on my every word when I speak to him - lovely chap of about 20. Anyway, the vet advised he put his cavalier on a diet - a youngish bitch that was about 2x the weight she should be. He has done everything that the vet advised, and the dog is making a lovely progression to being a normal weight - slowly and effectively. He's losing weight himself as they are out and about walking together. If THEY can do it, surely anyone can. He is SO proud of his little dog and he should be.
 
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MurphysMinder said:
Tbh I would cut your weimeraners food down a bit more. Evie weighs around 29 kg, she is very active and on the days she has Skinners she has a mug full in the evening and literally a handful in the morning. Would your girl chase a ball or anything, a slight increase in exercise and reduction in weight would probably help her arthritis.
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jazz has 3/4 of a mug in the morning and evening but i will cut it down more, she just seems to get really hungry tho on any less when i've reduced it before - how do i stop her being hungry? Is there a dog equivilent of porridge?!!
She will occasionally chase a ball which we do encourage her to do and i know exercise is the way forward for her but she just seems to struggle so much with it, she's panting after 5/10 minutes walking, but I will persevere with her
 
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