My doctor told me....

My dog is fat! OK so it was a veterinarian, but I took my dog into the office for the yearly shots, checkup and he told me he was overweight. He even compared my dog to a pudgy 12 year old human that could be fat throughout his life if I didn't cut his food back! So not only am I overweight but my poor dog is too! I'm not sure how though because he goes on my runs with me every other day (about a mile and a half) and he goes to the dog park and runs around like crazy every weekend. I don't feed him a lot (I didn't think) and don't give him many treats. I'll admit I do let him have a few leftover scraps of food from my plate, but it's not even more than a bite of food! Oh well, it looks like the pooch is going on a diet for lifestyle change too!

I feel your pain! I have a 30 lbs cocker spaniel (good weight) and an 18 lbs pug (at max weight). The cocker is a picky eater while the pug will devour everything in sight!! Until a couple of months ago, the pug weighed 20 lbs which is way too much for her breed and was diagnosed with hip displasia, so being overweight does not help!

After taking a look at our lifestyle we found a couple of easily fixable problems:

The cocker always left food in his bowl.. The pug would finish her bowl off and then finish her brother's too... yep! that has been corrected by separating them during their feeds..

Portion control - I was eyeing the portions I gave both the dogs...I decided to measure out their food based on their breed/age/activity and found out that I was really overfeeding them.. now the cocker doesn't leave any food in his bowl and the pug, well she's lost some weight and is looking much better!

Good luck to you!!

yeah, dogs are just like us: if he's fat, he's eating more than he's burning.

my first dog (i've only had two) was a rottie cross.  when i got her she was 18 months old and i was living on a ranch.  she ran free all day, plus she went out with me when i rode my horse (often), and she ate as much as she wanted.  she was very strong and fit.  when we left the ranch she was three.  she kept eating as much as she wanted, but she was inside during the day while i was at work.  she got walks morning and night and sometimes in the middle of the day, and she still came out a couple of times a week with me and the horse, but she went from ~ 65 pounds to over 80.  she started to have problems with her shoulders.  i cut her back to 1 cup of food morning and night, and she slimmed right down and was fit until she got sick at 10.

my current dog is 2.5 years and right now eats 1.5 cups morning and night (about 1200cals/day).  she's in great shape.  off leash, she runs full tilt until she's out of breath, then rests for a second or two, then does it again.  if she has a stressful day, you can see her ribs for the next two or three days.  but as she slows down, i'm prepared to cut back her food.  oh - and when i finish grad school and get settled, i'm going to get another horse ;)

I used to work in a vet clinic, I am not a vet. My partner is a dog trainer, I have volunteered at the humane society. So, I have a bit of experience but I'm not an expert. I do also own two very fit dogs one of which is a beagle. 

Here's what I learned working in the clinics:

1. Never and I mean NEVER feed your dog people food. That is not to say you can't cook for your dog, but you need to get a doggy cookbook and learn a lot about canine nutrition needs and then go from there. This is typically too much work for most people. Kibble for dogs is (with the good brands) made to their daily nutritional needs. Think about a time you tried something totally outside of what you normally eat. Like really spicy food, or really oily food. Did your stomach get upset? Well it's 1000 times worse for a dog to get stuff that is out of balance with his 99% homogenous diet.

2. Pop tells all. Dogs who have nice round balls of poop that are easy to pick up and don't stink to high heaven are in good shape. If the poop is otherwise there is a problem. Most of these problems can be fixed with a better diet.

3. Cheap food costs you more. A lot, well most people feed their dogs grocery store brand food. Purina, Dog Chow, IAMS, etc... etc... and it's no wonder they've got all those great commercials (just like McDonalds). I would see at least 2 dogs per shift who approaching the age of 10 or slightly over would come in with blocked urinary tracts, twisted bowels, blockages, diabetes, and other ailments that are 100% preventable by better diets. Get your dog the more expensive, and better for them foods available at your pet store or vet. It will cost you more week to week but save you THOUSANDS in bills later on in your pets life. 

4. Read the label. Most people don't usually read the label on the dog food bag, check it, weigh your dog, and feed him / her the appropriate portion. Fido will not starve, he will beg, but he will be better for it. Also check for ingredients. If it says "whole chicken" like Purina does, it's no good... think about it, a whole chicken is mostly water and bone, not meat. Look for simple ingredients that you would have no problem feeding yourself, like wheat, corn, chicken, fish, rice, lamb. These should be the first ingredients on the label, not stuff you can't pronounce or don't know what it is. 

Hope this stuff helps. In the long run, we started changing our dogs diets when we started working with animals and we saw such a huge difference in them there is no real way to describe it. It takes a few months for their systems to adjust, but once they are through it they have more energy, their coats are better, their breath is better and their poop is better. Overall they and we are much happier. 

My brother's dog is fat. No lying. But this dog eats like my brother: Unhealthily.

Heck, it's easy to compare that plodding pile of puppy pudge to a 35-year-old man, he drinks (my brother gives him a small portion of beer every night), snacks (vanilla wafers, peanut butter cookies, cake, no chocolate though, crisps, chips, fast food, heavy whipped cream, ice cream, frozen yogurt, you name it), get's VERY little exercise (trying to take that dog for a walk is like trying to get a chain smoker of four years to run a 5k race, it's not going to happen) and THEN eats his dog food.

My mom's dog gets fed better than I do though. He's got fancy food (Prarie or something like that), is given a small portion of boneless, skinless grilled chicken breast for breakfast and dinner, get's walks at LEAST once a day, fat free yogurt, fresh veggies and fruits, and THEN I make him 'doggie desserts' once in a while (He LOVES carob brownies).

Though, to some degree I agree with Supersized's list, though, both dog's poop stinks and what not, but I'd rather clean up after my mom's dog than my brother's dog ANY day.

Original Post by supersized:

I used to work in a vet clinic, I am not a vet. My partner is a dog trainer, I have volunteered at the humane society. So, I have a bit of experience but I'm not an expert. I do also own two very fit dogs one of which is a beagle. 

Here's what I learned working in the clinics:

1. Never and I mean NEVER feed your dog people food. That is not to say you can't cook for your dog, but you need to get a doggy cookbook and learn a lot about canine nutrition needs and then go from there. This is typically too much work for most people. Kibble for dogs is (with the good brands) made to their daily nutritional needs. Think about a time you tried something totally outside of what you normally eat. Like really spicy food, or really oily food. Did your stomach get upset? Well it's 1000 times worse for a dog to get stuff that is out of balance with his 99% homogenous diet.

2. Pop tells all. Dogs who have nice round balls of poop that are easy to pick up and don't stink to high heaven are in good shape. If the poop is otherwise there is a problem. Most of these problems can be fixed with a better diet.

3. Cheap food costs you more. A lot, well most people feed their dogs grocery store brand food. Purina, Dog Chow, IAMS, etc... etc... and it's no wonder they've got all those great commercials (just like McDonalds). I would see at least 2 dogs per shift who approaching the age of 10 or slightly over would come in with blocked urinary tracts, twisted bowels, blockages, diabetes, and other ailments that are 100% preventable by better diets. Get your dog the more expensive, and better for them foods available at your pet store or vet. It will cost you more week to week but save you THOUSANDS in bills later on in your pets life. 

4. Read the label. Most people don't usually read the label on the dog food bag, check it, weigh your dog, and feed him / her the appropriate portion. Fido will not starve, he will beg, but he will be better for it. Also check for ingredients. If it says "whole chicken" like Purina does, it's no good... think about it, a whole chicken is mostly water and bone, not meat. Look for simple ingredients that you would have no problem feeding yourself, like wheat, corn, chicken, fish, rice, lamb. These should be the first ingredients on the label, not stuff you can't pronounce or don't know what it is. 

Hope this stuff helps. In the long run, we started changing our dogs diets when we started working with animals and we saw such a huge difference in them there is no real way to describe it. It takes a few months for their systems to adjust, but once they are through it they have more energy, their coats are better, their breath is better and their poop is better. Overall they and we are much happier. 

 I LOVE you! I love when people actually know stuff about animals!! I worked at a pet store for 5 years and you wouldn't believe some of the bad advice I've heard others give! Anyway I agree with every word typed above!

Also they make a lot of no grain dog foods now which are supposedly better for a system, it helps to naturally bring about a healthy weight cuz it's more like what a dog wold eat in the wild. 

The Premium Edge brand makes oneweight loss food called healthy weight step 1 and it guarnteed to help your dog lose 10% of their bodyweight in 10 weeks. Everyone I ever sold it to raved about the results.

Also just like people the biggest thing is portion control. Make sure you're filling the bowl using a measuring cup so you're getting the right amount of food for your pooch.

Watch treats cuz they can be high calorie too. Frozen veggies are healthy and one of my dog's favorite treats. Also if you do give him some table scraps just remember to cut back somewhere else, like no extra treats that day or half a cup less of food.

oh but do be wary of wheat and corn, they are sometimes used a fillers to replace meats, and some dogs tend to be allergic to them

My cats are on a diet too :)

The have special food in little portions and now they are a normal weight!  my little Lucy lost 3 lbs! Thats a lot for a 13 pound cat haha

i don't think you can just read the label and say - okay, my dog fits this little box on the chart, so my dog needs this much food.  even at 10, my first dog needed quite a bit more food than either the label or the vet recommended.  and kenya, who's very lean and muscular, eats twice what the bag recommends.  dogs are all different, just like us ;)

edited to add a question for supersized: is iams really that bad?  i chose it because i wanted a food that i know i'll be able to find easily (rather than one i have to get at a specific store that might have limited hours, etc), especially because i'll be relocating at least once in the next year and i don't want to have to change her food.

Well my Pembroke Welsh Corgi is fat.... and my Great Dane is skinny.... LoL so I can let you guess who is the the big shot out of the dogs... We live in the country and the dogs are free to do what they want... There is a total of 6 of them... But not all mine, I have three the corgi, great dane, and a jack russle mix. But we live next to grandpa who has two and my grandma has one this is two house holds... But I feed them all. So yeah lots of dogs food!  But the vet said he is still good just a little over weight. I have to tell him no more food and to go lay down. But such a good boy!

Original Post by pgeorgian:

i don't think you can just read the label and say - okay, my dog fits this little box on the chart, so my dog needs this much food.  even at 10, my first dog needed quite a bit more food than either the label or the vet recommended.  and kenya, who's very lean and muscular, eats twice what the bag recommends.  dogs are all different, just like us ;)

edited to add a question for supersized: is iams really that bad?  i chose it because i wanted a food that i know i'll be able to find easily (rather than one i have to get at a specific store that might have limited hours, etc), especially because i'll be relocating at least once in the next year and i don't want to have to change her food.

 I don't think Iams is bad.  When we adopted our doggie, we were going to put her on Science Diet because we thought it was better, more expensive, sold by vets, etc.  Our vet said it was not necessary.  The dog was already on Iams and it was working great for her.  He said Iams was fine.

I actually know quite a bit about animals, but I guess I've just been feeding him too much. It's just that he seems so active, I assumed he'd eat the recommended amount for his size. I know he doesn't do much during the day but at night and on the weekends we both get lots of exercise. Well, I'll work on it. He's about 61 pounds and should be around 55, so it's shouldn't be too bad to get him down. I know he was about 57 six months ago and they told me he looked good, so we'll work on that.

Also, I was told by some "pet nutritionists," I don't know if there really is such a thing that Science Diet was not good. It used to be good but then they added a bunch of fillers (maybe when the company was sold or something?) Anyway, they said to stay away from that.

I feed my dog Purina One, which my vet said was a pretty good food. So I'm not going to assume more expensive is better. His poop's good, so I'm not worried about that.

Looking back, I think in the last week or two I've been feeding him more treats and stuff lately. I was training him to Stay and obviously, he's very food motivated!

Hey, I just wanted to add a link that talks about  the differences between dog food brands and their ingredients. I found it helpful when choosing my pups food :)

 http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.p hp?threadid=2113296

Original Post by girlfighting27:

Original Post by supersized:

I used to work in a vet clinic, I am not a vet. My partner is a dog trainer, I have volunteered at the humane society. So, I have a bit of experience but I'm not an expert. I do also own two very fit dogs one of which is a beagle. 

Here's what I learned working in the clinics:

1. Never and I mean NEVER feed your dog people food. That is not to say you can't cook for your dog, but you need to get a doggy cookbook and learn a lot about canine nutrition needs and then go from there. This is typically too much work for most people. Kibble for dogs is (with the good brands) made to their daily nutritional needs. Think about a time you tried something totally outside of what you normally eat. Like really spicy food, or really oily food. Did your stomach get upset? Well it's 1000 times worse for a dog to get stuff that is out of balance with his 99% homogenous diet.

2. Pop tells all. Dogs who have nice round balls of poop that are easy to pick up and don't stink to high heaven are in good shape. If the poop is otherwise there is a problem. Most of these problems can be fixed with a better diet.

3. Cheap food costs you more. A lot, well most people feed their dogs grocery store brand food. Purina, Dog Chow, IAMS, etc... etc... and it's no wonder they've got all those great commercials (just like McDonalds). I would see at least 2 dogs per shift who approaching the age of 10 or slightly over would come in with blocked urinary tracts, twisted bowels, blockages, diabetes, and other ailments that are 100% preventable by better diets. Get your dog the more expensive, and better for them foods available at your pet store or vet. It will cost you more week to week but save you THOUSANDS in bills later on in your pets life. 

4. Read the label. Most people don't usually read the label on the dog food bag, check it, weigh your dog, and feed him / her the appropriate portion. Fido will not starve, he will beg, but he will be better for it. Also check for ingredients. If it says "whole chicken" like Purina does, it's no good... think about it, a whole chicken is mostly water and bone, not meat. Look for simple ingredients that you would have no problem feeding yourself, like wheat, corn, chicken, fish, rice, lamb. These should be the first ingredients on the label, not stuff you can't pronounce or don't know what it is. 

Hope this stuff helps. In the long run, we started changing our dogs diets when we started working with animals and we saw such a huge difference in them there is no real way to describe it. It takes a few months for their systems to adjust, but once they are through it they have more energy, their coats are better, their breath is better and their poop is better. Overall they and we are much happier. 

 I LOVE you! I love when people actually know stuff about animals!! I worked at a pet store for 5 years and you wouldn't believe some of the bad advice I've heard others give! Anyway I agree with every word typed above!

Also they make a lot of no grain dog foods now which are supposedly better for a system, it helps to naturally bring about a healthy weight cuz it's more like what a dog wold eat in the wild. 

The Premium Edge brand makes oneweight loss food called healthy weight step 1 and it guarnteed to help your dog lose 10% of their bodyweight in 10 weeks. Everyone I ever sold it to raved about the results.

Also just like people the biggest thing is portion control. Make sure you're filling the bowl using a measuring cup so you're getting the right amount of food for your pooch.

Watch treats cuz they can be high calorie too. Frozen veggies are healthy and one of my dog's favorite treats. Also if you do give him some table scraps just remember to cut back somewhere else, like no extra treats that day or half a cup less of food.

oh but do be wary of wheat and corn, they are sometimes used a fillers to replace meats, and some dogs tend to be allergic to them

 I have to agree with these two statements above. Alot of people don't measure their animals food intake and can accidently over feed their animals. Depending on the breed, dogs don't really need that much food (well not what we think they need). There is also a problem with animals owners leaving a full bowl of dry food out all day (the lazy way to feed your animal.lol). This is the # 1 reason why cats become overweight and develope diabetes. As for food types it is better to go with a more expensive brand of dog food because they focus on specific diets like weight control and have a decrease in fat,carbs,they also add veggies. As for the cheaper brands they have such a high percentage of fat in them( just like fast food,they are cheap and fatty ). Dog treats are also a bad thing to feed your dog and especially human food again too much fat .Unless you make a healthy homemade dog food for your animal don't even bother giving them human type of foods. Also it is good to give your dog more wet foods.The dry foods tend to have alot of carbs in it which like for us turns into fat. I would mix wet food and dry food from now on:-)

Original Post by pgeorgian:

i don't think you can just read the label and say - okay, my dog fits this little box on the chart, so my dog needs this much food.  even at 10, my first dog needed quite a bit more food than either the label or the vet recommended.  and kenya, who's very lean and muscular, eats twice what the bag recommends.  dogs are all different, just like us ;)

edited to add a question for supersized: is iams really that bad?  i chose it because i wanted a food that i know i'll be able to find easily (rather than one i have to get at a specific store that might have limited hours, etc), especially because i'll be relocating at least once in the next year and i don't want to have to change her food.

The first 3 ingredients comprise 90% of the bag food. So you really want the first one or two to be meat preferably a meat meal ( which is the meat cooked with the water removed so you're getting solid meat) and the third to be a high quality grain, ie. brown rice, barley or oatmeal.

I'm not sure exactly but the first ingredient in iams used to be corn followed by meat by products. So I wasn't happy with that. If you want a food that is available at almost any pet store you could by Nutro Natural Choice brand. A step below that would be Purina Pro Plan or Purina ONE.

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but I have info on IAMS cat food, anyone else can skip ahead it not interested. 

I can tell you that at least for cat food, IAMS first ingredient is chicken.  My vet recommended that I feed the kitties something which listed chicken (or some meat) first in the ingredients because of very smelly poop.  They have been tested for parasites and were given a round of antibiotics which helped, but once the antibiotics were done we had stinky poop again.

He said that cats have very short digestive tracts(is this the right word -- or is it tracks??), so they shouldn't eat a grain based diet as it doesn't digest as well. 

Do you guys think the pet food they sell in the vet's office (eg Science Diet) is the best?

Just curious for my next furbaby

~H~

I work at a Vet Clinic and talk to clients all the time about this problem, The best thing to do since you are already taking him on runs is to switch to a higher quality food. Such as Medi-cal Weight Control or another veterinary reccomened diet. I would steer as FAR away from store brand food like Iams grocery store and Hill's Grocery store brands as possible, but their vet diets are great.  His BM's will be Less often, smell better and will eat less food by switching to a better quality food, there are also really great vegetarian diets for dogs.