One Of The Most Common Dog Health Questions - How Do I Know If My Dog Is Overweight?

A few weeks age, we visited Simon's vet for a routine vaccination. After his weigh-in and exam, the vet mentioned that his 31 pounds should be reduced to 26 pounds, a 16% reduction in body weight! What if your doctor asked you to drop 24 pounds from your weight of 150 pounds?

First of all, my reaction was to ask one of the most common dog health questions - how do you know if a dog is overweight? He looked fine to me, although recent luxating patella surgery for a trick knee might have contributed to his weight gain.

How to figure out if Fido is a chub . . .
Dr. Becker, a holistic vet, says:

One way to measure your pup’s fitness is by feel. Run your hands over his rib area. You should be able to feel ribs beneath a thin layer of fat, and his skin should move easily under your fingers.

Now step back and take at look at him. He should have a tuck-up at the rear of his ribs and a visible waist when viewed from above.

Simon's vet said essentially the same thing - he has no waist! And guess what - when you look at him from above, he's the same width from collar to the beginning of his stubby tail.

And obviously, if your dog waddles from side to side when he tries to walk, chances are more exercise and less food are in your dog's future.

Doggie Weight Loss Guidelines

To help your dog get to his healthy weight, do the same thing you would do to lose weight (with one exception):

1. Get the dog moving (more walks, more playtime). If your dog is older, find the time to lease walk a few times a day. If you need to train your dog to leash walk, see these squidoo lenses:
http://www.squidoo.com/leash-training-puppies-preparation
http://www.squidoo.com/new-method-for-leash-training-a-puppy

2. Reduce the amount of food your dog consumes. Simon loves food, so he now gets smaller quantities of daily meals and treats.

3. Forget about feeding your dog table food if you have this habit. All this will do is pile on the pounds. Besides, very few people enjoy a dog begging for food at the table.

4. Forget the doggie diet food. It works about as well as people diet food - in other words, it won't help your dog to lose weight and probably isn't good for him.

Hope this post helps you answer one of the common dog health questions! Best of health to you and your dog!