Do You Have an Overweight Dog?

Have you noticed your furbaby looking a little roly-poly, fluffy, or r-o-u-n-d here lately? An overweight dog is a sensitive subject to some but an important health fact everyone needs to be aware of.

An overweight dog will begin to have a host of health problems such as joint pain, diabetes, and liver problems! And, as dog parents, we certainly don’t want that!

If you are not sure if you have an overweight dog, take a look at these tips on how to tell.

How to Tell if You Have an Overweight Dog

Take a Look at Them

The first way of noticing is to look at them! 

From the top, they should have an hourglass shape. Yep, even the guys 🙂

They should have an obvious dip right behind their rib cage.

From the side, you should see their tummy tucked right up behind the rib cage.

Feel Their Ribs

The next thing you can do is feel their ribs by running your hands down their sides.

If you can feel ribs beneath the skin they are probably just about right!

But, if you can’t feel any ribs or can barely feel them, your furbaby may have a weight problem.

So, you did the test and find out your furbaby is overweight. What can you do about it?

How Do You Help an Overweight Dog?

Food

I guess the most obvious is don’t feed them too much!

Sometimes the amount recommended on the dog food bags may not be right for your dog.

Just like humans, we each have different metabolisms and calorie needs.

A lot of the calorie needs depends on their activity level.

You have to judge and experiment with the portion size for your dog.

Most importantly, if you leave the food bowl down all the time, that could be a really big problem!

Treats

Treats are another big problem!

When giving treats, you have to make sure they are low-calorie and then add those calories into their daily limit.

Human foods are a big NO NO! A bite or two here and there will not cause a big problem, but when consistently given table food, your dog will pack on pounds.

Exercise

That leads me to the next solution, exercise! All dogs need the proper amount of exercise.

With that said, when you have an overweight dog, it becomes a vicious cycle!

If your dog is overweight, it makes it difficult to exercise. Not only is the extra weight hard on their joints but their stamina is not up to par either.

If you push them to over-exert themselves, you run the risk of overtaxing their heart causing even more issues such as a heart attack.

When dealing with an overweight dog, it is best not to push too hard. Start slowly and work your way up.

Exercising will help work off the extra weight but you do not want to harm your dog in the process.

Think about it this way. If you just sat on the couch all day every day what would happen? But, a word of caution here on the exercise.

In a nutshell, if you feed them nutritious food on a regular schedule, limit treats, and make sure they get regular exercise they shouldn’t have a weight problem.

More often than not, it is humans that make our pets overweight.

Don’t let those puppy dog eyes make you cave in for extra goodies! Extra treats equal extra weight, which can turn into health problems.