Hey y’all! Have you noticed your furbaby lookin’ a little roly-poly, fluffy, or r-o-u-n-d here lately? Yea, I know sensitive subject! Truth is, more and more furbabies are a startin’ to look that way. My sister Sallie has a weight problem goin’ on. Yep, Sallie is definitely a big girl alright! My lady calls her sweet pea, but really she’s more like a melon or a butter bean! Poor girl, she is already gettin’ on up there in years, and add that weight problem and it is a bad thing! Ya see, an over weight dog starts gettin’ other health problems to go along with it. We can start having joint and back problems and gettin’ other things like diabetes and liver problems!
Before we go any further, I guess I need to tell ya how you can tell if you have an overweight dog besides the obvious lookin’ a little ’round’.
Do You Have an Overweight Dog?
Take a Look at Them
First thing ya can do is look at ’em! From the top, they should have a that girly hour glass shape. Yep, even the guys! They should have an obvious dip in right behind their rib cage. For example, from above, my sister Sallie looks like a hoagie bun! She is wide, with a dip where her spine is. Not good! From the side, you should see their tummy tucked right up behind the rib cage. And, nope! That ain’t what I see when I look at her! I’ll spare y’all that description!
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, you furbaby may have a weight problem.
So, you did the test and find out your furbaby is over weight. What can ya do about it?
How Do You Help an Overweight Dog?
Food
I guess the most obvious is don’t feed ’em to much! Sometimes the amount on them dog food bags may not be right for your dog. Just like human folk, we are all different and have different metabolisms too! It all kinda depends on activity level too. You have to judge and experiment with the portion size for your dog. Oh, and if you leave that food bowl down all the time, that could be a real big problem!
Treats
Treats are another big problem. You have to make sure they are low calorie and then add those calories into their daily limit. I know we get a bite or two of human food every once in a while and that is a super treat to us. A bite or two here and there is not a problem. But don’t make a habit of feeding your dog human food!!!! That is asking for them to be over weight!
Exercise
That leads me to the next solution, exercise! All dogs need the proper amount of exercise. That’s why my lady takes us outside every afternoon and lets us run and play. Or, I guess I should say Maggie and me runs and plays. Sallie just lays by her feet. Don’t get me wrong, Sallie loves to chase balls and will try if ya throw it, but it causes problems. Ya see, she hurt her leg a while ago before I ever came here. Now, she has really bad arthritis in it. So, if she runs, she ends up not being able to stand on it and in pain. Then she has to take a bunch of medicine. That’s kinda where her problems with weight started. With her, it’s not her food or treats, but the lack of exercise that caused her to be overweight.
It’s a double wammy for an overweight dog when they can’t exercise. Just think about it! If you just sat on the couch all day every day what would happen! But, a word of caution here on the exercise. Ya can’t over exert an already overweight dog. You could give ’em a heart attack or somethin’! You got to slowly build up their exercise routine. I know I see my lady walkin’ Sallie around while Maggie and me are out chasin’ each other. I guess that’s what my lady is tryin’ to do for her.
So, in a nutshell for ya, if you feed ’em a 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 you human folk that makes us overweight. I mean, of course we’re gonna beg – that’s just how we are 🙂
Wow some good points!