Ibizan Hound - Lambeau (the picture of fit and healthy)
This is a touchy subject. It is difficult to talk about weight these days without people being offended, and rightly so. Weight in humans is a very personal thing; no one has the right to tell anyone else what they should or should not weigh. Each of us has our own life to live as we see fit, right? The one thing I will say about the subject of weight in humans is that there seems to be a trend towards nutrition instead of just a number on a scale, which I see as evolution.
But as far as our dogs go, they deserve to live the best life that we can offer them and that means keeping them lean. I’m writing this blog today because yesterday Elsa, Riggs and I passed by a guy with a very overweight Labrador that would not get up and walk. I was so troubled by this and thought to myself “if he just lost a few pounds, he’d be a different dog.”
Let’s face it, dogs are here for a very short time with us; and most of their lives revolve around the decisions that we make for them. Food is a big decision…what we feed, how often we feed and why we feed. We humans often use food when we feel guilty. We can’t spend enough time with our dogs so we give them goodies. Then our dog’s see how it works and look longingly at the goodie cupboard. We see our dog’s gusto for eating and feed more. They want more, we give them more because it makes us feel good. But it shouldn’t.
We should replace that warm and fuzzy feeling of giving our dogs extra food with giving them extra movement. I’d like to ask a favor of you all. Go grab something that weighs in at 15-25 lbs and run up and down the stairs a few times. How’s it feel? Not great eh? Most dogs are much smaller than us, and just a pound or two can make a huge difference to their ease of movement. Sadly the more weight they carry the less they move; it is as simple as that. It is hard to move when you are carrying around extra weight.
It is odd when I very gingerly tell clients that their dog “could lose a few,” they typically reply “really?” They had no idea. It seems for some reason that we aren’t good at seeing extra weight on our canine companions. Is it because we think cute and pudgy go together? I don’t know why but you know I’m going to look into it. ;)
I remember a big ah ha moment years ago when I had to carry my 47 lb Tilley up and down the stairs every day after she was hit with Vestibular disease. My knees felt it as I made my way down and they surely wobbled on the way up. “This is what it would feel like if I gained over 40lbs.” I thought to myself. Any extra weight at all is just that, weight to lug around for them.
As they age it gets even worse and sadly that is when our dog’s tend to really gain. They move less, we treat more because our dog’s seem to want more as they age. But in actuality we should be cutting back and feeding less as they naturally move less.
There is no big secret to weight loss.
There is no secret. Oh sure the folks who make the diet pills and special meals want us to think that there is a secret. The way to weight loss is simply common sense; more movement and less food. But this does not mean feeding diet or senior food to our dogs. It simply means cutting back on the amount. I am not a fan of these “diet or senior” foods as they cut back on much needed nutrients that our dogs need.
Just less food, not less nutrition is key.
It is our responsibility to give the dogs who share our lives, the best life we can give them. This means giving them great nutrition, lots of exercise for their body and mind, care, support and affection. Allowing them to get fat does not make them happy; and if we could ask them, they would tell us that they would rather run around and play than eat bon bons. Keep them moving and choose their nutrition wisely. The more nutrients a food contains, the less they need to fuel them. Sadly much of the food we feed our dogs contains so much of what they don’t need. More on that later. Now off the couch.