Your Dog is a Fatso
Your dog is a fatso. I’m sorry, it’s tough to take, but yes your beloved Sparky is rollin’ in his rolls rather than simply rollin’ in the grass.
Did you feel slightly guilty when you read that?
Has your vet told you Fido needs to lose a few?
Does he roll instead of walk?
Does he no longer have a waist?
Then your dog is, indeed, a fatso.
I make jokes, but seriously, knock it off with the over feeding, people. I totally understand that it is hard for us, mere humans, to monitor our own waist sizes. I mean, cupcakes and calamari and Canadian bacon ABOUNDS. Plus, going to the gym kind of sucks.
But dogs? Since when do our pooches get to decide when and what and how much they gorge on? Since never. We’re the ones who ply them with chow, ergo, we’re the ones responsible if they reside on the bad side of porker.*
I contacted the always entertaining and informative Dr. V from Pawcurious Vet Blog for some sources on pet obesity and she helpfully lead me to the following corners of the web (please note that these are not endorsements- if you have specific pet health questions always be sure to contact and work with your vet):
- Is My Pet Overweight? by Janet Tobiassen Crosby, DVM
- Understanding Your Dogs’ Body Condition from Purina (this is a handy table that can be used as a very clear reference)
Our lovely dogs deserve long, healthy, painfree lives full of chasing squirrels, barking at our neighbours and generally being adorable. Let’s give them a leg up by making sure that they aren’t sentenced to packing around a bunch of extra weight so that they have enough energy to crap on our carpet and wreck our stuff.
Because really, how awesome is it when they WRECK OUR STUFF?
* I realize that some health conditions make a healthy weight nearly impossible, but for most of our pets, this is not the case. I’m no expert, but for most pets I’d hazard to say that too many weiners and not enough walks is the real culprit.
Yes. My parents have a pug that’s at least 35lbs… so overweight! It’s sad. She looks more like a sausage w/ legs than a real dog…
Miss M was underweight when we got her…then her love of food pushed her from 50 to 75 pounds. She only gets a certain amount of food each day, but because she’s so lethargic we joke that she’s a fatso.
@Two Pitties- your dog needed to gain 25 lbs?! That is heartbreaking! Poor girl!
I love that I read this while (I swear to you) holding a donut in my hand.
My pooch might be skinny, but apparently I could learn a thing or two.
Do you watch It’s Me or the Dog? Did you ever see the one where the dogs are overweight? Ugh that one made me mad!
It was always Jasper that was overweight. With work and perseverance and the death of his beloved Cody, we managed to carve 22lbs off his 107lb frame. And while we were busy starving this poor animal (his thought, not ours) we failed to notice Amos’ weight jump from a nice comfortable 72 lbs to a pudgy 82 lbs. Both dogs are golden retrievers, and both dogs are eating the same low-fat weight management dog food, yet Amos is a little pony keg and Jasper is looking lean and mean — well, not that a golden retriever could ever have a mean bone anywhere.
You’re right, its our job to watch their waistline, but the bigger the dogs, the bigger the drool and the louder the whimper as you put that figure slimming handful of potato chips into your own mouth. Afterall, couldn’t you be trusted to share just one chip with your best friend? Jasper is the beggar. He will coax and faucet until his strings of drool hang the 2 feet to the puddle on the floor; but how can you give one dog a treat and not the other one?
I guess Amos’ will cease to roll down the street when the humans in the house get off their proverbial lazy butts and work to curb their appetites at meal-time with good food instead of between meals with greasy fried delectables.
People comment on how my dogs have no fat. They aren’t skinny, they are in better shape than me!
We had to put our pooch on a diet after multiple leg surgeries brought her activity level to a crawl. It’s going to be a challenge, but she’ll get there this summer…
Way to call ‘em like you see ‘em – just one of the many reasons I read your blog. And while you can’t exercise your dog (or yourself) out of a bad diet, both are under the control of the owner.
My daughter (Vet Tech Girl) only feeds her animals a raw diet. Duncan (my extremely smart granddog) has brilliant white teeth and a wasp waist that I truly envy. When I babysat him for a few days it killed me to only give him a raw chicken quarter (complete with bones) each morning. ! He would then watch me eat and his slobber strings would grow and grow!! So I bought him a Kong and filled it with peanut butter twice a day (I swear it took him an hour to get all the goodies out), and cut up an apple and fed it to him in exchange for tricks, “Quit drooling!!”, “Good Boy, here’s a treat!!”
GREAT post! This is such a serious health problem for our pets – and has a large impact on our pocketbook, as we spend more time at the vet. I believe in giving our dogs treats now and then – but I’ve learned to make a corresponding reduction in their dog food portion that day. Our dog, Ty, had gotten a little on the chunky side and we had to put him on a diet a couple months ago. We reduced his dog food portion and supplemented his food with canned pumpkin, which is very low in calories. Ty thought it was fantastic, and he dropped the weight nice and slowly. He’s looking fit and trim now!
This is such a great post on such an important topic!
Having a beagle, I’ve been very aware of the need to limit her access to food. She (like most beagles) does not seem to have the ability to feel full. If she could, she would eat all day long.
I’m actually thankful that she has food allergies. It’s been a great excuse to keep other people (ahem*inlaws*ahem) from feeding her table scraps, as well as keep us from giving her unnecessary people food.
This is awesome you guys, great comments!
@GoPetFriendly- That is great that you were able to get Ty’s weight down! One of my dogs, Kayloo, is very young but she already has quite bad hip dysplasia. In addition to the other care she needs, it is *very* important that we keep her weight down so her hips don’t have to carry around unnecessary extra weight.
Here’s to keeping our dogs far away from fatso-itis
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by fidoandwino: Thank u for the mention! @RodBurkert: Good read: Your Dog is a Fatso (it’s not rude or anything, honest!
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Hello and thanks for the link! (Sorry for the delay in reply – got sideswiped on time). Great article!
Janet
@AboutVetMed (Janet)- No problem! Thanks for your informative article!
Finding good information from blogs is not always easy, but you have done a great job here, interesting title ( Fido & Wino » Blog Archive » Your Dog is a Fatso – A blog about dogs, wine and other happy, messy things. ) too, cool.