1. They are eating too many treats.
The large majority of the time when I see an overweight dog they are eating a normal amount of food for their meals. However, they are getting a large amount of high calorie treats that add a lot of extra calories to their day. The dog treat industry is massive and many of the treats are made with a lot of fat to encourage palatability. Often households where there are many different people in the house, it is hard to determine how many treats are even being consumed. In this case, I recommend having a bowl or dish that gets all the treats that your dog can eat for the day. In the morning the bowl gets filled up with however many treats they can have in the day, when they run out your dog is not allowed any more treats for that day.
There are a lot of lower calorie options for treats. If your dog really likes the food they eat for meals, you can use those kibble as treats. Vegetables like carrots, string beans, and sweet potatoes are good lower calorie options. Fruits like apples, watermelon, and banana are also good options.
Unpopular opinion here: treats do not need to be used at all unless you are training your dog to do something new. Treats are great for puppies learning and adults dogs learning new tricks, but other than that dogs do not need to get treats. Treats make us feel happy because we know dogs love to eat, but if we do not train them to expect treats they will be happy with their non-ingestible toys.
2. They are eating table scraps and people food.
Dogs should never be trained to expect table food. If trained as puppies, or as soon as you get a dog, that they do not get food from the kitchen table, they will not beg for the food. Unfortunately, I see all too commonly that dogs have trained their owners to give them food at meal times. The more you give in to their demands, the more they expect it, and the harder it is going to be to stop the begging behaviors around meal times.
3. They are eating too much of their food or their food is high in calories.
Most of the time this is not the case because most owners will follow the feeding instructions on the side of the bag. However when you read the instructions on the bag of food, you want to make sure that you feed them the amount of food for the ideal weight of your dog. This means if your dog weighs 100 pounds, but your want them to weigh 80 pounds, you need to feed them the amount of food recommended for a 70-80 pound dog.
Also different foods can be made for more active dogs or dogs with higher calorie needs. For example foods that are formulated for "performance" or "all life stages" tend to be higher in calories because they are formulated for dogs that are very active or for growing puppies.
4. They aren't moving or exercising.
Exercise is typically a poor way to get your dog to lose weight. If you want to get them to lose weight your best option is to decrease the amount of calories being consumed. Similar to humans, "abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym." However, if you have been successful at getting your dog to lose some weight, are feeding the correct amount of calories, but they still are not at their ideal body weight, getting them to exercise will help. If your dog has not been active and you want to start them on an exercise program, please make sure that you start slow and gradually work them up to higher intensity exercises. Just like humans, their muscles need to adjust to working out or they will be at high risk for injury and soreness post exercise.
5. They have some sort of health condition that prevents them from burning calories efficiently.
Older dogs can get hypothyroidism, an under active thyroid, where their metabolism is slowed and they will not be able to burn off the calories they consume in a normal way. Often hypothyroid dogs will have other symptoms such as lethargy, skin infections, and dry skin and hair/fur coat. If your dog is older than 7 years old, struggling with continued weight gain despite trying to decrease the amount of calories they consume, it is worth having your veterinarian running bloodwork to check their thyroid levels.
Kommentare