My Dog Is Not Too Skinny!

[pie]

Its tough for vets. Tell your client their dog is too fat and you may never see them again. I've no doubt many try to drop the hint but it falls on deaf ears.

Indeed, my SIL gets most offended when she takes her BC to the vet and they tell her he is overweight. She huffs and puffs and rants about it for ages. I agree with the vet, and tell her so, but she thinks he's fine.

With my dogs, I prefer to be able to just see the outline of the last rib (very short coated dogs) and be able to just feel the tops of the hip bones and shoulders without pressing.

ETA there are too many 'Keg on Legs' Tenties and other small terriers about too.

Edited February 10, 2010 by amypie

[poodlefan]

With my dogs, I prefer to be able to just see the outline of the last rib (very short coated dogs) and be able to just feel the tops of the hip bones and shoulders without pressing.

With whippets, it's perfectly acceptable to be able to see 3 vertebrae over the loin.. my vet told me.

[TerraNik]

"My vet says my dog's weight is fine".

My vet told me that Jedi was a lovely weight and I told her he was too fat! She clarified her statement after that by saying that he was lovely compared to the dogs she usually sees in her clinic! Mind you, he was only 1kg overweight (by my standards).

[Golden Rules]

Good chart TS!

Speaking of agility and Goldies.....when I first got my current Goldie - he was 4 years old, a little on the heavy side and very unfit due to being stuck in the backyard of his previous owner.

Anyway, I took him to agility one night and he did really well, except his lack of fitness did not help him jump through the tyre - he got cast, halfway through Poor bugger, everyone was laughing at him including me, I so wished I had a camera on me

[Pointees]

A few years ago I failed a person's Golden Retriever for an agility intake due to its weight. To say the person was offended was an understatement. I got the standard line I usually hear in that situation:

"My vet says my dog's weight is fine".

I gave the standard response I give when told that:

"And no doubt it is, for lying around a back yard. However, we're training athletes for agility"

Anyway, to his credit he took the advice on, increased his dog's exercise and cut back its food. 2 months later he returned and I passed him. He told me his vet had complimented him on his dog's leaner condition.

Its tough for vets. Tell your client their dog is too fat and you may never see them again. I've no doubt many try to drop the hint but it falls on deaf ears.

My vet, I always tell her to be completely honest, and have been using her for a good 2 years now.. Said my lab cross is over weight, but then she felt him, and said he isn't fat, he's a very stocky dog.

Every time I go in, I say "Look, you know April, she's always skinny.. She never stops moving" and her response to that is, "my Whippet is the exact same" She knows all my dogs, and knows the weight on the others, so she knows April isn't getting neglected, Aprils just an idiot.

[spoilt lab lives here]

I was once asked if Ramses was a purebred because he didnt look like it because he was skinny I was mortified and told them he wasnt skinny he was perfectly healthy! and not a crossbreed!

Although without papers who knows but he looks as labby as labs can get minus the fat!

[Pointees]

I think your dog looks fine. Its great to see a lab/GR of healthy weight.

There is a lady who lives near me.. God... She owns a Lab, a GSP and (in the last month) a Cocker Spaniel.. Well, all three dogs are HUGE! The poor things don't run around, they waddle next to her..

[RallyValley]

Another problem is the recommended dosages on dog kibble bags, I found that if I feed Toby more then half the recommended amount he will put on weight, and he is a very active dog that gets a lot of training and exercise.

[CareyJ]

Great chart. Advance has it on the side of their kibble bags and it gave us a good wake-up call for our cat. Since mid last year she has been on a diet to bring her into line with the chart (she has an obsession with dog bickies and will rip open a bag for them). The vet commented just yesterday that her weight was just right and any more would be too much.

[macka]

Yes the kibble bag recommended feeding amounts are way off IMO.

I currently feed Archer ~75% of the recommended amount on the bag.

The other thing people don't realise is when you add treats/chewies/leftovers you need to subtract from their daily meal to compensate.

[RubyStar]

I was once asked if Ramses was a purebred because he didnt look like it because he was skinny I was mortified and told them he wasnt skinny he was perfectly healthy! and not a crossbreed!

Although without papers who knows but he looks as labby as labs can get minus the fat!

I've had that several times with Ruby! Just cos she's not your typical "fat Lab", she must be a Lab X

[Pointees]

I don't use the feeding recommenations...

It says mine should be getting:

Shaun: 90 grams (0.8 of a cup),

Pointer girls: 155 - 305 grams (1.1 - 2.2 cups),

Kaiser: 305 - 515 grams (2.2 - 3.6 cups)..

Shaun would be fat,

April (Pointer girl) would be dead, she would have died because she would have been beyond emaciated...

Alexis (other Pointer girl) would be fat,

and Kaiser would be on the skinny side, unless I got to work for over 5 hours, or sleep at my boyfriends then he stresses and drops the wight.. Painful

With that said, all my dogs have different temperaments...

Shaun is a cough potato, but loves to go for walks, and will easily do an hour walk, but then will go to sleep on the couch.

April runs around like a headless chicken, all day! She gets walked once a week, fed Advance active in the morning, and in the evenings gets Advance active and eco pet, along with oil and some yoghurt... April has run tracks through the grass in my backyard.

Alexis will run aorund on our walks, but will give up about the time Shaun does, and will lie down... She will sunbake at home, unless its cold and raining then she will be inside on her bed or in her kennel outside.

Kaiser is happy to do the same as Alexis, unless April is outside, then he will follow her..

I got to the stage last week (mind you I have had Kaiser a month now) where I couldn't keep up with whole got fed what and how much that I had to make a routine chart.. If they look skinny they get fed more then the chart says, if they are fat they get fed less. It works well!

[MonElite]

To me Honey loos perfect, on that note I need to slim my dogs down a bit

[Sankari]

I say ignore what people tell you. I was once told mine was overweight at 25kg by a vet, needless to say i didnt return there. Our current vet says Charlotte looks fabulous I sent these pics to her breeder and she said she looks a lovely weight.

My GR is 24.8kg. She isnt what i call a small goldie but i find too much more and she does look fat. She has a very long thick coat compared to alot of goldies i've seen, i honestly have not seen many overweight goldens in my area, most are ideal or lean weights

Here's a couple photo taken of her late last year, her condition hasnt changed much at all...

[Golden Rules]

Charlotte is just gorgeous Such a pretty face and I love the shorter coats.

[Sankari]

Thanks Golden Rules. Her coat is actually alot longer and alot thicker, but those photos were taken shortly after a good groom - I always take photos when she's clean or reasonably clean at least so she looks well groomed in the second one but it was about to rain on holiday with me. She is a natural poser but do you think it's easy to get a photo of her standing straight? It's virtually impossible! That's my best attempt at a standing photo. The first one she was running for ducks after a swim in the pond.

[Tilly]

I once got told my our vet that my older GSD needed to drop about 10kg (she read his weight on his chart) ... until she actually looked at him and then she told me he needed to add a couple of kilo's as he was too thin (she had felt his body shape under his fluffy freshly bathed coat).

[dog geek]

:D

Wowsers, the OP should try owning sighthounds!!!!

If you CANNOT feel their hipbones jutting up over the tops of your fingers when your hand is laid between them - your sighthound is fat.

If you CANNOT feel the three vertebrae at the top of the arch over their loins - your sighthound is fat.

If you CANNOT feel their ribs as though you had your hand closed in a fist etc - your sighthound is fat.

What you CAN feel - if your sighthound is healthy and not just emaciated - is chunky shoulder and thigh muscles, and wonderful, springy planes of muscle wrapping over other areas like the point of the shoulder, up to the neck and up the back of the neck to the skull, and the lower thigh...

I was in the local cafe/shopping area once with a Saluki I had had for a week - he was in show condition, so you can imagine the gleam on his coat and healthy his skin was - and heard a kerfuffle behind me. I turned around and some late teens were dragging their friend away: she was outraged at my emaciated dog and was trying to get over to yell/cry at me about how cruel I was. :D

I always keep my hounds looking like the diagram illustration of the fit, healthy and lean Lab (which is a little plump for a sighthound), because otherwise I get glares from passersby, and have arguements with the vets I go to about dangerously underweight dogs. Vets go and on about the dangers of GA in underweight dogs, and I spose they have a point - but when my Afghans are lookin' amazingly fit, lean and healthy for the ring I get really cranky about comments like that!

humfp!

*rant over*

Back to topic!

[indigirl]

My 4yr old golden bitch is 29kgs, she is at the top end of the height range for bitches. Vet commented to me that she was one of the very few goldens she had seen that was the correct weight and not overweight.

[Heidley]

I know how you feel Deelee. We have GSD and people comment on how skinny they are, it does get tiresome but I usually try to ignore them knowing that they are fit and healthy.