So my little poochie needed his shots updated. I took him into town and while waiting i noticed a scale in the corner. The lady next to me had some kind of ugly dog that was growling and so i figured i may as move away from her and go weigh my dog.

That sucker weighed in at 95lbs of lard!




The vet suggested that i feed him diet food ( less fat/oil) and walk him often. Asked about having him fixed and he just laughed and told me that he cant picture Rocky, chasing after to many female dogs in the near future and to just leave him be. I guess when you fix a dog, they put on weight. That was another reason he said no to fixing him.

I felt bad for the dog. His first shot went well, but the second shot was right to the butt and he started growling and kept trying to get away. Cant say i blame him.

95lbs! I couldnt belive it when i saw those numbers! I guess i'll start working him out by having him pull a tire around a few times a week and see if we can get some weight off.

I had a labrador and his middle name was eat!! Like most domesticated dogs, they live a very wonderful life. No chasing food to eat, warm places to sleep, and in many cases little to no activity to burn off the calories. In fact since my dog passed away and I don't do the morning walks anymore, I have put on some pounds.

My vet actually had him down to two cups of food a day, and then lots of walking. He slimmed down, but was ready to nibble on anything he could. So I know what your facing. The big thing is tell people no more treats, cookies, bread, etc.. I had a terrible time with my family making them understand that feeding the dog constantly was only doing him harm.

I never thought about chaining him to a tire to drag around. He'd never been chained in his life. Good luck getting the weight off your dog. While he is not going to appreciate it, he will be better in the over all.

lol hes been eating only 1 cup of food for the past 7 months. BUT, you do bring up a good point about table food. He does get a fair share of that. I will need to cut that back as hes just getting out of control with his weight.

He does look kind of jowly. I bet he doesn't miss a lot of meals.
Do you give him people food? That will make them fat in a hurry. At least it worked on me.
Art

If you guys ever have to "live off the land", he has a lot of land to live off of. You, on the other hand, might not make it.

As a vet, I deal with these issues on a daily basis. Different vets have different opinions, so take this for what it is, just an opinion.

I recommend that all male dogs be neutered before they get too old. Females actually will have a lower metabolism rate and therefore gain weight and act "lazy" after spaying, but neutering males does not lower their metabolism. It may make them more sedentary due to not chasing females, and therefore not burn as many calories, but it doesn't make them gain weight due to lower metabolism.

Many male dogs as they age will get some prostate trouble, and neutering reduces the risk of this by 99%. Of course, if he gets some problems, you can always neuter him at that age, but he might be old at that point and it could be an increased anesthetic risk. Neutering doesn't reduce the risk of cancer of the prostate, but that is pretty rare anyway. What it does reduce is the benign prostatic enlargement that is testosterone dependent. This problem is fairly common in unneutered males. It also pretty much eliminates some skin tumors (adenomas) that can develop around the rectum, also pretty common in unneutered males.

Neutering doesn't change the personality of a male dog. It may "mellow" him somewhat (make him less aggressive to other animals and people), but it doesn't change his basic personality or make him lazy.

I ususally recommend people who are trying to get their dog to loose weight replace high calorie treats with things like green beans and carrots. Lots of dogs like these and they dont' have many calories. Science diet also makes some good low calorie treats.

That is a very unhealthy dog. Don't just tie him to a tire and expect a miracle of him losing weight. He might spook and kill himself running from the tire. Change his diet to a low calorie food and feed him ONLY that amount a day. NO table scrap treats/food. Take him out and walk him, starting with a half mile or so and build him up. Talk with your vet and follow his/her recommendations.

Since you control what he eats, try cutting down on the amount he eats rather that giving him some kind of diet food. If your heart bleeds for him and his diminished diet, supplement his food with cut-up green beans, frozen or canned (no salt/low sodium type).

Diet dog food is nothing more than normal food with extra filler and most dogs don't need the filler.

We took care of my sister-in-law's Yorkie (I HATE yappie dogs) for 8 months while it was getting cancer treatment (don't ask). When we got it, it weighted 18 lbs...no kidding. It could not walk off pavement because its gut dragged so low. It wheezed constantly because it was so fat it could hardly breath.

I told my wife if the dog was going to live with us it was going to live by my rules. So I asked the vet the minimum diet and that was ALL it got. Since I hated it it was easy to ignore its begging. We got an elevated dog bowl stand for my spaniel so that the runt could not reach his food.

Within 6 months the little jerk was down to ideal weight (8 lbs I think), could tear around the yard at a dead run, and was enjoying life. His weight became self-regulating when he got light enough to chin-up into the spaniel's bowl and eat...then he'd gain another ounce and not be able to reach anymore. Problem solved.

Finally he went back to his owner and within a year was back up to 16 lbs. It's all what you feed them.