Is Your Dog Skinny, Lean or Overweight?
When I take Diesel out fo walks I often get stopped by people asking what breed he is, after they have finished saying what a lovely looking dog he is they often finish by saying something along the lines of "he's skinny, isn't he?" When people first started saying this, I made up excuses to explain why he was under weight, even though I believed he wasn't. I started to get a bit worried that maybe he was skinny, so I increased his food but found that he left the exta amount and tried to bury it for later and got stressed when he couldn't, so I reduced it again and I begain to worry that there was something wrong with him. When I took him to the vet and told him I thought he maybe under weight because so many people were telling me so, he told me not to listen to them, and that Diesel is a lean, fit and healthy dog which is exactley how he should be. I went home feeling very happy and confident that I was doing right by Diesel. However it didn't take long for my confidence to be knock down again, within a couple of weeks and several more people saying that Diesel is skinny and a lot of them saying I should find a better vet (after telling them that my vet said he is fine) I begian to worry again, so I sent an email to Burns pet nutristion (with some photos of Diesel) asking if he is under weight and telling them that people were saying that he is skinny. A lady replied saying exactley the same thing as my vet, and that by keeping Diesel lean (especially while he is growing) I am reducing the risk of him developing arthritis, hip displysia, etc. later in life. She also forwarded my email to John Burns himself, who replied "do not allow people to knock your confidence, there are so many over weight dogs about that people are so used to seeing fat dogs, that when they do see a dog at it's ideal weight they think its skinny." My confidence was restored again, but I do not let people knock it down again and I carry coppys of the following with me so that when peolpe make comments like "Isn't he skinny!" I just hand it to them and walk away without a word.
A study was carried out with 48 Labrador Retrievers from 8 weeks old untill death. The puppies were paired within their litters according to sex and body weight, and randomly put into either the control or the lean fed groups. The control group were allowed to eat what they wanted for 15 minnits a day. The lean fed group were fed 25% less than their litter mate in the control group. The same diet was used for all the dogs; just the amount fed was different. The study showed that the lean fed group lived on average 1.8 years longer, and were consistently healthier than their littermates.
The study lead to the conclusion that maintaining ideal body weight does the following:
- Promotes a longer and healthier life
- Reduces potential for developing chronic diseases such as arthritis, diabetes and heart diseases (just to mention a few)
- Reduces risk during surgery (if needed)
- Helps maintain healthy blood surgar levels
- Helps maintain healthy blood pressure and heart rate
The elements of an ideal body weight:
- The outline of the dogs ribs can be felt or seen
- The dogs waist is visible when viewed from above
- The abdomen is tucked when viewed form the side
The results of this study were originally published in JAVMA May 1st 2002 (vol 220, No 9).
There is an estimted 40% of dog owners that have over weight dogs, and most of them don't even realise that their dog is over weight.
For diagrams and body weight guide click here.