Helping a fat dog lose weight

ozemba · Nov 26, 2017

We have an obese golden retriever that we've already tried several things with to make her lose weight. We've lowered overall food intake, mixed in low calorie veggies with her dog food so she's not feeling hungry, switched foods who knows how many times over the last two years. Her goal weight is 80lbs. Current weight is 110 lbs.

Has anyone ever successfully had a dog lose extra weight and keep it off?

She has fat rolls guys. She still runs and plays with the other dogs, she's decently active, but I swear everything that we've tried hasn't helped.

Sagebrush · Nov 26, 2017

Hello Ozemba. Yes I have actually managed to get a dog to loose the excess weight and have kept it off him for close to 3 years now.

IT helps to know how active your pet is to begin with. For instance, if your dog is a huge couch potato then you should not be feeding him/her the recommended 4.5-6 cups of food daily. Instead I feed my boy 2 cups in the morning before we get to active. He then gets 1 cup a few hours before bed. Reason being he is far more active during the day, chasing a ball and playing with the puppy, then at night where he sleeps in his crate and doesn't get up till I open my bedroom door. He happens to love getting pumpkin (pure, no added anything) and green beans in his food as well. But be careful cause to much of a good thing will put you back to square one. Sage gets 1/2 cup of pumpkin every 3 days, and 1/4 cup of green beans once a week. This plus increasing his activity levels has helped immensely to keep the extra weight off him. Plus he no longer gets treats just because he is being good. Instead it is only if he does something to earn it. I also add water to his kibbles to help slow him down and to ad volume to what he is eating.

So for your pup I would start off with giving him/her 3/4 of the normal amount of food daily, split it into two meals if needed. Add some water to the bowl. Increase exercise and see if that helps. It is not going to work over night, but you should start to see some results with in a few weeks.

shazza · Nov 26, 2017

my dog is 40lbs and eats a half a cup to a cup (it varies depending on how much work we do, and i'll pad him up in winter a little,) twice a day. when i first adopted him he was 60lbs and could barely walk without getting winded. a combination of taking him on at least a 30 minute walk a day and drastically decreasing his food dropped the fat off within about 6 months. he's incredibly high-energy too which definitely helped. once we got his offlead training cemented we would go walk for hours in the park and he could run off and do his thing as he wanted, he'd always come back if i called. he rarely gets treats, mostly to reinforce some training or to give him a nice incentive to go to his crate (not that he complains when crated, but sometimes a little encouragement doesn't hurt.)

putting dogs on a feeding schedule (smaller meals twice a day vs one big meal or free feeding,) and increasing exercise is the best way to do it. getting her a good, long walk in every day will really help. most don't get near the amount of exercise they need just playing in the yard, unfortunately. flirt poles[/img] are also great ways to get them moving around. if you have the space and some mechanical skills you could rig up a coursing line too - most dogs love to chase the 'rabbit'.

if she's good with other dogs, finding a good dog park can be fun for both of you. just make sure you scope out the other owners and trust your gut - a dog park with regulars that are good people that actually watch and control their dogs is fantastic, but not all will, and situations can easily escalate. they can be amazing places to get exercise and socialization, but also good places for bad habits to develop if care isn't taken.

Shea · Nov 26, 2017

Have you had a vet check her thyroid? If exercise and food restriction havent helped it is most likely a medical problem.

akane · Nov 27, 2017

If you are using foods labelled for weight loss or prescription I suggest an entirely different approach because that may be the problem. They are often worse than typical foods with just something thrown in to try to offset that fact instead of overall healthier. Otherwise it's hard to know how much exercise playing with other dogs is. My akita still wrestles and plays with the others while going out in the yard several times a day and hiking a few miles periodically but even if it sounds like enough I'd say it's next to nothing for her. She never has wanted to eat much and her low activity as she gets older has made her practically not eat at all. I have to make sure to give her a bit of a snack she will be interested in eating before hiking because all of a sudden her empty stomach will kick in and she'll have to eat grass and vomit to feel well enough to finish hiking in order to eat food afterward. She's still a good 20-30lbs overweight. It's possible some health problems like hormone disorders have started too but she's over 10years old now with a degenerative back condition her mom was put down from this past year so we are kind of at the point there is not much benefit in putting in lots of effort keeping weight off her. It would make her more comfortable for longer but she was traumatized about blood draws after 2 surgeries that resulted in days on IV so I even avoid having her heartworm tested. Nothing can be done to increase activity while she's already eating such a small amount she gets sick from lack of food sometimes. I think the stress of a vet, getting tested for declining hormone function like thyroid, and trialing medications on top of how hard it is to get anything down her (flavored with real meat is a joke and I'll still be forcing it down her throat) is not worth it. We keep her rabies up to date using discounted vaccination days held in nearby locations we can sometimes walk to the park or building from our house and that's the closest she comes to strangers handling her and dealing with veterinary issues these days. In a younger to middle age dog it may take a lot more exercise than you realize to keep weight off of some breeds that are willing to be lazy without complaining or it might be worth investigating potential health issues if you really think they should be burning equal calories to what they are taking in. For diet the ultimate to balance weight as well as reduce potential health issues that could be contributing is a properly done raw meat diet but it's not always possible for various reasons and the commercial alternatives that come close are quite expensive.

Having done the research, fed full raw in the past, and if I did find the money the most cost effective way to continue full raw feeding again with what I already use locally is probably bigdanstrucking.com. It's denatured downed meat so some won't use it but it's cheaper for that reason and not bad shipping in winter when it will stay frozen or close to it anyway. It's equal to or better than what goes into nearly all commercial food, even labelled USDA inspected can be denatured 4D meat, so feeding it fresh and raw aside from freezing seems a perfectly fine compromise between human grade raw and kibble to me. It's still not the price of a moderate grain free kibble like taste of the wild though so for a large dog the price tag remains relatively high but it's something many don't realize is an option to round out local products so a raw diet becomes possible for those that want to try it instead of searching out processed dog food options.