Is my dog fat??

[PetieMarie22]

Recently my dog has gotten pudgie, especially around her belly area. She is 2.5 years old, spaded last April and weighs 55lbs. My boyfriend thinks she's perfect, "just not ripped" so I haven't been worrying about it. We even weighed her yesterday and she is STILL 55lbs. I took her to the vet on 2/20 and he did not weigh her, but said she looked healthy. Well last night at Flyball class, one of the assistants said, "She's putting on a little weight" and pointed right to her belly area. Opinions?

These first two pictures were taken in the begining of March. I think she looks healthy there.



These two pictures of her playing with the neighbor dog, maybe a week later. Their dog is a sausage so maybe it makes Petie look thinner here?



These last two pictures were taken on Easter. (I couldn't find any standing pictures of her)
BTW - I was using my grandma and nephew to see if she may have it in her to be a theropy dog! Good with baby, but probably shouldn't SIT on the elderly! LOL!



Right now we free feed her Purina One. We free feed because she is NOT a food hound and sometimes we have to remind her to eat. She eats when she feels like it. Which may not always be when we pour it for her.
I started feeding her treats back in November when we started training classes. Small chunks of hot dogs and and small chunks of cheese for Flyball class and any of our one on one training sessions. I WAS giving her a peanut butter Kong (even using natural peanut butter) in the AM when I left for work. I've changed that (today!) to putting a few chunks of cheese in the kong!
For exersize, she plays with that black dog for 15-45 minutes about every other day, sometimes every day. They RUN the whole time. The black dog is still fat because they feed him mostly table scraps. Petie has Flyball once a week. She is crated from 8am - 5:30pm.
It seems like this weight has come on pretty suddenly. Or maybe we have been in denile?? Any suggestions??

[mnp13]

Do you remember who made the comment at flyball? If it was Mandy, Kay or Kendell then I can say that all three of them know their stuff with conditioning.

I can't tell from the pictures you posted, but remembering from the meet up last month, I'd be inclined to agree that she could stand to loose some weight. I'd get her off the Purina and on to some better food. You'll pay more per pound for the food, but you'll feed a lot less, have less poop to pick up and it's much better for her.

Definitely stop the free feeding, she'll get used to eating on a schedule - it will be an adjustment, but she'll be ok, I promise. Country Max carries a lot of good foods and their prices are very good compared to the chain stores.

Oh, and don't feel bad, because Ruby is currently a total cow.

[maberi]

Lol, she doesn't look FAT to me.

She is definitely carrying around more weight than I would like to see on my own dogs, but I like to keep my guys as lean as possible and definitely like to see some ribs in there

Flyball is definitely a high impact sport so I would prefer a very lean dog running in a sport like that. Pits are often not put together the best structurally, so I think carrying less weight is also much safer for the dog and their joints...

Just my opinion though

[tiva]

Yep, she looks overweight to me. If she were my dog, I'd measure out her food and give half of it in her bowl in the am and pm, and use the other half as training treats. Feeding a high quality food, she would get a total of 2 cups per day, in my house. Your mileage may vary!

[PetieMarie22]

It was Mandy. What brand of dry dog food do you recommend? We will stop the free feeding.
I think she is going to be switching out of Flyball, she wants to chase/play with the other dogs more than play the game. She seems to get a lot of exercise running with the neighbor's dog.
I'd like to get her into an obediance class and head her towards CGC. Any recommendations on an obediance class that would be good prep for CGC? She knows her basic obediance, but we never took a formal class.

[amalie79]

Our girl Robin was underweight when we found her, so I haven't been worrying too much about her weight yet (in fact, just this week I think she's started to look about right at 40# so I'll begin adjusting her food accordingly). She's crated while we're at work, even though the other two aren't, so all the dogs get a kong when we leave. I was also using peanut butter and kibble(Nature's Variety and Pinnacle), but noticed our lab (surprise, surprise) packing on the pounds. I feed them only a small amount of high quality kibble, but the slow winter months and extra peanut butter added some weight. On the other hand, no kong, no crate bedding, if you get my drift...

I've now started mixing 1/4 cup of kibble, a teaspoon or 2 of creamy peanut butter, and a tablespoon or 2 of plain non-fat natural yogurt. I plug the little end of a large kong with a dollop of PB and add a few pieces of dry kibble (Robin can't reach the very end of the kong, and this makes it easier to clean, tho her lab sister is more than happy to help her out ), then I pour in the mixture. I freeze it overnight so the yogurt is good and hard and takes a while to work through; plus, now that it's not warm enough for AC but getting a little hot and stuffy in the house, it's like a puppy popsicle.

And then I reduce their breakfast by that amount...we'll see over the next couple of month if that, plus some warm weather exercise will shave off some pounds.

[Malli]

I don't think she looks fat, as in obese, and I have seen some obese dogs-she isn't anywhere close at this point. She *might* be heading towards chubby, though.

When you have trouble seeing muscle definition, you can see a jiggly chest, and all the spots you can see that are the shapes of bones look quite rounded or are hard to see then its time to think about cutting back.

I'm not against free feeding(you can free feed within a certain amount) but given her deep chest I'd avoid letting her do it so you can limit her feedings to when she's not active.

[maberi]

When you have trouble seeing muscle definition, you can see a jiggly chest, and all the spots you can see that are the shapes of bones look quite rounded or are hard to see then its time to think about cutting back.

I try to follow the same guidelines for myself...

[plebayo]

What does her waist line look like? You should try to get a picture of her from above so we can see her back and her butt...

To me she just looks kind of chubby and undefined. She is not as fat as the black dog in the picture.

Also free feeding is fine but do you measure the amount you're free feeding? I would measure her food out in the AM and just leave it out - essentially free feeding. If she "forgets" to eat she really may just be self rugulating and not eating because she doesn't feel hungry.

[airwalk]

When you have trouble seeing muscle definition, you can see a jiggly chest, and all the spots you can see that are the shapes of bones look quite rounded or are hard to see then its time to think about cutting back.

I try to follow the same guidelines for myself...

oh my..I can think of about 3 things to say here..none of which would be appropriate for a g rated audience.

[mnp13]

It was Mandy. What brand of dry dog food do you recommend?

There are soooo many out there... are you around tomorrow evening? If you have some time to meet up in Henrietta I could go over some labels with you.

I think she is going to be switching out of Flyball, she wants to chase/play with the other dogs more than play the game. She seems to get a lot of exercise running with the neighbor's dog.

She'll get better, give it some time.

I'd like to get her into an obediance class and head her towards CGC. Any recommendations on an obediance class that would be good prep for CGC? She knows her basic obediance, but we never took a formal class.

I'll have to look at the schedule and see if there is anyone that I'd recommend. I'll PM you.

[TheRedQueen]

I'm not a fan of free-feeding for other reasons than just weight control (which is one reason I won't do it)...but you also have the problem of trying to board her and having her not on a schedule (the dogs that stay with me that free feed take a while to get on a schedule, and they don't eat for the first day or so because food comes up if they don't eat). I also like to control my dog's meals and use them as a resource that I dole out for good behavior. You also run into the more serious problem of not knowing when the last time she ate was...and that can cause trouble in an emergency that requires vet care such as surgery and such.

I agree with everyone...she doesn't look *obese*, but she's not where I like my dogs to be weight-wise...I like to feel/see more rib.

[PetieMarie22]

Thanks everyone!
Michelle- I'll have to check with George and see if he will come out of denial about her weight and let me change her food. I can let you know tomorrow AM.

[tiva]

We've fed a bunch of foods (Canidae, then Kirklands Superduper or whatever they call it, Diamond Naturals), but for the last couple years, we've settled on Wellness Super5. It works well for all our dogs--nice shiny coats, manageable poops, and my vet likes it the best of the commercial kibbles. I've avoided the grain-free kibbles because they tend to be a bit higher in protein than our vet wanted for our ancient females, even though our young male would be fine on them.

[PetieMarie22]

I took a picture from her from above this morning. What I'm seeing is that she has no "waist" definition anymore. I can still see a reasonable amount of rib cage. My boyfriend is still in denial, but in my family while I was growing up, all of our dogs were obese after 4-5 years old. I have started rationing food.


I also signed her up for obedience so we are aiming for CGC in a few months.

[maberi]

I have started rationing food.

When you were free feeding, were you measuring out her food? Just curious how much she is getting now

[Pit♥bull]

I try to follow the same guidelines for myself...

oh my..I can think of about 3 things to say here..none of which would be appropriate for a g rated audience.

Guess we're the only ones that caught that.

[PetieMarie22]

No I wasn't measuring. She just ate when she was hungry. I gave her 1 cup last night, she ate it all. I gave her 1 cup this morning. She ate it, then looked at me. So I gave her a half cup more, but she walked away. So I picked it up and figured when I get home I'll give her a cup again. How much should she be getting? She's not on "high Quality" so I was thinking 2 1/2 - 3 cups.

[pitbullmamaliz]

I'd start with what the bag recommends for her IDEAL weight and then tweak it from there after she's gone a week or so and you can see if she's losing, gaining or maintaining.

[Malli]

I just did what you are doing with Oscar, my dog.

I think the bag(of food he eats) recommended 3.5 cups and he's at 3. It can take some time to see the weight loss (it might have taken longer with us because he's older - slower metabolism) and know if the ration of food is working.

You also need to remember that if you're seeing weight loss you may need to slightly increase the food to stop the weight loss, so the dog doesn't get to thin.
If you can swing by a vet's every week or two and use the scale that would be ideal, then you can see if you are making progress.
Often even decreasing the food ration they are eating by 1/4-1/2 cup is enough.