Helping Your Dog Shed Pounds Strategies for a Healthy Dog Diet

8 Ways to Help Your Overweight Dog

Most of the time, its a joy to share things with our dogs. Unfortunately, we share bad habits, too. It turns out our dogs are just as prone to one of our most common health problems obesity.

A few extra pounds on your pup can have serious health implications, putting your dog at risk of experiencing a wide range of diseases and conditions, including a reduced life expectancy. Added weight can also impact your dogs quality of life by affecting their mobility, energy for play, and overall mood.

As in humans, we now recognize obesity as the most important medical disease that affects our companion animals, says Dr. Alex German of the University of Liverpool/Royal Canin Weight Management Clinic.

Talk to your veterinarian for information and guidance when it comes to your dogs diet and potential weight-loss plan. In the meantime, here are eight ways you can start to help your overweight dog.

1. Know Your Dogs Healthy Weight

Different breeds and ages have different healthy weight ranges. Check what the AKC breed standard says about the ideal weight for your breed. If your dog is beyond that range, consult your vet. Its best to get a professionals help as you assess your pets accurate weight, body condition, and diet, determine if the dog would benefit from a weight-loss plan, and set a target weight to work toward.

Note that some dogs may be shorter or taller than their breed standard requirements, so the ideal weight would be within those dogs breed standard height descriptions.

2. Keep Your Dog Active

Just like humans, exercise is crucial when it comes to helping your overweight dog get healthy. Increasing your dogs activity helps burn off energy (and calories consumed).

Dont panic! Exercising your pet doesnt have to mean running marathons or going for long hikes. Regular walks and the chance to run and play in a safe off-leash environment are good forms of exercise for your dog. Participating in AKC FIT DOG is a great way for you to get moving with your pet.

Even creating a stimulating indoor environment that gets your dog moving can help. Remember, different breeds need different amounts of exercise, so consult your vet, breeder, or your dogs breed standard for guidance on how much activity is recommended.

3. Know the Difference Between Begging and Hunger

Begging is not always about wanting more to eat. In fact, its often a ploy to get more attention. (And, when its rewarded, you reinforce and encourage the behavior to continue.) If your dog begs, dont assume that theyre hungry. Trust your instincts and keep track of when the last mealtime was.

If your dog is prone to begging and youre prone to giving in to those puppy dog eyes, talk to your vet about a high-protein diet with a blend of fibers to help manage your dogs appetite and reduce their voluntary food intake. That way, you can feed your dog while knowing that they will feel fuller and stay satisfied longer.

4. Limit Treats and Table Scraps

Even when our dogs dont beg, many of us volunteer too many treats and table scraps. Dogs dont need to share everything we eat. Think of treats and scraps for your pet as you would candy for children to help you keep them to a minimum.

If you use treats for training, look for low-calorie, low-fat options and limit the amount. As an alternative, remember that clickers work great for reinforcement, and theyve got zero calories! After all, a few extra pounds can make a huge difference for dogs, who are much smaller than we are. (Even those large breeds!) So, concentrate on a healthy diet, and curb the urge to treat them with more.

5. Measure and Monitor

Once your vet has designed a weight-management plan, you should have a clear idea of how much your dog should eat at each meal. Be vigilant. Dont free-feed or eyeball how much you scoop out. Instead, use an appropriate measuring device to ensure youre managing portion control.

6. Customize Your Dogs Diet

Not all weight-loss foods are created equal, so its important to match your dog with a nutrition plan that directly addresses their specific needs. Look for a brand that offers dog food designed for your pets own issues, whether its weight management, sensitive stomachs, or something else entirely.

7. Dont Go Cold Turkey

No, this isnt about feeding your dog leftovers. Its important to ease your dog into a new diet, rather than abruptly changing what they eat. Always consult with your vet before starting your dog on a new regimen. A good guideline is to plan for at least a seven-day transition when starting a new type of food. Heres what that could look like:

• On the first two days, feed your dog 75% of their old food and 25% of the new food.
• On the third and fourth days, increase the percentage of new food to 50%, with the other 50% being the old food.
• On the fifth and sixth days, feed your dog 75% of the new food, and 25% of the old food.
• By the seventh day, you should be up to 100% of the new food.

8. Stick With It

Like human, like pet! Studies have shown that after successfully losing weight, approximately half of all dogs regained weight. The good news is that researchers also found that rebound weight gain was significantly reduced by keeping dogs on a weight-loss diet, even after achieving their target weight. So, now that youve done the hard work and transitioned to a new formula thats working, stick with it! As with so many things in our dogs worlds, consistency is the key.

How to Help Your Dog Lose Weight

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In the U.S., 56% of dogs are overweight or obese, and that excess weight is tied to an astonishing array of health problems. When it comes to preventing dog obesity, or even the slow creep of excess pounds, simple awarenessknowing what your dogs weight should be, and keeping on top of any fluctuationsis the first step. Just a few pounds can make a big difference.

You can seek your vets counsel on your dogs ideal weight, but a quick way to assess good canine condition at home is to ask:

• Does your dog have an hourglass shape when you stand behind them and look at them from above?
• Do they have a waist?
• Can you easily feel their ribs?

If youre answering no for all three, theres a good chance your dog needs to lose weight. Now what? Here are some vet-approved tips for helping your dog safely shed excess pounds and keeping them in good condition.

The Food Factor

For dogs, as for humans, losing weight really comes down to two things: food and exercise. And for a dog owner trying to manage or reduce their dogs weight, food is most important by far.

Weight loss begins and ends at the food bowl for dogs and cats, Ernie Ward, DVM, and founder of the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention (APOP), tells us. Weight loss for humans and dogs is 60-70% diet and 30-40% exercise.

For dog owners who have active lifestyles, its easy to overestimate the impact of physical activity on weight maintenance. So even for active dogs, its important to establish clear guidelines for daily caloric intake.

Get Specific With How Much Youre Feeding

Heres where things can go sideways. Humans may or may not choose to count calories as a guide for what theyre eating, with some opting for other methods of keeping to a healthy regime (Do my pants fit? Great!). But when it comes to the long-term management of your dogs weight, its essential to establish a concrete benchmark for how much to feed. This means determining the number of calories your dog needs every day.

Its not a good idea to rely on the feeding guidelines on the average pet food package. There are many factors that will influence your dogs dietary needs, including breed, size, activity level, and whether theyre spayed or neutered. Standard kibble-bag feeding ranges are generally too broad for your dog, and many owners end up over-feeding based on too-generous and too-vague suggested portion sizes, typically measured in cups and scoops.

The feeding guidelines on pet food packages, says Ward, are based on active adult dogs for all life stages. Spaying or neutering, for example, reduces energy requirement by 20 to 30%, he says. So, if your pet is spayed or neutered, and not particularly active, you can already be overfeeding by 20 or 30% or more.

When it comes to determining the ideal caloric intake, its important to consider a number of factors. We take a couple of things into considerationwe look at body condition score, we look at muscle condition score, we look at lifestyle, and any concurrent medical conditions, Dr. Ward says. We start by determining, OK, how many calories should you be feeding?

As a starting place, there are also many tools online to provide rough feeding guidelines based on weight and breed. You might start by consulting the guide published by the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention.

For at-home calculating, you can use the Resting Energy Requirement (RER) formula. Take your dogs weight in kilograms, multiply by 30, and add 70 (or, take their weight in pounds, divide by 2.2, multiply this figure by 30, and add 70). You can then factor in a metabolic energy requirement (MER), depending on things like health and whether theyre spayed or neutered.

Typical MER factors include:

• Weight loss1.0 x RER
• Neutered/ Spayed Adult1.6 x RER
• Intact Adult1.8. x RER

Ask your veterinarian about the MER and calculating and determining how your dog can lose weight safely. Tools like the MER multiplier table on the web provide estimates, but every dogs metabolism is different, so be sure to keep monitoring your pets weight.

You can also sign up for a fresh-food plan (like the ones offered to customers of The Farmers Dog). A plan like this makes it easy to determine the correct total caloric intake and food portions based on your dogs very specific requirements, and also makes it easy to adjust daily calories based on changing weight-management needs.

Food Quality Is Also Key

In addition to calorie counting, another important part of weight maintenance or weight loss is feeding lower-carb, whole, fresh food.

Many ultra-processed dog foods are full of carb-based fillersas Dr. Ward has noted, when you actually break down the ingredients on the label, many of them top out at over 60% or more carbohydrates. Fresh diets provide quality protein, but also the fiber and moisture that can keep your dog satisfied, without carb-y fillers.

Feeding nutrient-dense, bioavailable food will keep your dog healthy as they reduce their overall intake of food.

Treats Count, So Count Them

Another way to help your dog drop some extra weight is by controlling, and possibly reducing, their treat intake. Here, again, quality and quantity matter.

Nobody wants to deny their dog treats, as they are often helpful training aids, and its fun to see the excitement they generate. But its important to keep a close eye on how many treats your dog actually eats in a day and what their caloric impact is. Treats should be factored into, and comprise no more than, 10% of total daily calories.

Dog owners who feed their dogs healthy food, yet still feed them highly processed, high-carb, high-calorie treats, are potentially missing a big source of weight gain and health issues. And if you feed your dog too many treats (more than 10% of their daily intake of food), you can undo the benefits of the balanced diet youre feeding.

Many vets recommend using single-ingredient treats like fresh veggies and fruit. Baby carrots, celery, broccoli, green beans, cucumbers, blueberries, apples, and bananas all make healthy treats and, unlike mystery-meat treats, can contribute to your dogs health (use apple and banana in smaller amounts due to higher sugar content).

As for peanut butter, make sure its truly a special (rare) treat, and doled out in limited amounts; this dogand humanfavorite has a hefty 100 calories per tablespoon. Also, ensure that the peanut butter youre using doesnt contain Xylitol, which is toxic to dogs. For a lighter, and perhaps better, substitute, try plain canned pumpkin, which weighs in at just five calories per tablespoon.

Its also worth stepping back and considering why youre giving your dog treats. Our bond with our dogs is so special, and every dog owner wants to see the happy excitement a treat brings. But you can get that joyful response with healthy treats, or with smaller portions. I typically tell owners that dogs get the same enjoyment, and you can get the same reaction, from a small piece of a treat as you can from the whole thing or a handful, says Alex Schechter, DVM. There are many ways to show love and bond with your pet. It doesnt have to be all about food.

Safely Increase Exercise

Food is key, but no weight loss plan, or health maintenance plan, is complete without exercise. The most obvious, and important, activity for your dog is walking. Regular walks dont just exercise your dogs body; they provide crucial mental stimulation and that all-important opportunity to sniff. The amount of walking your dog needs, or wants, depends on their breed and general health. But while conventional wisdom says that some dogs need less exercise than others, all dogs need to move.

While the recommended minimum of daily exercise is 20 minutes, twice a day, many dogs will need much more. For many breeds, an hour of exercise a day is a good target. If your dog needs to lose weight, try to increase the amount of exercise they currently do. So, if thats none, or barely any, start with short intervals of walking. If youre already exercising, try lengthening your walk or other activity by 10-20%.

Ask your vet about the best types of activities based on your pets breed, age, gender, and current physical condition. Introduce new activities slowly to avoid injury. And, unless your dog has been trained for or slowly introduced to these kinds of activities, leave the extreme sports to your own weekend hourstoo-vigorous, or repetitive activity can put your dog at risk of joint problems. Also, keep weather conditionslike high sunin mind if your activities are outdoors. The sun creates the potential for heat stroke and burnt paw pads.

Rule Out a Medical Condition

If youve established and are staying within caloric boundaries and youre still not having any luck helping your dog lose weight, a visit to the vet could be in order to rule out a medical condition. Weight gain and lethargy can be symptoms of conditions like hypothyroidism and Cushings syndrome. The latter, also known as hyperadrenocorticism, usually occurs in older dogs, and can also cause frequent urination, hair loss, and weakness.

Weight Loss (and Maintenance) Is a Long Game

If you determine that youre overfeeding, work with your veterinarian to create a weight-loss schedule based on the appropriate calories so that your dog doesnt lose weight too fast, which is unhealthy.

Overall, the best weight management strategy is to develop good habits that are applied, consistently, long-term.

People (humans) want to rush weight loss, says Dr. Ward. Thirty days to bikini season! But this is a long process. Its years of making small decisions that help. When youre deciding on sharing your pizza crust with your Pomeranian, if you do it once, OK. But if you do it once a week for five years, thats a problem.

This article was vetted by a vet. Reviewed by Alex Schechter, DVM, founding veterinarian atBurrwood Veterinary.He was previously founding veterinarian atPure Paws Veterinary Care.