My friend, Gail, from whom I got my boy, Vlad has a Jack Russell terrier named Rocky. Seems everybody likes to talk trash about "the Rock" because of his weight. She sent me some pictures of him the other day and all I could say was, "OMG!"
A Jack Russell should be around 16 pounds and my Vlad is maybe a couple above that. I jokingly say Bella, my dachshund isn't a weenie dog, she's a bologna dog. But Rocky is admittedly morbidly obese at 31 pounds! All dogs should have a visible waist, Bella does not.
So Gail and I made a pact to get our canine kids back into a healthier weight zone. Limit the treats. Buy a lower fat, higher grade dog food. Exercise them more.
I've the much easier task ahead of me, to drop maybe 2 pounds off Vlad and 4 or 5 off Bella. Gail has to get poor fat Rocky to lose almost 50% of his body weight. We love our dogs like our own children and treats make them happy. But treats also make them fat so it's time for tough love.
Sometimes when a sack of dog food gets damaged the store where I work will mark it down and sell what's left at a reduced price. More often than not I buy those as something to change up Vlad & Bella's diet. I'll continue to do so but only the hi pro, low fat stuff. When the marked down isn't available I'll pay full price.
My friend at work, Debbie who is also an animal lover told me dogs don't know how much treat they're getting, they only know that they are getting. It makes sense to me as when I give treats, V&B don't kick back and savor the flavor.... they gobble it down as quickly as possible.
One last thing about treats... those rawhide things! I read somewhere that they are probably only slightly less bad than rat poison because of the chemicals they are treated with. If you don't have any, don't buy any. If you do, throw them away.
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