[Dailydrool] How to tell if your dog's weigh is correct

[Opal-Deitering, Gaylene]

There is a very simple way to check if your dog is at proper body fat.  Make a fist with one hand, and run your fingers over the knuckles of that hand.  Now feel your dog's ribs near his/her spine, behind the shoulders.  If your dog's ribs feel like the knuckles of your fist, he needs to put on more weight.  Now open the fist and extend the fingers, and feel the knuckles with a firm touch again.  Examine your dog, if his ribs in the same area feel somewhat like your knuckles on a hand with extended fingers, you are doing a pretty good job of managing his weight.  Now turn your hand over, and feel the bottom of your knuckles at the pad just where the fingers connect.  If your dog's ribs feel like this, he/she is too fat!  Cut that food and increase the walks.  Remember, a bored dog is a hungry dog, but a dog with a job to do who is tired at the end of it will not feel so deprived if there is a little less in the food bowl. Of course, barring Thyroid or Lupus or some other health problems, if a person can't feel ones knuckles, the dog may not be the only one to benefit from diet and exercise.  Arthritis of the hands can also skew the results of this test.  Have a person of average weight do the knuckle test for you if you are unable to complete the task on your own.
The problem with putting weight on a starved dog is that we tend to feed a large quantity of food, multiple times a day, rather than an appropriate quantity of high calorie/nutrition food at specific intervals.  Instead of feeding more and more food to a skinny but otherwise healthy dog, it is better to feed less of a very good weight building food.  (recipes do exist in the drool archives) The result of over-feeding is that the dog becomes used to eating quantity, and when they hit the desired weight it is difficult to cut them back to what they actually need for maintenance.  A pattern has been set, and we all know how our hounds love their routines!  Gradual weight gain or loss is the safer course in most instances.
Let's face it, fat and protein taste good! When it is time to switch your friend to a lower calorie or protein food, there are ways to encourage a dog to eat something with less flavor. Cutting fat and protein gives food less smell and flavor. When putting a dog on a food with fewer calories and less protein, which many of us do as our pets age, they don't like the taste very much!  There are some pretty good vitamin gravies out there which will make the food taste better, and there is always yoghurt, pumpkin, steamed carrots, flax oil, tuna water, and other things which can enhance smell and taste.  Then there is the "You must not be very hungry if you won't eat it" approach which involves putting food down for 10 minutes and picking it up if it is not eaten, with no snacks until the next scheduled meal, then re-serve the uneaten food.  A couple of days of this can convince a hound to eat what is served.  This is good with a stubborn hound, but use caution for those with health problems like diabetes or other diet controlled conditions.
Remember that a lean hound is a hound who has fewer problems with arthritis in the joints and spine.  If you think your thin hound is cold, buy him a sweater.
Gaylene Opal-Deitering
My passions do not replace my relationship with God, but are instead a reflection of it!


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