[Dailydrool] Basset Weight

[Jennifer Martin]

Just a couple of clarifications on determining if your basset is fat or not.  1. You can't judge by whether or not your basset has a waist.  Really.  Okay, if they look like a football, they need to lose weight.  Elwood had a waist when he weighed in at 93 lbs and you could hardly find a bone in his body.  With the dog standing up, feel for the ribs about 2-3 inches down from the vertebrea and 6-8 inches back from the shoulder.  Feeling for the ribs with the dog flopped over in your lap from the stomach side is definately "cheating".  You better be able to feel the ribs there or you hound is beyond fat and reaching morbidly obese.  Another way to tell is by looking at the tail.  Your basset should not have an "apple stem" tail--fat poching out on either side of the tail maiking it look like it is sticking down in an apple.  This is how you tell if livestock are fat when you can't touch them.  Livestock also should tuck up on the underline, but bassets tend to have loose skin making that harder to tell.

Finer points of the green bean diet: carrots work too.  Raw carrots make a great snacks.  I always laugh when people will feed their dogs a large milk bone and give them a baby carrot.  Most dogs WILL eat an entire full size carrot.  They are like 20 calories.  Go for the gusto!  There is a reason my dogs eat spinich salad.  I will confess this takes a little getting used to.  Not all dogs will do it, but if they won't, they must not think they are starving.  I am not trying to endorse any one product, but buddy biscuits come in a small size and a chewy format.  I feed 1-2 as a snack.  I also LOVE Real Meat treats.  They are a nice size and grain free.  Dogs are carnivores so a more Dr. Atkins type diet is more appropriate.  Plus, we have a lot of grain allergies at our house and the boys aren't allergic to the same grains.  The DH REALLY likes having one bag of treats that he knows is SAFE.  We have everything labeled and color coded, but I know how he feels.  He can't keep it all straight, and there are days I wonder if I can.  I still haven't found my 3rd cup of coffee from yesterday.  When I make treats, I use a pizza cutter and but them in 1 in squares or smaller.

I haven't measured the length of their tails, but Beauford's chest is 28 in. and he is 26 in. long.  Bugsey's chest is 25 in. and he is 24 in. long, but he is still growing.

Jennifer, Mom Slave to Beauford (oh great, the secret is out! Our mom is seriously OCD) and Bugsey (that was a secret?  How can that be a secret?  By the way, droolers, we are not fat.  We are torched because Mom is fat and some of her past bassets had fat tendencies.  We are mean, lean, varmit killing machines)
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