How To Tell If Your Dog Is Overweight – And What To Do About It

Dogs should be kept slim and trim

Even a little bit of extra weight puts major stresses on your dog's heart, lungs, and joints. One solid way to avoid health problems and lengthen your dog's life is to work really hard at keeping him on the slender side!

How to tell whether your dog is in good condition

Look at his profile

Crouch down to your dog's level and look at him from the side – his profile. His belly should be taut, held firmly up against his body. Of course this is easier to see on a shorthaired dog. With a longhaired dog, you'll need to feel with your hands.

These dogs are in good condition

Overweight

Your dog's belly shouldn't sag down toward the same level as his chest and ribs. Older dogs tend to be saggier in the belly, but you want to minimize this. Extra weight is bad for aging organs and joints.

Look down on his back

Stand close beside your dog and look down at his torso. You should see sort of an hourglass shape – wide-ish across his ribs, narrower across his waist (called the loin), and wide-ish again across his hindquarters. With longhaired dogs, you'll need to feel with your hands.

These dogs are in good condition

What you don't want is a sausage-ish shape that doesn't vary much in width.

Overweight

Feel his ribs

Put your hands on your dog's rib cage on each side of his body. You should be able to feel  his ribs with your fingers without needing to push hard. But you shouldn't be able to see  his ribs sticking out – unless your dog is a sighthound  (such as a Greyhound) who DO have an extremely streamlined build with more prominent ribs.

No two ways about it, this little dog is fat, which is terrible for both his short- and long-term health.

Unfortunately, many owners, when assessing their dog's weight, have the same blind spot they have for their own weight.

But you should try hard to be objective, because extra weight puts major stresses on your dog's heart, lungs, and joints.

How to help your dog lose weight

Stop feeding snacks, tidbits, cookies, and biscuits.

Stop feeding all kibble and canned food, especially those marketed as "weight loss" diets. The ingredients in most of those diets are atrocious, and the puny amount you're told to feed your dog keeps him perpetually hungry and unhappy.

Instead, feed real food, but....

• Eliminate all grains (rice, pasta, bread, etc.), legumes, fruits, milk and cheese, and high-calorie vegetables like potatoes, yams, sweet potatoes, peas, and carrots.
• Basically you want to feed only meat/fish (plus bone or calcium) and lots of low-calorie veggies such as summer squash, zucchini, celery, asparagus, and cauliflower.
• Increase exercise.
• If the above tips don't bring your dog's weight down, cut back the amount of food by about 10%.