We had weighed our dogs lately and I was disappointed to find that they are almost obese except for Barbie, our youngest pekingese. The 2 males dogs, Tisoy the spitz and Pipoy the pug, are both overweight and recommended for a diet. Maybe our housemaid is giving them too much food so my husband said that we should monitor the feeding.
An overweight dog is like a human who is susceptible to diseases.
When it comes to overweight, it is pretty much the same causes for both dogs and humans. If they eat more calories than they spend, the extra energy will be stored as fat. It is that simple. So either decrease the calories intake, or increase the spending, or both.
Cut back on feeding should be the first thing to do. The total food you give to them on daily basis should be reduced. You can also give the dogs smaller more frequent meals instead of just one or two large meals. Maybe improve food quality is also needed. Higher quality food has less filler and other garbage.
Then there comes activity level. Walk your dogs more often, play with them more often should do the trick. It is also good for your own health if you walk and play with your dogs often.
My dog used to be slightly too overweight but we did stopped her bad feeding before it was too late. Overweight on dogs (especially smaller ones) can be really bad for their health in a long run and it should be really taken in consideration to be taken care of. Their joints will start to hurt and it will make dogs suffer. You can always just start measuring really carefully the food and stop feeding your dog any extra snacks. Longer walks will also do a lot, especially if you have a smaller dog. Try to keep your dog as active as you can and it will not even realize you're feeding him less food than normally, haha!
