Dieting Is For The Dogs

Sure my dog is a little chunky. But I was a little more than surprised when the veterinarian told me that I needed to put my Lhasapoo on a diet. She needed to lose three pounds! That may not seem like much but on a 18 pound dog it's a lot of weight.

I never did give her people food and snacking really wasn't an issue. She is just a sedentary dog and is quite happy spending the majority of the day going from one napping place to the next. Occasionally she'd get a rare burst of energy and want to play fetch with a toy back and forth down the hallway, but other than that sleeping is one of her favorite things to do.

So at her doctors request here's what we did:

* Changed her food to a low fat formula
* Measured out her daily food allotment to only ¾ of a cup a day
* Changed her treats to low fat, high protein treats and only gave then sparingly
* Cut back to a ½ small dog bone in the morning instead of a whole treat
* Rewarded her with rawhide chews
* Increased her activity
* Gave her canned green beans if she was still hungry

In the six months between vet visits she met her goal, lost the required weight, and was looking really good...then the marks I put on the scoop I was using to measure out her food wore off. I began eyeballing the amount of food I was giving her.

I didn't change anything else and I couldn't have been off by more than a few pieces of kibble at each meal, but apparently those few pieces were enough for her to start putting the weight back on. I was so shocked when I saw the scale at her last vet visit and made them re-weigh her, twice, because there had to be an error. There was no way that she'd put the weight back on.

Well, now we're starting over again.

The only problem is now she thinks that she's never going to get enough food. I've had to switch to a larger size kibble to force her to chew her food instead of just inhaling it. As well, I've begun placing a soup can in the middle of her food bowl and then pouring the food around it so that it slows her down and makes her work a little harder when eating. (Recently I've found that you can actually purchase bowls with raised pegs in them that are specifically made to slow down fast eaters. But if you're on a budget and don't mind the homemade version, a soup can works just as well.)

Since the beginning of this journey, now any time I use the can opener, no matter what I'm opening, she thinks it's green beans and that they're for her. She'll come running from wherever she's been sleeping, start jumping up and down, so excited for her healthy treat. That I can live with.

Having her healthy, and making sure she has the best quality of life she can have, is not only my responsibility but my goal. For all the love she gives me it is the least that I can do to love her enough to see that she is healthy and happy.

Like it or not, dieting is for the dogs, but it's for me too. If the scoop was in the other paw I'm sure I'd have lost a lot of weight by now too!