How to help them lose weight?

Well, Ranger and Snickers went to the vet, and they're both overweight. Ranger was 50lbs, so he's about 5lbs over weight, since he's a little taller and longer than breed standard, and Snickers was 45lbs, so she's between 5 and 10lbs overweight. We knew Snickers was a little chubby, but she had lost it for a little, she's just putting it back on now. Right now I am biking each of them about a mile every other day, and they stay at a good jog next to the bike. I hope to increase that length, but don't want to do it too quickly. Anyway, are there other fun ways to help them lose weight? I play fetch with Ranger all the time, but Snickers only participates sometimes. What are some other ways I can help them lose weight?
Oh, and they each get between 2-3 cups of dry food a day, although I'm not sure how evenly they split that. Thanks!

 

I have the same problem

My 2 akitas Ricky & Lucy are both about 5-8 lbs. overweight according to the Vet. My dogs also share a bowl so I don't know how much each is eating. I have cut down on treats as much as I can and that has helped.

 

Exersize is always the key. Also try and cut down on the ammount of treats your feeding them. I've gone to the natural rawhide retriever rolls. They get to chew a lot longer than any crucny treats, and they are 100% natural with no preservatives and vertually no fat.

Also check your dog food. make sure it doesn't have alot of the fillers like corn, potatoe stuff like that.

I'd try slowly cutting out maybe a hand full or two depending on how much yrou feeding them, and devide their feedings into twice a day instead of once.

Maybe putting them in flyball or some type of high energy sport would be a good idea as well.

 

Yeah, they get hardly any treats, an occasional rawhide, but that's it. If they are learning a new trick, they get treats, but I always break them up into little tiny chunks. The food is split up twice a day, breakfast and dinner, I think it winds up being about 1.5 cups each, but I'm not sure. They get Nutro Natural Balance, which I've heard is a good food, supposedly one of the best you can get without stepping up to organic. I may try a small bag of dog food for "overweight, less active" dogs, but since I'm trying to up their activity level, I'm not sure. Would it do them any harm to have them on food for less active dogs while upping their activity level? Like, would it not satisfy them?

 

Before I would switch to a less actie food, is try cutting back a small amount of their food and add more excercies.

Sam what are these retriever rollS? I would love to find something with no fat

 

Their just like the rawhide bones. Only instead of them being knotted, their just straight like a stick. I buy only 100% nautral with no preservatives and no additives.... and the smoked, not the fried....

 

If there is anyway you can get them swimming I recommend that! My lab Winnie has been overweight for two years, she was 85 pounds and should have been around 70 maybe even 65.

I just moved to a house with a pool and she loves fetching the ball in the water, the swimming has really slimmed her down and she has probley lost about 4-5 pounds so far and we started August 1st. I still feed her the same amount of food but she works it off swimming now and no more treats. I do give her carrots as treats and she does get compressed rawhide maybe once a week.

swimming is great excerise, if you dont have access to a pool or lake maybe you can increase the length of your walks, or even hire a dog walker to come give them an extra hour long walk a day, some dog walkers dont charge too much at all.

goodluck

 

Unfortunately we don't have a pool, and the lake near my house...not the best place for a girl to be by herself, even with two dogs. They do love swimming though! The recreation center nearby had a doggy swim day about a week ago, and they went to that and had a blast! There only problem was jumping in, since their heads always went under water, so they preferred to be thrown in, lol. Once they were in they loved it, and if I had access to that all the time, you can be sure we would do it!
As far as dog walkers, there aren't many around here. We have several poop-scooping services, and few dog walkers, lol. We are still doing the bike thing, and both dogs are getting much better about not running side to side to see what's over there (after each getting about run over once, they figured it out). Possibly this afternoon I am going to take Snickers to the pet store and see if she will pick out a toy that I will be able to get her to play with. She likes anything that squeaks and will chase it all day, it just always happens that the squeaky ones are the ones that they can ruin in about 5 minutes. Thanks all for your suggestions!

 

If she likes squeaky toys, try wal mart. They often have 88 cent bins near the checkout that are full of squeaky dog toys. They tear up just as fast as other squeaky toys, but you don't feel so bad about it because they're cheap.

 

I found one at Petsmart today called "lil cuz" it's virtually indestructible, and has a wonderful squeak to it Ranger loves it, and Snickers is pretty sure she does, but still deciding, lol. I'm trying to give them just 1 or 2 toys a week now, so they always seem exciting, so that they'll play with them a little longer.

 

My dogs LOVE Bad CUZ!!! Its Precious' FAVORITE toy in the whole wide world...

 

Haha, yeah, I read the online reviews about it, so I went to check it out. One squeak in the pet store and I had the attention of about 15 dogs (there was an obedience class there), so I figured it would be worth a shot, lol. It is a special "mommy toy" that they only get to play with when I come outside, so that should encourage more play with it.

 

PetCo also has tennis balls that squeak. Those have gone over big at my house.

 

I saw this toy at Petco once, its the size of one of those large tennis balls they have for dogs, and its plastic. It had a battery inside and when you turn it on lights turn on and the ball moves around on its own. My dogs freaking loved this thing, but i broke it by mistake...lol.



They also have those treat dispensing balls, I got a large one a long time ago when i just had my lab. I would put all her food for a day in that ball and just put it on the ground, and she would walk around all day pushing that ball to try and get her food. It even had three settings,easy,med, and hard, that way you could determne how difficult of a time you want your dog to have getting the food, the more diffiuclt the more expercise, cause they just run around pushing the ball trying to get their food...lol...Someone also said once that putting their food in these are good cause it makes dogs work for their food like they would in the wild. Not to mention it can keep them busy for hours.

 

I'll have to look into the tennis balls (seems like I'm at petco or petsmart at least once a week between all of the animals now, lol.) That treat dispensing thing is a great idea! I never thought about using that for their meals, but I think they'd enjoy that. I have also begun the habit of when getting them to do tricks and such using their food as the treat, and doing it right before dinner or breakfast. I use about a handful of their food (half a cup, maybe) so they get about that much less for that meal, as opposed to adding treats into the diet.

 

I have yet to meet a treat-dispensing ball that Nala couldn't get all the food out in 5 minutes or less. Then again, I can't use one anyway because she would fight Bonnie for it.

Using food to train with is a good idea. I used to do that before I switched to raw food. Just measure out the kibble for the day and use some of it for training treats, and then feed the rest at mealtime.

 

I went out and bought a treat-dispensing toy tonight and put their dinner in it. They LOVE it! I stood out there with them for about 5 min thinking I would have to move it out from under tables, chairs, etc. in the backyard, but they have it figured out. All I had to do was stand there and laugh, lol. They love it, and I think it will help them lose weight, they way they were chasing it around, lol. The bike rides have actually given Snickers even more energy, so I may do that in the mornings and a walk at night, or biking twice a day, depending on the amount of time I have.

 

Yes. This happened when Nala was a pup and I was trying desperately to exercise her enough to calm her down. I started walking her for longer and longer walks, but all it did was condition her so she could go even longer. LOL! You just can't win sometimes.

 

Haha, I know. A lot of the habits she had kind've gotten out of, she has started again, because she has more energy! She dug up a plant, she has run out of the gate twice now when I have pulled into the garage (although at least she comes back when called most of the time now), and I'm sure I'll discover her chewing on the house or something again given time.