Hi All

Since moving to Suffolk Hannah my mountain hound rescued by us from Crete is getting fat.  Trouble is there are few places to let her off ead here - well there are but being a hound she is prone to disappearing.  So generally she is walked on a flexi lead.  We have a large garden but she doesn't seem to want to run around it - just likes to mooch about and sniff.  At weekends we take her to a park where she can have a run but it a few miles away.

She is terribly food obsessed - a hangover from her days as a stray in Greece no doubt.  We don't feed her treats much but she only has to hear the rattle of dishes when I am preparing food and she is there by my side sitting bolt upright.  She is the size of a small labrador but with a hound shape, muscled and athletic.

I don't want her getting fat but am unsure about the quantities of food to feed her.  I feed her twice a day now,  with a handful of mixer and about half a tin of Butcher's tripe twice a day.  Is this too much?  Any advice and suggestions would be welcome.  My other three dogs are keen on their grub but not obsessed as is Hannah.

Thanks

Snowflake

Hi Snowflake,

I would say the amounts you are feeding her sound about right, what brand is the 'mixer biscuit' are you feeding her? Most of the food companies do a lower calorie biscuit to help with dogs who are overweight or have low energy levels. If getting her to excersise is a problem ever thought of maybe trying her on a treadmill if you have one, once a day this might help burn off some calories.

Although as you mention you rescued her from Greece which is I have to say very comendable, what a lucky hound she is :) her being obsessed with food is as you say very likely due to the life she had previously.   

How about running or biking with her on a lead ?

I would say that if she is getting chubby she is being fed too much. I would try cutting down her food just a little bit- if she's unable to get the exercise she used to have then she won't need as much food as she was getting before. You could try making her work for her food - scatter some of her mixer in the garden and let her search for it, although this may be a bit difficult at the moment if your garden is like mine and is blanketed in snow at the moment :-)

Agree with Harley, cut her food down a bit.

Rather than guessing the food she has, measure it out, it's much esier to ensure she is having the same amount of food each meal (if guessing, it's easy to add a couple of extra pieces of kibble, which is enough to add to a weight problem). When measuring her food out, it is also easy to adjust the quantitny to suit her (give a little less if shes podgy, give a little more if shes too thin).
To measure her food, you could be very precise and weigh it out (no need with the tinnnd food if she is having 1 tin per day split over 2 mealas as the tin is allready weighed for you & will be consistent every day), or you could use a cup and give her the same volume per day (full cup/half cup, what ever looks right).

> To measure her food, you could be very precise and weigh it out

I do this every day for all of my gang.  They get fed half wet, half dry, but, as I know what they get down to the last gram, I only have to make slight adjustments to control weight quickly when needed.

During this terrible weather I have noticed that Hannah (my hound) is more and more reluctant to get up in the morning.  She sleeps beneath her blanket and when the others go out in the garden to relieve themselves first thing she literally turns over and snores louder (dreaming of being in Greece I expect).  Often these days she is not really keen on eating in the morning like my other three (all littlies, westie,  JR and sheltie) are. So maybe I should capititulate on that and just feed her late afternoon - I know some dogs are fed once a day although in all the years I have had dogs they have all had two meals a day.  But mostly I've had small dogs.

When we moved up here to Suffolk in March  my son (who lives round the corner) and who jogs daily tried to take her out with him.  She was not at all keen and seemed confused and we decided that maybe it was that she was used to "running" with the pack (I have four including her) and didn't like being on her own.  However she has grown in confidence now and absolutely adores my son.  When he comes round she goes bananas and bays like the Hound of the Baskervilles,  quite hilarious really!  Now  some months later she may be more amenable to going out alone without the others, with him jogging.  One thing I have started to do is that I employ a young dog walker to take her out with a group of others once a week on a Wednesday.  She is on her flexi but goes for a good long hour's stretch.  She enjoys the interaction with the other dogs and is exhausted when she gets back!  According to Rachael my lovely dog walker she gets on well with the other dogs.

Incidentally we have had a woodburner installed and Hannah loves it (she loved the sun in those halcyon days of summer!!).  She takes her place in front the fire towards the end of each afternoon and looks hangdog at me as if to say come on Mum, light the fire!!

I will try to monitor her intake of food daily this winter , even my sheltie beneath her lovely winter coat is feeling somewhat chunky, and look forward to things getting easier when the better weather comes (Please God).

Snowflake

> To measure her food, you could be very precise and weigh it out
>I do this every day for all of my gang.  They get fed half wet, half dry, but, as I know what they get down to the last gram, I only have to make slight adjustments to control weight quickly when needed.

Ditto.  If you've ever tried to weigh out guestimates of dog food you can easily be adift by 20-50g's can't you!  I too make minor adjustments when needed (just + or - 5g of kibble per meal makes a very quick difference to mine)

To the OP, the other big advantage to keeping food amounts constant is that you are alerted quickly to other causes if your dogs weight suddenly fluctuates.  If Hannah has recently put on weight but her food is exactly the same you know immediately to look for another reason.

Weighing food also helps me budget better and it helps me manage their food portions more efficiently - a big bonus when defrosting raw meat as I do :)

I'm glad I'm not the only one who weighs out to the gram, my friend always looks at me as if I'm mad when I say that's what I do!

I do this as well, although I'd be the first to admit I'm a bit obsessive about it!