Hi everyone,

I don't know if you remember me, but I am Katie and I bought a beautiful Cocker Spaniel a few weeks ago, I named him Arthur.

Anyway, I took him to the vetslast night and the first time I took him he was 4.2kg. The vet said he was a little bit on the heavy side and to go careful. Anyway I haven't given him anything else but his dinner, which is Hills, and three times aday as recommended. Well Arthur was weighed yesterday, and he has gone up to 5.7kg. So put on quite abit of weight. I have now got to reduce his food. But I have reduced his food for the past week, and he has still put on quite a bit of weight. I don't know what I am doing wrong??

My sister fell in love with him so much she went and bought his sister, and she weighed in at 4.2kg. But then bitches are smaller???

Please help me.

Many thanks Katie xxx

Hi Katie, am I right in thinking that Arthur is a puppy of just a few months old? If so, I can't agree that reducing the food he's getting is the right thing to do. He's growing, and he needs his food for development, please don't diet him.

Please join Champdogs so you can discuss more.

Dawn R.

My guess is that a change to a more appropriate food would help towards your goal.  He does need to keep growing but at a slower rate.  Rapid weight gain won't be good for the development of his bones.

Personally, I feed my cockers Autarky (puppy until a year) and have always managed to maintain a good weight.  I know we all have very individual ideas about feeding on these boards and you must do what is right for YOU, but you might feel a bit happier if you read a bit about Hills.  If you use the Search facility in the top right hand corner you should get a whole host of past threads to read through to help you make a more informed decision as to whether this is the best food for your dog.

Good luck.

Don't forget that different pups grow at different rates ;)  if you can feel his ribs without digging about then he's probably fine.  You might want to think about changing his food tho, perhaps to one not so rich.  Burns and James Wellbeloved are very good as is Autarky puppy (spring) :)

If you cut back on his food, you'll cut back on his growth and he's at an important stage of growth at the moment.  You don't put puppies on diets......that's rubbish!

I resume he's just about able to start going for walks?  he'll soon get into shape, all my dogs are fed Burns, some are bigger than the others all female, it's like saying all people should be the same size.

I was once told by a very good breeder that if you have a good solid pup, you'll end up with a good solid dog......if you have a skinny pup it will stay that way.

How long ago were the first and second weigh in's??

Hi, my mum has a lovely cocker and he's a year old now but he was a very chubby pup.  She followed all the advice from the breeder and the vet and never overfed him or gave him titbits but he was just a bit pear shaped!  The vet assured her he wasn't going to be a fat dog and he's turned out fine and is perfectly healthy, although he's never going to be thin.

I'm sure yours will be 100% OK and I would go with the recommended food and your vet/breeder's advice.  As long as he's being exercised he'll most likely slim down a bit.  Enjoy him, mum's dog is a great wee boy :)

CG