Well we have a new addition to the family! Megan is a 9yr old rescue Samoyed. She is absolutely beautiful and is already settling in well apart from an earlier incident of falling in the pond!! Unfortunately she has been fed on a very unhealthy diet and she is very "full figured" as they say! What is the best way of getting her down to a normal, healthy size? At the moment she is like a barrel! She will get regular exercise which she has not had in her former home. My two other dogs are currently on Arden Grange which suits them very well. Does anyone have experience of overweight dogs? I would love advice as this is not something I've encountered before....(Sorry if this should be under "feeding" instead, wasn't sure)

I'm sure the extra exercise will get her weight down soon enough!
Arden Grange is a very good food IMO, so feed that (appropriate amount for her weight) and remember the packet tends to say they need more than they do!
Weight should soon drop off. :-)

Thanks Cocopop! I hope so as she is waddling round at the moment, bless her. She'll definitely have some lovely walks. I'm assuming it's better to start gradually with the walking?! She is 9 years old so don't want to overdo it!

I've just taken in a doberman weighing 66kg! the vet says she should be 30kg. We had blood tests done and it showed she had an underactive thyroid. As for diet she is on the Hills prescription diet, the vet said normal light foods would not be low enough in calories for significant weight loss. The vet also has doggie weightwatchers classes lol :)

Hopefully Maxine will see your post and be able to give you some advice. She took on a very overweight Cavalier and has helped him to reach his perfect weight.

Good luck with your new dog :)

Hi,

When my dog was overweight, the vet recommended cutting his food down by one third, and giving him a spoon of bran on his food to make him feel fuller. This worked for us.

My dog also has an underactive thyroid and was very very overweight. I had tried the light foods and prescription diets none worked. In the end I cut her down to half a mug of normal dog food twice a day and walked her building up the exercise, in 3 months she lost 8 kgs.

Thanks everyone. I have cut down on her food intake a bit and am walking her twice a day - hopefully we'll see a difference soon. She is so fat she can't even get up the stairs bless her, but she is such a happy little thing, her tail never stops wagging.

One thing I'm a bit concerned about is that she has had 5 poos today, some of them have what appears to be mucus in, and her last three have been quite loose. She is currently fed on Pedigree "Weight control" dry food mixed in with a quarter of a tin of Pedigree wet food, I am going to change her onto Arden Grange though gradually. Do you think its the food or the change in circumstances which could have upset her?! Will watch her closely to see if there is any improvement. Is there anything I can give her to firm her up a bit? She's hardly eaten any of her dinner either. I think its probably down to the change in environment.

Was feeding pedigree to my lot until a few days ago and sometimes had mucus in the poo! Have in last 2 days changed them over to Arden Grange and at last have solid poo from them. Only 2 days on the arden grange but my lot seem calmer too and at long last found something the puppy will eat. Good price too.

Have had good success with Burns High Oats, but would suggest that the vet gives her a check over to make sure it is not something else causing the extra weight.

She was checked by the vet and its just a combination of poor diet (burgers and sausages mainly!) and no exercise. She's not keen on the AG but hasn't eaten the Pedigree either, I mixed some natural low fat yoghurt in with her food and she has eaten quite a lot of it. She was so excited to go on her walk this morning :-) Hopefully the pounds will soon drop off! Freespirit interesting how you found yours to have mucus poo from Pedigree, I'm not keen on feeding her it at all, but dont want to change over too quickly and upset her. She has had nice normal poo today with no mucus :-)

I'd say the excercise will start her weight moving and her system going....therefore she will be hungry..how about adding a little gravy to the complete food? Or put her food in a kong.

Swimming is a good form of excercise too.......but I would say the walking will do it for her if she had none before....will also get her brain going if she did not go out she would have been bored silly.

I tried everything with one of my girls  -then moved to Orijen Senior - it worked a treat. No grains at all seemed to suit her and plenty of good stuff. Her dry skin also cleared up. We started with some fresh meat and a bit of cottage cheese.
The change is remarkable. May be worth getting a sample bag to try first.

Well she has started to really enjoy her walks and like a typical Sammy has started barking to hurry me up when I'm putting my shoes on to go out. I'm hoping the walks will help her lose the weight, we are going twice a day. I have now started feeding her just the Arden Grange but she still won't eat it so I am adding a little natural yoghurt which she will eat. She is still a bit loose - is there anything that would help with this?

Karen - can you get the Orijen food in the UK? I went on their website and they're based in Canada??

I have found putting them on an excellent quality food, but only half the amount and if they are ravenous or scavenging make up the missing volume with raw or cooked carrot and other vegetables.

When I have tried the diet foods the dogs have lost body condition as well as weight.

I would feed her about 150g of AG adult.

I agree with Jackie about burns high oats, worked wonders with my boy, he lost weight and it filled him up :)

Thanks everyone for your advice, Brainless do you mean 150g for the whole day, or 2 meals of 150g? The bag says I should be feeding her just over 300g a day, I know these sort of feeding guidelines are quite generous though so have been feeding about 250g per day...She's not scavenging or ravenous but I have been adding natural yoghurt to interest her in the food a bit more, as she's been used to burgers and sausages I'm sure AG is not the most appetising to her!! Should I keep giving the yoghurt do you think?