Merlot has gradually crept up in weight. She is 57kg and ideally should be about 50kg. Her ideal weight for her size is about 53 kg as she is a big girl but I want to get her a little lower than that. She has a little osteoarthritis in her front shoulder and I would like to get her a little leaner. ( It was the shoulder she knobbled just before new year and it had settled but she slipped on the ice and tweaked it again a couple of days ago. been to the vet who has referred her for hydro) She is nearly 8 years old and is a lazy baggage. Her walks though she gets a good 1 1/2 hours a day are plods. Very little encourages her to speed up. :-) I have to be a little carefull anyway due to her shoulder as if she starts to dash about she can agrevate it. She does not and never has played...never seen the point ! A typical day is up at 7am sleep till 8am then an hours walk. Home and sleep till breakfast, sleep till about 2.30pm then another walk 1/2hr at least, Then snooze till tea at 7pm and sleep till bedtime ! as you see she is not a great mover and shaker ! She will wander around the garden for 10 mins occasionally but to try and get her to play is hopeless. On odd occasions she will have a half hearted go at a game of tug with her daughter but is not commited to it at all. She loves a trip in the car with me and will join me on any visits to the bank etc.. Her main aim in life is to be with me and thats fine. She can and will chase and catch squirrells or rabbits...and eat them ! but a mad spurt like that is not the best for her. I would like her to break out of a ploddy walk and trot a bit but she canot see the point of exherting too much energy unless there is something fluffy at the end! OH has started taking her for a road walk at a faster pace for 1/2 hour of an evening but she is not too keen. She knows he is only going to walk her round the roads and she goes under duress. (He takes the youngster as well) She is happiest just sniffing and plodding round the fields. I have booked her in for some hydrotherapy (She is insured and they are happy to pay) and will go twice a week. However to get to the point,she is raw fed and should be having about 1,1/2 kg of food a day but she is such a good doer that she has been having about 1kg but still she has quietly put the weight on. I have cut her back to 1/2 kg a day and upped the veg but am a little worried that she is not getting enough of the meat content. (Not to mention that her meals are so small for a huge dog !)Her meals are more vegetarian than carnivore ! She gets a variety of tripe minced meat mixes with oily fish/heart,liver and veg, chicken carcasses and necks, yoghurt, eggs, chunks of beef, sprats etc.. but still is not really loosing much weight. I would like to bulk out her meals but apart from veg don't know what to add. Has anyone any ideas? Luckily she loves her veg but even I would get fed up of it if I had too much.
Aileen

Would cutting back on the red meat and substituting it for white meat help at all? So less tripe/beef/lamb etc for chicken and turkey.

I'm currently back on the kibble with mine and Kai really gained a huge amount of weight, he's now back to a good size and all I did was making sure he couldn't nick the pupsters food and then buying a very low protein kibble which has worked.

Hopefully the hydro will help her too... Huge to Merlot xx

I think I'd be feeding more bone in there, unless I read wrong she's only on mostly minced? if you could give her some pork rib bones or similar they'd bulk it out a little. I'd also cut the yoghurt and eggs out personally, I don't feed any dairy (except a splash of milk as a treat occasionally) and don't really see the need. Ditto eggs, if she is having offal she will be getting the oils and vit e etc from that. Oh, maybe cooked potato to add bulk? I wouldn't normally feed it to dogs but it may help fill her up a little.
How long has she been on the reduced amount? Are you maybe expecting too much too soon?
exercise-wise, if you're on a off-lead walk, what happens if you just speed up and its go faster or be left behind? sounds a bit mean but if she can keep up with you by dawdling then there's no incentive to go faster if she just wants to follow.
good luck, i have labs that seem capable of gaining weight on the tiniest quantity!

Have you tried to feed less of your usual & bulk up with vegetables?

I agree with eliminating dairy from her diet- she shouldn't need it and it won't be helping.  I'd also reduce oily fish (if it's tinned in oil) to once every month; if it's fresh to once a fortnight.  Feed green veg, not root veg - there's plenty of cheap kale and other greens from the cabbage family around at the moment.

I also look to reduce the amount of tripe you're feeding - if all your mince mixes include tripe she's getting quite a lot and although it's brilliant stuff, many people swear by it for putting weight ON.  I'd suggest buying your tripe and meat separately so you can balance how much of it she's getting.

Ideally you could do with incentivising her to move a bit more often and a bit faster but it looks as if you are doing all you can on that front...  She might start feeling a bit more lively in the Spring - is her movement or motivation affected by the weather?

Buster needs to be kept lean due to elbow displasia. He also is a plodder, the only thing that ever speeds him up is when we occasioanlly bump into his rottie friend.

His weight controll is done via diet rather than excersise. I've never found tripe to be something that puts weight on him, but he's only ever fed is as past of his diet, not in addition to a normal ration. Anything fed in addition to will add weight on.

Buster is approx 90kg, he has 920g food per day (this is maintenance amount,not a diet amount), split over 2 meals (420g of complete + 400g of wet).  

If he has any of our left-overs, his evening meal is reduced accordingly.

If he's ever looking/feeling a little heavier, his complete will be reduced by a fraction for as many days as is needed to get him back to normal. I don't bulk out his food if he's on reduced portions.

ETA be strict on weighing portions out. A little over portion size at every meal soon adds up to extra meals.

Thanks for your suggestions...
I would walk faster but though I can go a fair way I do not walk very fast since my broken knee and the old arthritis set in !! OH walks much faster hence turfing him out of an evening with her.
I am weighing her food, believe me she gets 250gms twice a day (Of meat) and the veg are free ! Try weighing 250 gms of lamb ribs out ! I need a saw...Chicken carcasses are easier as a good pair of secatures cuts it up easily. Because she is on such a small amount i worry a little about getting the right balance over a week. They have 1 egg a week and the oily fish is fresh not tinned I have cut out the tinned tuna in oil for her. They only get the yoghurt once a week as well One small tub between the 3 of them so not a lot. The yoghurt is a special treat after I have been shopping and they have had it all thier lives, I will give her a little less but I won't cut it out as she really looks forward to it when I have been to do a shop. Not really fair to just stop it at her age!
The compete mixes are ...Oily fish, tripe and veg...or minced chicken and veg with a little organ meat included, so not as much tripe as you may think. I weigh in the egg with her meal so cut down on the meat. I must be more patient and keep going maybe I am expecting too much too soon.
Will keep you informed of her progress.
Aileen

Think the answer to how to lose weight is to eat less. Think of food a fuel and if you use less fuel than you receive that left will be stored as fat, where as if you receive less than you need you draw on the stored fuel and (fat) is lost.