I've come across 2 dog owners who have got old dogs and they have been told there dogs need to lose weight and both have said they are old now and they can't see the point in putting them on a diet ( they feel it would be depriving them).  My first thought was they may live longer therefore I will have them for longer, it will help joints etc that's got to be a good thing.  I know I'm overweight and I know why and its me that puts the food in my mouth but if my dog was overweight that's MY fault and as there owner it's up to me to help them.  They don't help themselves to the treat pot, they don't put the food in there bowl so I will have  made them overweight.  Am I the only one that thinks this

It is never too late to change things for your dog's health in my opinion. As you say helping joints is a big plus point! I would always keep an old dog slightly on the heavier side just so they have a bit of leaway for if they undergo illness however not to the point where they need to lose weight for their own good!

No, and the owners would be amazed how rejuvenated their dog may become, perhaps no longer needing medication such as for painful joints.

totally agree, such a shame that they wont put them on a diet - it doesn't have to be a depriving one, gently does it... takes me back to when I used to walk with a couple with 2 golden retrievers, they were walked, but were a bit overweight, my lot ran rings around them and I thought mine must have been much younger - my two older ones were something like 8 (x) and 10 (GSD), when actually the goldies were younger even than my little x ... now my 10 year old collie still competes in veteran agility and gets placed... (it's incredibly competitive these days with a lot of agility champs and G7 dogs running!)

I don't understand it, I would do anything to have more time them.  One dog in particular is very over weight and his back is a problem and why can people not see that the dog is over weight, I understand if its only a bit but this must be 15k over so you could say its quite obvious

I had two Cavaliers from the same good breeder, 18 months age difference. A they got older, one developed a grade 6 heart murmur, the other a grade 3. The younger one with the better heart went to live with my mother in law (this was before she moved in with us) as she'd recently lost both her husband and her old dog and needed an older dog for company rather than a pup. He weighed 8 kilos when he went to live with her. (We didn't just send him there because MIL wanted a dog, one of my other dogs didn't like him so it was for his own sake as well.) Well fast forward a bit and he weighed 18 kilos (!!!!!) and the vet said there was absolutely NO point in giving him any heart medication as his weight made everything so much worse. He also said he couldn't put him under anaesthetic to descale his teeth because of the weight issue. This dog then died aged just 9. The one I kept that was kept lean all along managed to live with his much worse heart until he was 15. It taught MIL a lesson for sure, and us too. (I.e. don't let MIL be responsible for feeding a dog!) And it certainly goes to show what a huge difference extra weight can make. It's so extremely easy with dogs as they CAN'T feed themselves, just like you say. I can't for my life regulate my own food intake to lose weight but I can with my dogs!

You've hit the nail on the head goldmali and it just baffles me completely especially when there is so many foods now that are for weight control and there are healthyier treats you can give them if it makes you feel better.  Do people really think its ok to give dogs rubbish to eat but we must try to eat five a day etc but " it's the dog" like that makes it ok lol

My last dog, a GR, was kept on the light side as she had an enlarged heart and had previously had a cruciate repair. Many people would ask her age and then be very surprised at what I told them commenting that they thought she was much younger. I just thought it was because she was young looking and quite lively for her age. It wasn't until I met up with a lady with what I thought was a rather fat elderly retriever and discovered that it was years younger then mine, that I realised keeping her slim did SO much good. It is a lot easier to feed elderly dogs with all the low cal foods about. I just gave her less of her normal food and added more vegetables to bulk it out and kept any treats to very small pieces, it's not that hard. We're trying to do the same!!!

I lost Charlie at 17 years and 2 months (GR) and he was kept slim all his life. His sister lived in the same village and was allowed to get porky and remained so all her life. She died at 13 years old.

I don't understand it either - I always try to keep my dogs at a nice healthy weight and I think that's partly why my 11 year old Yankee looks and acts much younger. Only wish I had the same ability to do that for myself!! :-p

> Only wish I had the same ability to do that for myself!! :-p

Yep me too

I've lost 4 stone since the beginning of last May and am a lot nippier when walking as a result! Gone down to nine stone summat and a size 10. (Still get electric spasms up and down my leg but assume that's down to nerve damage as the doctor seems to have given up trying to find out why lol.) The downside is that I'm food aggressive in company lol (eg don't be picking at my food!).

Oh yes, I'm a terrible food guarder myself - don't come near my plate with your fork or you might get snapped at! :-D

Particularly with chips. Lol

We've been on the Fast diet, 2 days a week very limited calories (500) for me, and the rest of the week eating normally. I've lost two and a half stone so very effective. I have heard some talk of fasting dogs for a day as a health thing rather then dieting, fasting has health benefits as well as losing weight. Any thoughts on fasting a dog for a day?

Ha! my beagle is absolutley sure she would die if she had a day without food.  I think the health benefits for humans are at least partly to do with the fact you would probably consume more water and veg/fruit than normally whereas the dogs would just be hungry.  I do a once a week juice day which works out a similar sort of intake to your fasting days, but I think for sure it is more about the amount of veg consumed rather than the idea of "resting the digestive system" for any health beenfits

Oh yes, I'm a terrible food guarder myself - don't come near my plate with your fork or you might get snapped at!
That's me that is lol

my 4 year old collie,jess,has about a third of the food my other two collies have but is still overweight! its driving me mad,as she has at least two hours exercise a day,and is raw fed,with very few treats. Ive recently cut her down even more and am awaiting results- please!

Our dogs are fed twice daily and I, personally, wouldn't have a fast day with them. Perhaps if a dog had been used to it from puppyhood (but then they need a fair amount of calories at that age anyway), just seems mean to deprive them when food is usually one of the highlights of a dog's day.

Never too late to change I believe. I changed all of my Shelties ranging from 7yrs down to 7 months on to raw about 8 months ago and never thought for one minute that my 15yr BC would take to it.

How wrong was I!!

She wolfs her food down with greater gusto than I've ever seen all her life, she naturally a light girl only just touching 14kg so weight was not the issue but she has gained extra vitality and is more active despite her cruciate surgery 2 years ago, I just so wish that my GR whom I lost in 2011 had tried the joys of this different diet.

Suffice to say irrespective of what you feed you can teach and old dog new tricks and if that means changing their diet to prolong their life they will and do take to it I believe.

I read a study which said that dogs attention span grew when they were hungry to a certain point. After a certain point it had a hugely negative effect on their attention span and self control. I dread to think how my dog would behave after two days of fasting.

I know it has different biological effects, but I'd much rather spread out the two days of fasting and reduce meal portions all round if I had a dog that needed slimming down.

Josh

>I'd much rather spread out the two days of fasting and reduce meal portions all round if I had a dog that needed slimming down.

With people the two 'fast' days aren't consecutive; it's just 2 days out of the 7 in the week. Fasting a dog for a day once a week was very popular at one time. It was based on the belief that 'in the wild' canids don't eat every day so it must be good for domestic dogs. Two problems with this; we tend not to feed our dogs to bursting point as they would choose to given the opportunity as they would with a large kill, and secondly if wild animals don't eat for a day it's not usually by choice, just that they haven't managed to catch/find anything!

I used to breed tortoises and many followed the school of thought that if you starved them for a day or two it would replicate 'the wild'- I just gave mine sensible portions and they all grew beautifully. A tortoise fed too much that grows too quickly develops 'pyramiding' where their shells go bumpy and all of mine were as smooth as the day they hatched!

> both have said they are old now and they can't see the point in putting them on a diet ( they feel it would be depriving them).

That's so sad :(
Do they honestly think that feeding thier dogs too many calories is the only thing that could possibly make thier dogs happy? I doubt it. The owners have no self-control and are feeding thier dogs too much to satisfy thier own need to feel like they are being loving and caring.

Seems to be a bit of a trend going on in this thread. I have no problem keeping my food-obsessed dog lean, but I struggle to keep my own weight down!

Perhaps we should start a dog-owners swapping group for weight control. If all of us that can feed our dogs to keep them lean, yet struggle to keep ourselfs lean, spend a month with another owner in the same boat, and get them to feed us, we ALL may be svelte :-D

That woud be so funny if it worked lol

Great idea.