Dog Obesity is the most common nutritional disease in American dogs today.

It is the result of simply eating more calories than are burned. Dogs have a built-in protection against this disease, a control mechanism in their brains that satisfies their hunger after they have eaten enough calories to meet their daily energy needs.

However, it is possible to upset this control mechanism. By feeding the dog a food that is highly palatable, he will eat to satisfy his appetite and not his hunger. The only way to remove the excessive fat from a dog’s body is by reversing the way it was put on, which is feeding the dog fewer calories than he will burn for energy.

When this is done, the dog’s body will burn up energy stored in his body to obtain what he needs. Fat is the most efficient source of energy and will be used in the greatest amount whenever energy is needed.

A reduction in caloric intake cannot be achieved by just cutting down the quantity of food you feed your dog. Drastic cuts in the quantity of food fed will only lead to deficiencies that pose an even greater threat to the dog than the obesity does which are deficiencies of proteins, vitamins and minerals. It will also make your dog ravenously hungry! Fats and carbohydrates that contain the most calories should be replaced by ingredients that are less digestible and lower in calories.

The diet of an overweight dog should not contain more than 1400 calories per pound of dry matter. This is approximately 1250 to 1300 calories per pound of dry food or 330 to 350 calories per pound of canned food.

A more accurate and convenient way of obtaining a reducing diet is to use a dietary animal food specifically designed for that purpose. This food can be obtained from a vet. It contains 330 calories per pound and is balanced to provide the correct amount of other nutrients for the dog when fed at that caloric density. Whatever the food used, the quantity of it that should be fed has to be estimated.

Portion control is the only method of feeding that can be used during a weight reducing program. Treat or supplement should not be given during the reduction program. If a dog is more than 10 pounds overweight, (over his ideal body weight) begin your weight reducing program by feeding him only 2/3 the quantity calculated to maintain his desired weight. The full amount of food should be given once a reduction in weight begins to occur.

For dogs that are less than 10 lb overweight, begin with the full amount calculated. In dogs weighing less than 10 pounds, use the two-thirds guide for any dog that is more than 33% of his desired weight overweight. It may require several months or longer before a dog reaches his optimum weight. Do not expect your dog to lose the weight in just a few days.

Taking off weight too fast can be dangerous to a fat dog. Once optimum weight has been attained, most dogs will have to be kept on portion control feeding. Dogs that tend to get fat need to have their intake closely regulated to prevent them from gaining back the lost weight.

The following are three steps to place a snap-around collar on your dog.

1. Start with you and your dog facing each other. Take the clasp in your left hand and the two rings in your right hand.

2. Place the collar under your dog’s neck and bring the ends up to the top of his neck, directly behind the ears. When you begin to put on the collar, the dog flexes his neck muscles, expanding the circumference of the neck and creating the impression that the collar is much tighter than it actually is (similar to the effect produced by a horse taking in air as it is being saddled).

3. Attach the clasp to the floating ring. The smooth side of the clasp should be next to the dog’s skin.

You may get the impression that the collar is much too tight and that you can barely get it around your dog’s neck. It is recommended that you wait for about five minutes after the first time you put the collar on. After the dog has relaxed, you can then test for correct snugness. You should be able to easily slip two fingers between the collar and your dog’s neck. Use one finger if you have a toy dog. If you cannot, the collar is too tight. On the other hand, if you can get three or more fingers through, the collar is too loose.

One way to make the collar smaller is to tie a knot in it. Once you have the collar on, you can use it as a training collar by attaching the leash to the live ring of the collar or as a buckle collar by attaching it to the dead ring of the collar.

The live ring of the training collar is called the stationary ring while the dead ring of the collar is referred to as the floating ring. Some dogs do not respond well to a check on a snap-around collar because the check does not create an unpleasant experience for the dog. Therefore, he does not learn to accept the responsibility for his behavior. Also, the dog’s size and weight in relation to your size and weight may be such that he does not feel your check.

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Similar to healthy dogs, sick dogs need to eat in order to supply energy and nutrients for growth, for replacement and repair; as well as to meet an ever changing need. Nutritional requirements for a sick dog usually do not differ greatly from those of a healthy dog. A sick dog’s dietary needs, however, can become substantially different from those of a healthy dog.

Diseases in which a dog’s diet will need to be changed are often due to true nutritional diseases, in which the diet itself is responsible for the disease. Most of the true nutritional diseases are deficiency diseases. What this means is that they are diseases caused by a diet that contains an insufficient amount of one or more needed nutrients. Most of these diseases were the result of inadequate or improperly balanced home-made food. Since cost-effective commercial food became more and more nourishing, most of these deficiency diseases gradually disappeared. Vitamin or mineral deficiencies are rarely seen as a primary disease any more. Both vitamins and minerals are inexpensive and are needed in such small amounts that today, few commercial dog foods fail to contain them in adequate amounts.

Although energy and protein continue to be a problem with some dog foods, the number of brands that still contain insufficient fat or poor quality, indigestible protein become less and less every year. When a deficiency of fat occurs, it most often appears as an insufficient amount of total energy in the diet which results in weight loss, sluggishness, dry and dull hair coat, poor physical condition and, in some extreme cases, emaciation and uncontrolled diarrhea. A deficiency of essential fatty acids may also occur, although it is unlikely. The total amount of the fats most often used in commercial foods can drop to as low as 1% of the diet and that diet will still contain sufficient fatty acids. The only exception to this might be in cases of dry foods where larger quantities of fat have turned rancid.

When a deficiency of fatty acids does occur, it appears as a loss of weight and condition, a dry, dull coat, but more specifically as eroded areas on the skin. These will most likely show on the pads of the feet, between the toes and over the bony protuberances of the body where pressure reduces the blood supply. Although these erosions may superficially resemble “hot spots,” they differ from them in four major aspects such as: They do not respond to routine steroid therapy; they appear on both short-haired as well as long-haired dogs; they require an average of three months to heal; and adding fatty acids to the diet promotes their recovery, because a deficiency of fatty acids caused them.

A deficiency of protein in the diet is still sometimes seen. This causes weight loss and dull, dry hair coats. It may also produce anemia, reduce the body’s ability to cope with and recover from infections, and, if left neglected, will eventually lead to the dog’s death.

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Part of the canine greeting is to sniff and lick faces. Because people are so much bigger than they are, dogs try to bridge the gap by jumping up. Some people really dislike it when dogs, their own or someone else’s, jump on them. But dogs, on the other hand, do it all the time because they think they are being polite.

The next time you take your dog to the park, watch how he greets and is greeted by other
dogs. They start by sniffing each other’s mouths, then move around to sniff the back ends. All
of this is considered proper and polite behavior among dogs, and they assume it is the way they should greet people.

Dogs do not have any trouble sniffing our bottoms, they will do it all the time if given a chance. But the first part of the greeting, the mouth sniff, is not possible because we are so much taller than they are. Except for very short people with very tall dogs, the only way this is going to happen is if dogs get up on their hind legs.

While the first dogs were undoubtedly kept as companions, it probably did not take long to realize the working value of this newly-made friend. Even before the history of dogs was recorded, these pets were helping man for a variety of purposes, mainly to hunt for food. In those days, however, hunting was not a sport, but serious hard work.

Today the dog still helps man in his quest for food, but the nature of the job has taken on a different form. The dog still helps man to hunt, but for a different reason. Whatever the purpose or nature of the job, the performance of work always requires time expenditure of energy. As a consequence, every working dog’s primary dietary need is increased energy. Whenever dietary energy is increased, those B-complex vitamins, minerals, and the water necessary for burning the energy must also be increased.

Except for this increased need for energy and the nutrients to burn it, working dogs require most nutrients at no greater levels than non-working dogs. When working dogs eat large quantities of ordinary maintenance dog foods to obtain all of the energy they need, they frequently consume some of the nutrients in excessive amounts. Paradoxically, they may also eat such large quantities that the digestibility of all the nutrients in their diet are adversely affected and some nutrients may actually be obtained in inadequate amounts.

In other cases, a working dog simply cannot, physically, eat all of a food needed to supply its energy needs. In these instances the dog suffers from the lack of total digestible energy, and loses weight. If the condition is allowed to continue, the dog will reduce its activities in order to reduce its caloric demands. If the dog is forced to continue working at the same pace, it will lose weight faster and laster, and eventually work itself to death.

Herd Dogs are the most common working dogs that are fed in the United States. Herd Dogs are dogs that wattle or protect animals use the least amount of extra energy of any of the working dogs. They seldom are required to expend energy in excess of normal activity for any duration of time. Even their short-term expenditures of energy are not very great. The only time herd dogs ever utilize large amounts of energy are when they are rounding up strays, lost or semi-wild animals running at large.