Examine well the content of the food you give your dog. Is it full of fillers and animal by-products? Or is it made with wholesome healthy ingredients? Have you investigated if the BARF (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food) diet could work for you to prepare? From here you can fine many links to the BARF diet.
Stave off allergies and degenerative diseases, keep a shiny coat with good nutrition.
Dogs with ideal body weight condition are in the best position to have long, healthy lives, and are more likely to experience a delay in the need for treatment of certain health conditions compared to dogs that are too heavy.
Healthy lean:
- Rib Check: Place both of your thumbs on your dog's backbone and spread both hands across his rib cage. On an obese dog, you won’t be able to feel the ribs through the fat covering, or will only be able to feel them when you exert significant pressure. Actually feeling your dog is important, as the coat of many dogs will make a visual check difficult.
- Profile Check: Examine your dog's profile – it’s best if you are level with the dog. In an obese dog, the stomach will hang down and there will be no abdominal tuck behind the rib cage.
- Overhead Check: Looking at your dog from overhead, see if you can see a waist behind the ribs. An overweight dog will not have a discernible waist.
Dry dog food: Diamond Pet Foods - lamb meal and rice
about 1 ½ to 2 cups/day, sometimes less, depending how many treats she got during training that day.
Canned: Dogswell Happy Hipps - grain free Lamb & Sweet potato
- 1 can in the evening with a cup or 1/ ½ cup of dry
she LOVES to lick out the can afterwards.
- 1 beef neck bone – 5-7 times a week – she LOVES a bone/chew – she did get it on her leash outside. I think a bit of raw meat as well as a bone is good for her. Meat was frozen for 3 days, and she handled it very carefully. Supervised.
- ½ can of sardines daily – the oils really helped with her fur and skin, is supposed to be good for joints too. Alternative is oil supplements.
- 1 raw egg with her dry food for breakfast maybe 3 times a week.
- treats: varied – somewhat desirable are cooked chicken innards and cheese, all else will sort of do, but in obedience class, it had to be high end treats.
Tired & happy after hours of digging around the same tree trunk- a tired dog is a good dog.
Lack of adequate exercise is the cause for many many dog troubles.
Make sure the dog you get does not have a higher energy level than you do - or that you have other ways to exercise him/her.
Find veterinarian you trust! get an initial check up.
There are a number of preventive medical products out there. Make sure you cover heartworm and ticks & fleas. After initial check up with the Vet and a de-worming, this is what we used:
- K-9 Adventix II - tick & flea prevention
- Tri-Heart PLUS - heartworm prevention
- Rabies shots
Being overweight is going to lead to health degeneration years earlier, may lead to hip problems, pancreatitis. Be aware of specific health issues the dog breed may have.
Consider health insurance - vet bills can be in the thousands.
