Talk Big Tuesday - Overweight Dogs

People with overweight dogs and are blind to it are really starting to aggravate me. How can you not see that your Dachshund looks more like a stick of baloney with toothpicks for legs? How can you look at your Border Collie and not see that it resembles the good year blimp instead of the fine tune and sleek working dog it’s supposed to be? I don’t care if it’s “only” a house dog and doesn’t need to be at “working weight”, fact is it is incredibly unhealthy and unfair to your dog. This is a man made problem and completely unavoidable. You want to know why your 2 year old baloney stick dog is limping and has a has constant back issues? Because it is morbidly obese, you are killing your dog. Why does your 3 year old dog have issues with stairs and can’t even get up off the floor some days? Because it is overweight, the body of that dog was never designed to carry that much weight, you are hurting your dog and you are killing your dog. The "it's only a few pounds", don't try to down play it, even as little as 5lbs extra on a Beagle sized dog can cause issues, that's like an average sized person packing on an extra 20lbs.

It is not “more to love”, it is not “all muscle”, they are not “fluffy” or “big boned” and it definitely isn't cute. They are overweight, obese, fat unhealthy and dying. I look at a picture of a dog that is grossly overweight and I don’t think it’s cute at all. I can’t even bring myself to comment or like it. That saying of if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all is put to work and I just scroll past it. If I happen to encounter an overweight dog I seriously want to cry, I look at that poor dog and feel so bad for it. I don’t doubt the dog isn’t loved, so don’t pull the “well we love our dog so don’t make us out to be bad owners”. I’m not saying you’re a bad owner, I’m saying your dog blind, you can’t see that your own dog, that furry little member of your family you love is suffering silently because you are killing it with kindness. It needs to stop, up the exercise, stop the extras, decrease the amount of food, change the food and get a check up at the vet to rule out a medical problem or side effect of a medication causing the weight and do something to address it.

If you love them you’ll get them back on the road to a proper weight, so they can be happy, healthy and around for a long time.