Keeping your Dog at the Right Weight
By HollywoodPet.net |
Sun, 10 Dec 2006
Although keeping your dog at a proper weight sounds like an easy task, the overfeeding of pets continues. Part of loving your pet is being a good manager of your dogs health and well being. Going back to the basics is always a good idea for keeping you and your pet happy and healthy.
Exercise your dog.
Excercising your pet every day for 30 minutes or more is a sound practice that will help avoid long term health problems. You will feel better too.
Measure your dogs food.
A plastic measuring cup is the perfect tool for being a good manager of your dogs health. If your dogs weight increases or decreases, the measuring cup is a sure fire way to keep everything in check. Remember dogs eat everything and will eat all the time. Limit your dogs food supply to keep the right weight.
Limit the number of people who feed the dog.
Overfeeding often times comes from too many people feeding the dog each day. Come to an agreement in your home about when and how much food is given to your dog. As simple as it sounds, it is a common source of confusion.
Adjusting feeding.
Adjust feeding if your dog is a senior citizen or one of the many breeds that tend to put on weight with age. Thicker dogs need to be monitored more closely as they become older. A lot of the young muscular dogs can become overweight easily. The metabolism of older dogs slows down too, leading to weight gain. Make small adjustments until you get it right.
Watch your dogs diet.
Fatty foods, table scraps and dog food that is poorly matched for the age of your dog, can all contribute to your pet being overweight. Limit what is given to your dog and make sure you give a balanced diet to prevent deficiencies.
Unchecked feeding of your dog can lead to the development of health problems. An overweight dog is more vulnerable to diseases from being overweight. Keeping a well balanced diet will prevent diet deficencies. Good exercise rounds out the equation to make sure you have a happy and healthy pet.
