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The doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people.
— Orson Welles
Research shows that many dog owners of overweight dogs think/believe that their dog is at a healthy weight. And I notice this in practice as well. People are often very surprised when I tell them that their dog is overweight.
Overweight in dogs has risks. I will not go into too much detail in this blog. Fat is not just something that just sits there and does nothing. Fat makes hormone and inflammatory mediatiors. As a result, overweight dogs are more likely to have conditions including osteoarthritis, diabetes and cancer. Overweight dogs live on average two years shorter than dogs of normal weight.
Enough reasons to keep your dog fit and healthy. But how do you know if your dog is at the right weight?
The “body condition score” is used for this.
To score your dog, look at three points:
1) Look at your dog from the side. The line of the abdomen should run backwards, the “tummy tuck”.
2) When you look at your dog from above, a waist should be visible.
3) And if you feel the ribs you should be able to feel them easily with a very small layer of fat in between.
For feeling the ribs, it can be useful to feel your own hand. If you feel the skin over your knuckles (1) while making a fist that is how it feels when a dog is too skinny. The skin lies directly over the bone.
If you feel a relaxed hand over the top of your hand (2), that’s how it’s supposed to feel. You can easily feel the bone with a small layer in between.
If you now feel just above your wrist (3) that is how it feels when your dog is too fat. You can feel the bone but you have to push a bit harder and there is a thicker layer of tissue between the skin and the bone.
