How to keep your greedy dog trim!
I introduced you to Hattie, my 5-year-old rescue Jack Russell in last month’s Lecker Bites blog. In it, I touched on the challenges I’ve had with her weight.
Hattie isn’t particularly interested in tennis balls, tug toys, agility, or any of the other things that we’re encouraged to entertain our dogs with. But food, well that’s a different story. Having a food-focused dog has its advantages - it’s great when you’re training your dog. But a pain in the proverbial if you have a greedy dog who’s got a tendency to put on and maintain excess weight.
I have a very greedy small dog, and this in itself is a problem.
Does a raw diet equal a slim dog?
Once I’d made the decision to switch Hattie to a raw diet I was really disappointed that she didn’t become a super-slim Crufts standard model overnight. I was always told that once I fed her a raw BARF diet she’d lose her excess weight. And while I think that processed diets are responsible for most of the obesity problems in dogs, feeding a natural, raw diet isn’t a magic bullet, unfortunately.
Disappointingly it seems that dogs are much like humans - it’s not all about what you eat, it’s also about how much you eat. Sigh…
Calculating the right amount to feed
Luckily for Hattie, I find anything to do with maths and numbers rather challenging (apparently it has a posh name - ‘Dyscalculia’). I say it’s lucky for Hattie because it means I’ve often overfed her, sometimes for long stretches of time.
Right from the start, I found the whole thing confusing. I spent ages slaving over kitchen scales and calculators trying to get the amounts of food right. Each product I bought had different instructions, and they all fluctuate wildly. One food brand’s feeding guidelines for Hattie’s size recommends between 400g and 600g of food a day. There’s a big difference between these amounts, and it doesn’t take into account calories. And if I fed her the lowest recommended amount every day she’d end up resembling one of those zeppelin-shaped dogs, and would be seriously overweight, not just a little podgy like she is now.
Even the seemingly helpful feeding calculators on most pet food websites differ enormously. Another problem with these calculators is that they ask you to enter your dog’s current weight, not their ideal weight. I didn’t cotton on to this for ages. So I ended up overfeeding Hattie even when I switched her over to a natural, raw food diet. As you can imagine, Hattie didn’t mind!
At least Lecker Bites BARF patties make it easier to calculate how much to feed. Less maths involved - all I have to do is count the patties and remember they’re the equivalent of 35g of raw food. Hurrah!
Unsolicited advice and dog ownership
So why is Hattie still about half a kilo overweight? I’m not entirely sure of the answer to that, but you can bet I’ve had plenty of opinions and advice over the last few years about why Hattie has a tendency to be a fatty.
Since adopting her nearly 5 years ago I've been subject to a never-ending stream of opinions and advice about all aspects of dog ownership.
What I should feed her
How I should train her,
When and how I should punish her
How long I should leave her on her own
What harness I should use?
If I should send her to doggy daycare
When she should be off the lead
Why she should never be off the lead.... and of course loads of unsolicited advice about her weight, appearance, and diet. I even had a complete stranger point at her and loudly pronounce “that dog is fat”. Thanks, mate, that’s really helpful. And really rude.
I assume this type of unsolicited advice is similar to what parents have to put up with when people tell them how they should be bringing up their children.
Some of the, ahem, ‘advice’ I’ve had over the years about Hattie’s weight has included:
‘Just starve her for a day or two, dogs are fine if they don’t eat for that length of time’
‘Feed her once a day’
‘Feed her a tiny bit of meat and bulk out the rest of her meal with vegetables’
‘Feed her less protein and more carbs’
‘Try Hill’s Science Plan kibble for overweight dogs’
‘Halve her daily amount of food’
And on and on it goes.
Some, all, or none of these may work. At least four of these I dismissed immediately (can you guess which ones?).
A windy problem
I did try reducing the amount of meat I fed her and bulked out her food with vegetables. The results were mixed. Some of those results were rather whiffy if you get my drift. As a dog who’s not prone to excess windiness, it was a bit of a shock to both Hattie and I when the effects of the broccoli took hold. Tres embarrassing, eh Hattie?
Nocturnal rumblings
There was also another unfortunate side effect of increasing Hattie’s vegetable intake and also reducing the overall amount of food she got for her evening meal. I was regularly woken up in the night by a distressed and uncomfortable dog, desperate to go outside and eat grass. Which was rather inconvenient as I don’t have my own garden.
A low point was standing on a main road in East London in the early hours with juggernauts thundering past while Hattie desperately tried to find some plant matter to digest among a sea of concrete and tarmac.
There are lots of reasons why dogs eat grass, but there’s no doubt Hattie’s nocturnal grass guzzling was to soothe her upset stomach. If I hadn’t been woken up by her flinging herself at the front door in an attempt to get to some grassy substance I’d have been roused from my slumbers by the unearthly rumbling sound coming from Hattie’s tummy. Poor Hattie!
Several sleepless nights and much googling later, and I discovered that raw fed dogs, in particular, can suffer from excess stomach acid several hours after they last eat. This is because they digest their food quicker, and don’t have carbs or fillers to slow down the process.
The overwhelming advice was to feed her something later at night, often just before bedtime. So now I had another problem: how do I keep Hattie’s calorie intake down while trying to fill her tummy enough to keep her going until the morning? I didn’t want to feed her main evening meal at bedtime - she’s used to being fed as Big Ben strikes 6 pm. And I think leaving her meal this long would just cause the same build-up of excess acid because of her empty stomach. So this meant I’d needed to give her more food or treats, not less!
I’m always told that for every extra treat, chew, or piece of food I give Hattie (or she comes across on the pavement) I should subtract the number of calories from her main meals. Percentages are often quoted. There’s something called ‘the 10% rule’ where treats should make up no more than 10% of your dog’s daily calories. Other calculations are mentioned. I find them all baffling, and nearly impossible to stick by, because it’s difficult to keep track of the calories in every treat. It doesn’t matter how healthy the treat or chew - this goes for carrots, green beans, broccoli, kale, etc. They all contain calories and they all need to be calculated. So it’s a bit of a guessing game at the moment when I give Hattie her ‘bedtime biscuit’ that it’s not too much, but does the trick and stops her gaseous tummy waking us both up! Looking for low calorie snacks? Check here
So what’s the answer, apart from me going back to school and sitting my maths ‘O’ level again?
Trial and error - Hattie’s weight loss plan
All dogs are different, just like all humans are. Generalising about what and how much they should eat is fine as a rough guideline, but it’s not an exact science. And I so wanted it to be. I still want someone to tell me exactly what I should be feeding her and when. And I’d like them to work out the weights, calories, and percentages too, please.
But this is my responsibility, and if Hattie is overweight it’s because I am feeding her too much. So I’m now adopting a trial and error approach to her diet, with the help of Lecker Bites’ Manuela, who’s drawn up a helpful weight loss plan. Manuela’s advice is to feed her a certain amount of food, weigh her weekly, and adjust the food according to the results we see on the scales.
Although this is still a work in progress, we’re getting there. Hattie’s lost about 700g so far and has about another 700g to go. Some weeks she puts on a 100-200g, other weeks it goes down. And on these weight loss weeks, I have to resist the strong urge to give her a treat to celebrate her weight loss. Sound familiar?! Are you training your dog with treats? Read our guide
Have you had similar experiences with your pooches expanding waistlines?
Let us know about your dog's weight loss struggles!