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Are my dogs underweight?


monicah
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When I got Zimba in July he was 55lbs and very fat. I exercised him in the woods 1,5-2 hours every day and I fed him kibbles that I bought at my Vet office. He gradually lost weight and now he weights 37lbs. He looks great in my eyes! He also has some muscles after all the running in the woods. :D Now my mother thinks he's too thin! :rolleyes: Other people have made comments that he has lost a lot of weight since the first time they saw him. I thought a healthy looking dog is supposed to be a bit thinner than what we usually consider thin on a dog. I can feel his ribs when I stroke his sides but I can't see them.

Here are recent pics of Zimba:

 

post-9057-1235304002_thumb.jpg post-9057-1235304009_thumb.jpg

 

My mother also thinks Kira is too thin. She's 9 months and weights 33lbs. I got worried when she told me this. Maybe I'm not feeding my dogs enough? I feed them twice a day and they also get some extra treats when I train them.

Here's a pic of Kira:

 

post-9057-1235304307_thumb.jpg

 

Here's a pic of both my underweight dogs :D :

 

post-9057-1235304915_thumb.jpg

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They both look good to me! If you can feel his ribs but not other bones, I'd say he's at a good weight. I think we do usually see dogs who are heavier than they should be, and we get used to it. I'd say a slender-average dog is healthier than a high-average dog. (I'd say the same for humans, too... though I wish I could achieve slender-average myself!)

 

My dog was 36 pounds when he came home from the shelter, and for him that was incredibly thin. But at that weight, you could feel the knobs on the tops of his thighs jutting out, the ridges on all his vertebrae - could feel every bone in his body. After only a couple weeks of no parasites, good food, and exercise, he completely lost that boniness. He went up to 43ish pounds and has been hovering there ever since. (It was actually kind of fun to watch him pop out - first his thigh muscles grew, all out of proportion to the rest of him. Then he slowly filled out, back to front. His chest was the last thing to develop.)

 

Mary

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No, I can't feel other bones. I guess the weight is fine then! :rolleyes: I was thinking of bringing both of them with me to the Vet because Kira hasn't lost her last puppy tooth. I'll ask the Vet what she thinks of their weight just to be sure.

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Monicah,

Your dogs sound fine to me. You should be able to feel the ribs when rubbing your hands lightly down their sides. They should have a definite waist when viewed from the side and from the top. If they are too thin, as Mary said, you'd be able to easily see their backbones and ribs and their hip bones would likely be sticking up. If they look good to you and have plenty of energy and good coats and bright, happy demeanors, then they are probably just fine. Here in the US at least, as a society, we tend to overfeed and underexercise our pets. Overwieght is considered "normal" even when it shouldn't be. I was at the vet office a while ago with one of my younger dogs who is an extremely picky eater. She may be just a bit thin, but she's fit and healthy. These two kids were standing there with their parents and two extremely obese (not just slightly overweight, but glaringly fat) dogs and I heard one of the kids say to the parents that my dog was awful thin. I had to bite my tongue to keep from responding with something like "Only in comparison to your overly fat dogs." People just don't have a clue about healthy weights in general, for themselves or their pets.

 

Most people I know prefer to keep pups and youngsters on the thin side as they're growing. No roly poly puppies! A number of scientific studies have shown that thinner animals tend to live longer, healthier lives. Especially with youngsters, whose joints are still growing, the less weight stress you put on them the better (that is, a thinner dog will stress the joints less).

 

J.

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Your dogs look great. Our vet always makes a comment when Ceana and Poke come in they are some of the few dogs he sees at the correct weight. I think people get caught up in the idea that food = love, and if you are not over indulging the one that you love you aren't loving hard enough. Your youngest is still at the end of her gangly stage as well. My girl stopped growing a 6 months and all of a sudden, 1 year later, she filled out. She will probably start putting on more pounds without really changing "size," too mouch. No worries, and don't let your mom stress you out.

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I agree, your dogs look great! I think not only do people tend to overfeed their dogs, but they under-exercise them too, so even if the dogs aren't extremely over-weight their muscle tone is soft so they have that butter ballish look instead of the cut muscle look.

 

I've had people say my dogs were thin too, my Dad is the worst and is constantly sneaking them cheap gross treats when they are over their visiting, but both my dog vet and horse vet are very please w/ their weight, and the dog vet wishes all his clients had lean trim dogs. I would just ignore the comments, they look active and healthy w/ great coats.

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Thanks for the comments! I have told my mother what you have written here and she says that she's probably so used to seeing overweight dogs. I will remember some of the replies here the next time someone is commenting on my skinny dogs. I know that Zimba is not losing more weight even if I feed him the same amount of kibbles and exercise him 2 hours every day. I'll continue to check Zimba and make sure he doesn't lose more weight. :rolleyes:

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Guest maya's mom

I think your dogs look great too. Maya is 14 months old and is 37 pounds. Our vet always comments on how great she looks, b/c like every one said, most dogs are overweight. From what I've read, it seems there is a fairly decent acceptable weight range for BC's and your are within that. They are beautiful!

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