Putting weight on/keeping it on

 You say he has access to food 24/7 - do you know how much he is actually eating?  I think free-feeding (leaving food out all the time) takes away the opportunity to monitor appetite in a dog, unless you keep a very close eye on how much/often you are refillng the bowl. 

Is he up to date on worming, and have you mentioned his weight to the vet as a concern?

He may not be eating enough because he simply expects the food to always be there.  If he's been checked by a vet and is healthy otherwise, I would try putting his food bowl down for 20 minutes and removing it if he doesn't eat, then trying again at the next mealtime.  He will learn to eat when the food is there, but once you do this moving back to free-feeding could be problematic.  

 You *should* be able to feel his ribs. You want him to be lean, not rolly polly, for his joint health.

I agree with feeding meals. Also, since you're switching to a higher quality food, he'll need less.

I have no idea how much he is eating daily. I do know he goes thru about 20lbs of food in a month or so. He is behind on his wormings. And he is due back at the vet sometime in the next month.

jennie_c_d

 You *should* be able to feel his ribs. You want him to be lean, not rolly polly, for his joint health.

I thought that you needed to out slight presure on the dog to feel his ribs.

I can feel them but just running my hand over them - no extra presure.

 Emma is just about right, for an active dog. She is double coated, but her coat is more "slick" than a typical Lab coat. You can *see* her ribs. You can't count them, but they're visible. If you have to press in, you're pressing through fat. An active dog shouldn't be carrying that much weight.

Ok.  But I still don't like the hip bones being visible. That's to thin IMO. I don't want him to gain 10lbs, just 5lbs or less.....

if he's going through 20 pounds of food a month we can calculate his calorie intact; I can't find the kcal/kg of gravy train but it's probably on the bag. 20 pounds is 9 kg; multiple 9 by the kcal/kg of the food and divide by 30 days. Most foods have somewhere around 3700 kcal/kg if that holds true for gravy train he's eating around 1000 kcal/day which seems quite low for a large dog but metabolisms do vary.

hip bones visible might be just lack of muscling from the poor quality food he's been eating, or possibly lack of exercise, I can't recall how much exercise he's been getting.

You really do want to be able to feel ribs when you pet a dog- should feel like running your hand over the back of a person's hand, you feel the bumps of the bones- and in a short-coated dog you should be able to see glimpses of them  as he moves about.

Over the past few weeks he's been having more time out of his kennel - playing with me and Taz, going on short walks.

It's not a new thing - he's always had trouble putting on weight and then keeping it.

It doesn't sound too skinny IMO. Esp. with larger dogs - I like to keep them more on the slim side, to keep the pressure off the hips so those do not become problematic later on.

You can easily feel Casey's ribs, you can slightly see them too if he bends at the right angle. If you have to push to feel them - you're probably feeling through the fat.

Adding muscle will help with the hip bones.

I have an issue with a Lab's weight in the sense that many Lab's I see are seriously overweight.  Most of the Labs I see in the show ring are too heavy, IMO and have zero muscle.  Lab's need to be kept lean.  All dogs are different in how they gain and maintain weight.  As has been said you need to start feeding a known quantity, twice a day.  Good that you are getting him on a better diet.  He may just be one of those dogs that burn a lot of calories.  He could be burning calories even in the kennel from stress or barking and running up and down the kennel.  I have had so many "Lab people" tell me my dogs are too thin but I knew they were healthy and I would rather have a dog too lean than too heavy.  I know some active Labs that have to eat 6 to 7 cups of high quality food a day to maintain a lean weight and others just as active who do fine on half that amount.  Feeding your dog his meals has other advantages when it comes to training.