is your dog's weight appropriate? (pics included)

 Look fine to me. Now I know Lillie is too skinny. You can see her hip bones. Trying to work on that. Your dogs look great to me.

haha wyatt does look fat when he sits but obviously he's in great shape. They both are.

I call Dakota flabby - she doesn't have any muscle tone anymore. She's about 54 lbs now. Ideally she should be about 50. She always looks really heavy in the winter because she has at least 2 inches of fur around her entire body.

Dakota pic from today:

During the summer I was feeding Neiko 4 cups a day and he was barely staying at a good weight. So far this winter, I've cut him back down to 2-2.5 cups per day because he's not running as much. He's looking a little chunkier but that is just his winter fur kicking in 

Neiko pic from today:

it's  hard to tell from a pic of kaiser cause of the fur, but wyatt does look a bit overweight- with a coat like that, in the action shot you should be able to see a hint of ribs and you can't. Could be the pic of course.

I think they look great - but they are some of my favorites

I think that Kaiser is one of those tall lean gsd's a friend of mine had a male like that and Wyatt reminds me of Bugs in that he is quite muscular.

Bugsy looks like a wide boy when he sits but he is pretty darn lean.  When I was playing with his yesterday I noticed that when he dips his head down his most of his backbone is visible, vertebrae by vertebrae.  If I could catch Bugsy in a pose like that with Wyatt you'd see some his ribs underneath

best recent shots I have are

wow jewilee, that's a lot of snow!! Yeah, you can really only see Wyatt's first 4 ribs when he's walking...let's see what other pics i can find.

oh, and here's skinny kaiser

Yes they are at appropriate weights. That's saying a lot considering my breed is one NOTORIOUS for being a bit fat almost all the time!

I often worry about Butter's weight. People (total strangers!!) often comment about how "skinnky" she is (and of course they always have a seriously FAT dog!). I think she looks alright, she doesn't have a bit of fat on her, but she doesn't look sick or anything. She is 23" and 63lbs.

 Butters weight looks perfect to me.

all of my dogs are fine working weights... no rolls on them.. when Bo and Mattie first came here they were a couple of chunkers... but my cousin left food down for them all the time.. i've done that before, but that was when we just had Kaydee and she was still Super Dog with energy left to burn..

When my cousin came to get Bo the guy she was with thought he looked skinny... but thats probably because about 70% of the bulldogs you see are couch potato house dogs... Bo had a hint of rib, and was slick from head to toe..

a little bit of chub on a dog probably isnt a BAD thing...all out obese is very bad.. probably says a lot about the owner too. what was that phrase we had a while back? Treat slinging weenie?   ..just kidding! i'm probably using that in the wrong context as usual!

bulldogs are easily indulged. i have yet to meet a healthy bulldog turn down a bag of treats, or a bowl of potato chips, OR a steak dinner left unattended.. plus a bag of dog food.. i've been told hounds are the same kind of gluttons. will eat till they pop.. my aunt told me when she was a little girl they had a coon hound that was ALWAYS hungry.. so she decided one day to feed him until he wasnt hungry.... almost a whole bag of chow and an hour later the hound was still munching even though his ribs were about to burst.. which sounds just like my bulldogs..
 

Cherokee's slightly chubby at the moment. I've switched her food a lot in the past couple months, and every time I do it takes me a week or two to figure out how much to feed her.. Turns out my estimate is usually too much. She was 65 pounds at her vet visit last month. She's a 60 pound (tops) dog. I'm guessing she's around 62 or 63 now, so we're getting there.

What you see hanging down on her belly is JUST skin, not fat, but she's got a little layer of fat around her ribs.

And yeah, GOD FORBID you look at the camera, dog!!

Kaiser looks great to me!  I don't mind a few ribs on a well-toned GSD and I don't see ribs on him.  He's a very tall and lean dog, sort of a Dutch Shepherd look.  I can't comment on Wyatt since I know nothing about RRs. 

I get comments on Kenya all over the board. GSD people tell me she looks great.  Other dog people have told me they appreciate seeing a moderately sized GSD whose "butt isn't dragging on the ground."  She's fairly toned and I keep her quite lean for agility.  She is not very heavy boned for a GSD.  I would like to put more muscle on her, get her a bit more toned especially around her waist, but the weather at the moment is making that difficult.  Other people tell me she is too skinny.  My GSD friends and I have a joke that when a non-GSD person tells you your GSD is "too skinny", you know she's the perfect weight.  I can sometimes see ribs, but never pelvic bones or spine.  When she is playing (stretched out) she looks rib-y, but when she is still or at rest, she looks thicker.  Because of the coat pattern on a sable dog, they often have more noticeable ribs, especially a very short, tight coated dog like Kenya.  Right now she is eating more food than the recommended amount for her age/weight.

Pics of Kenya from this morning, trying to navigate a fresh foot of snow:

I'm not endorsing these dogs in particular, but they are examples of what I like to see as far as a well toned, balanced dog and look, you can see ribs on some.  Some people freak out about ribs, but if the dog is very active and well toned, I don't see the problem.

Yes, Ben is at an appropriate weight, and like Gina's dogs, he's of a breed (though a different one than Gina's) that is notorious for being on the chunky side.  My vet actually told me that he's the only lab registered with them that is of a perfect weight.

He is several pounds heavier than he was in the spring but none of it is fat, agility has done a lot for putting more muscle on him.  

This is an issue I am kind of weird about, just because I know that labs are so often overfed that people see a really heavy one as being the norm.  He's also a field lab, so he's supposed to be lankier than a show lab.  I do get strangers telling me he's too skinny, I've had to learn to just let that roll off my back.  I challenge anyone to make Ben fat anyway LOL.  He's just way too active.

I do increase his food a little in the winter because he's just as active as he is in the summer, but needs a little more fuel to help stay warm. 
 

 Rascal's a good weight, I think. He varies, but is usually pretty constant around 7.5 pounds. He's about 10.5" high at the shoulder and about 12" long from his "withers" to the base of his tail.