Sad statistic at vets office/vent

We've also gotten the skinny comments about Jake.  I try to explain he's a sporting dog so he's supposed to have an athletic build, but I really want to shout that most dogs should be trim!  I had someone tell me that Jake is still a puppy and once he matures he'll get fat like all the others.  Huh?
 
Our neighborhood is full of fat labs and goldens.  Its really quite sad.

Ok, I keep reading the subject line as sadistic vets office and I'm wondering what you're doing to poor Ben [sm=eek.gif] []

When Wylie came to us the first thing I said was that he was NOT going to be overweight like the labs my family has had in the past. Even my dad's lab is obese and I just want to cry every time I see her. I try to talk to him about it but... well... sometimes parents just don't want to hear from kids [] We have the same vet and I'm disappointed that the vet hasn't mentioned it [:@]

Got it!  All of the dog pics I've posted above, their owners at one time or another were told that their dogs were fat, several of them by Vets who also frankly don't know breed type when they're looking at it. 

Ridiculous.

We need to come up with a wonderful retort to those who say Ben is too thin. Idiots!

I was watching the AKC animal planet show... and the lab in it was, I would not hesitate to call, obese. And the announcer guys said "The labrador retreiver needs some fat under the skin to help keep them warm when retreiving in cold water." and while I'm sure that's true to a certain extent. ... the amount of fat on this dog is not "some".

My Labrador is in great shape.

Having an ongoing "argument" with a guy where I work right now about this. His dog runs every day, but he obviously overfeeds, because the dog is a little fat. He's got no waist.

Owner says can you believe it? The vet says my dog is overweight. And I say Hmmm. And he says, "he's not overweight." And I don't say anything. And he asks me, "Do you think he's overweight?" And I say "Yeah. He's got no waist."

And now owner is all mad at me!

Okay, I guess I'll buy that bench labs (lately) are stocky and built low to the ground, and their coats make them look even stockier, but when you see them wobbling like an over exited walruss in hot pursuit of a tempting walruss lady, you can't tell me that this is not FAT.

If you can't feel the rib cage without sticking your finger through an inch of blubber, the dog is FAT...even if its a Neufy.

ORIGINAL: diane303

If you can't feel the rib cage without sticking your finger through an inch of blubber, the dog is FAT...even if its a Neufy.

Amen to that.

My oldest rottie is......... was fat.  He's lost 10 pounds or so since we moved.  We cut his food back.  We made him walk, but he has HD and too much exercise would leave him immobile for days.  Nothing we did made enough impact on his weight issues.  We did everything the vet suggested to no avail.
 
I totally understand your feelings.  I feel that way about people that breed their pet to make money with no concern at all for the puppies futures.  The people who refuse to S/N their pets out of stupidity, ignorance, or just plain greediness in not wanting to spend the money for it.  I feel that way about people who buy a cute little 6 week old puppy and don't bother to research the breed, don't groom them like they should, etc.  But please don't assume that every owner isn't bothering to get the weight off their dog.  I'd have given anything to get it off Baron, if it only gave me a lousy two more days with him.  I loved him so dearly.  Losing him was equivalent to losing part of my heart.  But nothing we did got that weight off.  Not every owner of an overweight dog is a lousy good for nothing piece of garbage.  I certainly don't think we've been.

I do realise sometimes there are reasons. My comments were based on my own personal encounters with owners of severely obese dogs who quite obviously ARE the type who don't care. I don't actually look at people who have a fat dog and automatically think "you're scum"...that's the opinion I form AFTER I've spoken to them.

I totally understand the challenges of trying to exercise a dog with HD or some other medical condition. For the purposes of this post, I was referring only to otherwise totally healthy, mostly young dogs who are allowed to get this way.

ORIGINAL: Benedict

I do realise sometimes there are reasons. My comments were based on my own personal encounters with owners of severely obese dogs who quite obviously ARE the type who don't care. I don't actually look at people who have a fat dog and automatically think "you're scum"...that's the opinion I form AFTER I've spoken to them.

I totally understand the challenges of trying to exercise a dog with HD or some other medical condition. For the purposes of this post, I was referring only to otherwise totally healthy, mostly young dogs who are allowed to get this way.

 
Ok, gotcha!!  []  Just wanted to make sure.  As you can see by the avatar, Baron was a rather big boy.  We did what we could.  Don't want someone thinking we failed him.  I was so desperate I started wondering if you could do lipo on a dog.  [8|]

I have a lab and lab mix and both of them live to eat.  Other than when Sassy was hypothyroid and I couldn't get her to drop any weight without starving her, I don't have trouble keeping her slim.  I feed her the same amount every day and the only treats she gets are carrots.  My lab mix is going to be 12 and although she's not overweight, I wish she were on the thinner side.  I worry more about her and hip/joint problems.  She will actually go in search of dog poo when she thinks she's being underfed though [&:]

Casey (lab) is 69 lbs. and very fit.  He swims 3-5 times/week, walks twice a day, has outside retrieve time every day and gets at least one visit to an off-leash dog park every week.  He has a waist.  But you're right...it's not easy with a lab!  Smudge (pug) is also rather trim and has a waist.  The vet thinks he's perfect right where he is.  But you know full well that I also get some pretty pointed comments from other pug owners about how underweight and "puny" he is.  This is, of course, from people who own fat little sausages with toothpick legs that can't walk more than three steps without breathing difficulties.

It's very difficult to keep an older arthritic dog fit.  I had a 15 year old golden.  The only thing that helped with her was that she lived to swim, and being non-weightbearing it was easy on her joints.

I totally agree that seeing obese dogs makes me so angry!! And I have seen a lot of fat labs too, but never owned a lab - Ben looks great to me, by the way. I get especially agitated when I see a fat pitbull because like many other dogs, they are supposed to be athletes and a barrel of a pitbull is so unappealing to me.  Both my dogs are just about 50 lbs and in great shape, they're a little skinny but no bones stick out or anything and they're real muscled up. I try really hard to maintain their shape.
** A friend of mine used to have the fattest golden retriever I ever saw.  They would litterally roll up slices of bread and feed them to the dog (just for fun I suppose) Who knows what else they gave that poor dog but seeing them throw him big hunks of bread was disgusting.

ORIGINAL: mrs1885


Ok, gotcha!!  []  Just wanted to make sure.  As you can see by the avatar, Baron was a rather big boy.  We did what we could.  Don't want someone thinking we failed him.  I was so desperate I started wondering if you could do lipo on a dog.  [8|]

No, my fault. I was venting and so incensed that I was not as clear as I could have been. Sorry about that. []