Sad statistic at vets office/vent

I've been a lurker since getting my first dog some months ago but this topic hit a nerve and prompted my initial post - try having a healthy whippet!! I swear I don't remember the last time I didn't get a comment on one of our walks. The first 20 times I tried to educate people (and I still do with kids) but sure am tired of hearing I'm starving my (perfect weight) dog!

a very - very good friend of mine has bred and shown labs for 20 or more years.  She currently has a beautiful yellow 3 yr old male who is extremely successful in the ring - his dad was the top Westminster lab (don't know which year)
He has a beautiful head and temperament but he's fat.  I believe he was about 80 lbs for a long time (I think she said 23" or 24" withers) but when I saw them in April he was 90lbs!  I took him for a walk - keep in mind I'm used to turbo boy Bugsy - but this dog struggled to walk 2 miles with me. we took him to play fetch and he looked ridiculous running- I was aghast really.  I see my fair share of fat dogs and get the comments about Bugsy who is generally at a perfect weight or slightly under but I expected better from her as she is a serious lab owner/shower and previously breeder.
I also felt sad for him because he is such a sweetheart.
There certainly is a thing about saying i've got a big dog he/she weighs such and such though - people are proud to have a 100lb lab.  i don't get it at all - people are just ignorant

Ugh I also have a hard time seeing people with walruses on the end of the leash.  I volunteered at a kennel once when I was younger and I remember seeing the most overweight dog I've ever seen in my life - a Basset hound.  I remember wondering how on earth anyone could let a dog (a Basset no less, who already have back problems as it is) get THAT fat.  The poor thing could hardly move [] 

I have a hard time keeping Cairo at a decent weight but it's mostly because I'm away at college for a quite a few months out of the year and I'm the only one in the family who exercises him.  BUT he never gets fat, really just a little chunky.  At the moment I've almost gotten him down to his ideal I think - he has a nice prominent waist and you can feel his ribs nicely (though there's a slight layer of pudge there that's got to go).  Now Nikki on the other hand, we tend to get comments for on a fairly regular basis.  She LOOKS totally 'average' because of her fluffy Golden coat, but when you actually get your hands on her and start petting her...well heck, her spine juts out, her hips stick out, and her ribs are most definitely there...and she's not underweight!  She's just got a sighthound body - it's how she's built.  People tell us ALL the time that we're starving our 'underfed Golden'.  [8|]  At least my 10 year old dog can keep up with me on my bike []

Kate, I feel your pain!  I have a "skinny" doberman.  I am constantly having to listen to other Dobe owners tell me how thin Bevo is.  Ummm, I don't know how to nicely tell them that Bev isn't thin, their dogs are just fat.  It drives me crazy.
 
 

Haha, I was having arguments with my sisters regularly a while back, because every time they saw Cherokee, they'd say "Wow, she's so skinny!" Erm..no, she's NOT skinny, she's PERFECT. Your dogs are just OBESE. 
 
Cherokee belonged to my oldest sister before me, and one day she actually had the gall to say "She looks almost as skinny as she did when I first got her!" Okay Suz, sure, she was 45 pounds when you got her, and here she is at FIFTY EIGHT, yeah, I'm sure she's "almost as skinny". [:@]
 
Meanwhile, every time my sister's pit actually gets down to a decent weight, where he has RIBS again, she thinks that means she should feed him twice as much food. So what happens? His weight flucuates CONSTANTLY. Bit overweight to obese, back down to good, and then up to sausage. It's really sad.

Well, I got told my Shepherd mix was slightly overweight. He's mostly Shepherd but mixed with something big as he's much bigger than a purebred Shepherd should be. He was 107 pounds and looked great. He's lost 2 pounds, I think that's due to all the stress from the surgery he had to remove a lump on his head and a complication after surgery. I told other people that had known him since he was a puppy and all of them said he looked great.

Then there's my Aussie, she's always flucuated between 38-42 pounds, gained some weight in the winter. She just now filled out and is at 42 pounds. And my vet didn't say a thing about her being overweight. I don't see her as overweight as you can still feel her ribs easily.

I don't want my animals to be obese or too skinny, but I don't appreciate my vet telling me my dogs overweight when he's not.
 
But I do understand where you're coming from. I worked at 2 kennels and saw some overweight dogs come in. One was a Sheltie who was so fat it could have been an end table. It's back was seriously that wide.

 
Shiva

Ok, I keep reading the subject line as sadistic vets office

hhehehe!!  Me, too.
 
My sister's lab got pretty portly, but she got it back under control and he is definitely in the "fit" category
 
Fat Dobermans make me ill. Don't brag about your 120lb Dobe!  This is a MEDIUM-SIZED breed.  It's horrifying to see.  The biggest Dobe I ever met was 135lbs.  After the diet she had lost almost 75lbs. THAT IS TWO DOGS in ONE body. 

g33 if i were just shown those pics you posted i would have said those Labs(especially the last one) were overweight show dogs.
I have no idea what a bench bred Lab is.Is it a Lab bred for the showing bench?

When I left Max and Georgie at the kennel a few weeks ago, they told me Max was really scarfing his food, and that there was no way I was giving him enough. So, they gave him a little more food, and then he was better. There were two other dogs in the office when I picked them up, probably about half his weight, but in my opinion, slightly over weight. They were telling me that the amount of food I was giving him was an amount for those dogs. Umm... it's Evo. Yes, I know it's still significantly less than the amount suggested on the bag. When I started feeding him it, I used that amount, and he started getting chubby. Yes, at home he does get a chicken wing or two in addition to the food most of the time. But, sometimes he doesn't, sometimes he is exhausted and goes to bed without eating. Max is not underweight, he does not need twice as much food. Those other dogs though, they could afford to lose a few pounds.

The vet we used to have, had on his reception desk, a preserved dog heart surronded by fat. Right next to it, was a blob of fat, that weighed 5 or 10 pounds (I forget which now). It got the message across about how much weight a poor dog carried around, and what it did to his/her heart.

Amy

I found those pictures posted of labs very interesting. To me those are "fat". But maybe because I personally do NOT like that look at all. To be honest it reminds me of Halter Horses. I don't know if anyone here has knowledge of halter horses, but they breed to form (beefy looks!) and NOT function. most of these horses can't canter. And cannot be ridden due to how unbalanced they are. Why? Just for looks! People take things to a huge extreme. Like those show labs g33 posted...how functional are they? what is their purpose? Have we forgotten what a labs purpose was because "we" have to take everything to such an extreme in our culture?

Now, I haven't seen these labs in person, so maybe they just have a really thick coat. But that doesn't look like a sporting lab to me...so did someone reinvent what a lab is supposed to be? If so, i'd love to be educated about it...

more on topic: I totally agree with the Benedict's original post, and think your dog is absolutely stunning (coming from a generally speaking non-lab fan [])

ORIGINAL: AnimalLover505


more on topic: I totally agree with the Benedict's original post, and think your dog is absolutely stunning (coming from a generally speaking non-lab fan [])

Thank you! I think he's a pretty handsome guy. []

ORIGINAL: Edie

I have no idea what a bench bred Lab is.Is it a Lab bred for the showing bench?

That's exactly what it is. There is a DRASTIC difference between bench bred (show) labs and field bred (gun dog type) labs. The division is so extreme they are almost 2 different dogs, and while you can have a bench bred lab who achieves both show and field titles, there is concern in the lab world that the labs which are now being judged as "the standard" are completely unable to do the job a lab was bred for in the first place.

g33 if i were just shown those pics you posted i would have said those Labs(especially the last one) were overweight show dogs.

ditto!

i guess i prefer the sleeker look of a gun dog. those dogs dont look like they could hunt all day that is for sure.

ORIGINAL: griffinej5

When I left Max and Georgie at the kennel a few weeks ago, they told me Max was really scarfing his food, and that there was no way I was giving him enough. So, they gave him a little more food, and then he was better. There were two other dogs in the office when I picked them up, probably about half his weight, but in my opinion, slightly over weight. They were telling me that the amount of food I was giving him was an amount for those dogs. Umm... it's Evo. Yes, I know it's still significantly less than the amount suggested on the bag. When I started feeding him it, I used that amount, and he started getting chubby. Yes, at home he does get a chicken wing or two in addition to the food most of the time. But, sometimes he doesn't, sometimes he is exhausted and goes to bed without eating. Max is not underweight, he does not need twice as much food. Those other dogs though, they could afford to lose a few pounds.

 
The thing about this that a lot of people don't get is that you aren't required to feed what the recommended amount is on the dog food bag. I don't remember where I heard it first, but I know my dog's obedience instructor has said this. Some dogs need more if they are very active dogs and unactive dogs need less or they'll gain weight.
 
Then you have dogs like my Aussie. She's what I call my anorexic/bulemic(sp?) dog. She doesn't always eat every day so she starves herself and she starves herself so long she'll throw up. So I have to occasionally make her eat at least a half a cup with something mixed in it so she doesn't throw up. Then if she feels like it she'll eat more.
 
My mom's Staffy is overweight, not a lot as she's not obese. But she is a lazy dog and my mom can't always get her out for walks and she can't go to the dog park as she doesn't like other dogs. The being overweight is partly my mom's fault as her dog doesn't overeat her dog food, but my mom has this stupid idea that the dogs deserve treats on their food every once in a while. Yeah, great, that's fine but........ My mom will put the treat in a FULL bowl of food instead of taking most out and then the dog will over eat to get as much of the treat as possible out of the food or to get all the food that tastes like the treat. If I know she's doing this, I'll take most of the food out of my dogs bowls so they only have a half a cup to a cup of food for the treat to be mixed into. Then my mom will constantly give her dog human food and "special" dog treats before she goes to bed. She wants her dog to loose weight, but yet she's hindering all efforts she's taking by doing this. Some people just don't get it.
 
Shiva