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Forum Guru
 
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Last Login: 10/30/2008 11:07:11 AM
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| The first thing I would recommend is excercise, excercise, excercise. You also want to definitely cut down on the treats. I only feed my dogs treats maybe once a day if that on some days
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Junior Member
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Last Login: 2/24/2008 5:35:28 PM
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| Lucky you! My dog seems to never lose weight. I always try to give her exercise, but she stays the same weight. I think her being chubby is cute, but I know it isn't very good for her. Any tips?
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Junior Member
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Last Login: 6/24/2008 7:43:41 AM
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My dalmatian is 20 lbs over weight. We fed her table scraps and human food for the longest time. She's 9 now and has arthritis. I took her to the vet last month and they finally "yelled" at me for keeping her overweight.
My family is now trying to keep her weight down. She's lost 5 lbs already just by walking a mile twice a day and other activities. We decreased her food intake to 1 cup twice a day. I mix in carrots or apple slices with it. Sometimes we go for a long 2 mile walk up and down hills. I would run her, but I had knee surgery and have doctors orders not to.
If it's raining or too cold outside we hide one of her toys in the house and have her run around to find it. Once she found it, we congratulate her and then hide it again. Eventually she'll end up wearing herself out after a few hours.
A few problems I have is she tricks us to feeding her more. She'll eat breakfast with me, and then when I'm in the shower she'll whine to another member of my family. She'll also dig in the trash or eat stuff on our walks she finds in the grass. To fight back against her tricking us, we started marking the calendar once a day for breakfast and once for dinner, making an "X" by the end of the day.
If anyone has any other ideas, I'd like to know!
 Patricia and Vicious
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Supreme Being
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dalmatians are supposed to be between 59-65 pounds so 2 cups of food a day is probably not enough food for her. I would give her 3 cups of food 1 1/2 in the morning and 1 1/2 in the evening maybe give her some greenbeans in between meals. you can put part of her meal in a kong cover it with non fat yougurt and freeze it that way she has to work to get her meal. also on rainy days you can hide her food in different locations and have her find it
another thing I would watch how far and long you walk her 9 is old for a dalmatian the average life span of a dal is 10-12 years and since she already has arthritus I would try a gentle activity such as swimming. I have a 7 y/o sheltie that do to bad breeding is already developing arthritus and my vet says no strenous activity for her. gentle walks swimming is what she is allowed to do,she is also on glucosamine pills and vitamin c to help manage the problem.
 
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Member
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| I used to keep a full food bowl all the time. My dogs have always been kept active enough that I've never had a weight problem with any of them. After fido started getting less active due to age and the onset of arthritis, he went from a slender beautiful animal at 62lbs to a hulking fat beautiful beast of 93 lbs. He got to be a real hog-so much so, I started calling him hoggy dog or jelly roll joe.That's when I started looking into the incredibly confusing world of dog nutrition-which food?, how much food?,senior formula?, less active formula? what the heck is corn gluten?!?, why are the ingredients two paragraphs long?once a day or twice? HOLY COW!!!!!!!!!!! Well, I did use a less active product for a few months, but I started feeding him 2cups-twice daily. He is now-3 years later-at a decent weight of 81lbs. Not perfect, but he is healthier and happier and so am I, well happier that is.
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