I’m infamous among my friends and colleagues for asking people if they are aware that their dogs are overweight. It’s because I have seen firsthand how fat dogs suffer in their senior years when they are too heavy to exercise without pain! And their burden of carrying extra pounds makes the ordinary aches and pains of arthritis even worse.
AND YET, I have to give myself a stern talking-to from time to time about helping my older dog stay trim.
Like many of us, when 9-year-old Woody was young, I could feed him any amount of food and he would just burn it right off; he was a highly active, athletic dog. But he’s older now, and his metabolism has slowed. He gains weight really easily now if I take my eye off the ball and slim him a few too many training treats, table scraps, and (especially), a little too much kibble in his bowl twice a day.
For years now, I’ve been using the same coffee cup to scoop the food for both he and 3-year-old Boone. Boone is a little smaller than Woody, but for the past few years, he has been receiving the same-sized scoop of kibble—initially because he was a growing puppy, and growing dogs need more calories per pound of body weight to support that growth, and more recently, because he’s naturally much more active than Woody is.
Woody used to run everywhere he went—even just from the sofa to the kitchen! But today, he only occasionally launches into a brief burst of zoomies; he tends to walk with the humans on our hikes, rather than with Boone and any other younger dogs who run ahead and run back and run ahead again for the entire hike.
So Woody is definitely burning fewer calories than Boone is, and for the past six months or so, I’ve really needed to reduce his portion of food a little, to prevent his weight gain. All I really need to do is scoop a tiny bit less for Woody’s serving than I scoop for Boone’s bowl—big deal! Except, I can’t seem to do this consistently! And the problem is that dang coffee cup!
Like most coffee cups, it contains more than an actual cup of food, which was fine when that exact amount of food—heaped maybe just a tad above level—held just the right amount of food to hold Woody’s weight steady. But today, Woody really should be getting a little less than a level scoop in that cup—and there is my problem. How many pieces of kibble is the difference between a heaped cup, a level cup, and just a bit less than a level cup? How much less should he be getting?
The answer is: The amount should not be measured in cups—a coffee cup or any other kind! I need to start weighing both dogs’ food—not relying on a hurried glance to calculate the right amount. And the stupid thing is, I already have a kitchen scale that would make this task simplicity itself!
To make sure I absorbed the lesson I already know (but have been ignoring), I weighed the amount of food in my coffee cup/scooper when it was slightly heaped full of the kibble I am currently feeding, the amount of a level coffee cup full, and the amount I have been trying to feed (a little less than a full coffee cup). I also counted the individual pieces of kibble that made up each difference. My results:
A heaped cup (my coffee cup/scooper) contains 7.02 oz of the kibble I am currently feeding; a level coffee cup contains 6.28 oz, which is 0.74 oz less. (For the record, one level measuring cup contains 4.37 oz of this particular kibble.)
This question is about walking as a form of exercise not about measuring kibbles.
We are on are fourth Labrador Retriever and our present one is a 4-year-old Black Lab. We have always had to monitor our dogs’ weight and to keep a close eye on their diet. We live on a mountainous partially wooded farm that is full of wild animals and rain or shine I take her for a walk in the woods three times a day. Due to the rugged terrain it is difficult to estimate mileage but every walk last at least 30 minutes. Our Lab is all nose and she can hardly go 10′ before stopping and sniffing a branch, a patch of sedges or a recent wildlife track or game trail. The end result is that she walks not runs and we go slow. I had always heard that tracking involves a lot of brain power and burns a lot of calories since the brain requires so much energy. So I just assumed that even slow tracking was more-or-less as good as running in terms of burning calories. Our Lab does love to fetch tennis balls in the backyard but when it comes to our walks she is definitely pokey. Any idea if this lifestyle does provide adequate exercise? Thanks.
Paul Kalisz
Tablow KY
Now that my dogs (brother and sister hound mixes) are 9 years old they have gotten a bit heavier. The female has arthritis in her hips so my veterinarian has suggested weight loss. Sometimes I’m just too busy to walk them regularly though we do live on a fenced 3 acres where they can run free most of the time. But they don’t run around as much as they used to.
When I reduced the measurement of food they seemed to be hungry all the time so I have researched low-calorie foods and have found a couple that are high in quality and I have been mixing them. This way their hunger seems satisfied and over the past 6 months have lost 8 pounds (male) and 10 pounds (female). I also give joint supplements that seem to help as well. I find Dasuquin to be made of high-quality ingredients from healthy sources.
They have so much more energy now that the weight is off and seems so much happier!
I have weighed all of our goldendoodle, Callie’s, meals and what goes in them for several years now. I created a chart to keep track of how many calories she gets per meal, and the time she ate (this part helps us remember when to feed her next), also counting treat calories separately from food calories. Then all her meals are averaged in a week’s time, I then know where I need to cut back an ounce or two or add an ounce or two. If she acts hungry, we take a short walk or toss a ball, which gets her mind off of food. I have used my computers excel program for the chart and record keeping. She weighs about 69 lbs. which her vet says is a good weight for her. I too have seen too many extreme overweight dogs struggle to get up or even walk and their lives have been shortened because of the extra weight.
Good article Nancy.
Our almost 10 year old Labrador was designated overweight two years ago at 76 pounds by our Veterinarian even though she was actively hiking with me everyday between 60 and 90 minutes. I was feeding her a combination of kibble and a home prepared dog food at the time. From the advice of a friend/breeder of our two Australian Labradoodles I was convinced to change her diet to very good quality raw dog food. I am excited to report that within 6 months she was down to her optimum weight of 64 pounds and she is healthier than she has even been…now she is no longer continuously begging for food and her coat is beautiful and shiny once again with far less shedding. Life is good for our girl Jax 🥰
As someone who has been weighing her dogs’ food for a long time as the only way to keep their weights stable, I would make one suggestion: set your scale to use grams instead of ounces.
7.02 oz = 199 grams
6.28 oz = 178 grams
4.37 oz = 124 grams
Easier numbers to work with and remember.
Not only does volume vary with size of kibble but switching from one brand to another or even a different type of food within a brand will also cause inaccuracy as the calories may vary with the change in ingredients. And dog food should be changed every once in a while so they don’t develop allergies. I switch Diana pawPrint and Freyja Grey in October as that is Diana’s birthday month. I go back and forth between chicken and fish. When I do homemade it is beef. So each one has a different measurement.