Dog weight and obesity is an enormous problem! According to VCA Animal Hospitals, around 40-45% of American dogs weigh more than they should, with 25-30% obese. There are an estimated 88 million dogs in the US today.
This means about 20 million (or more) dogs are obese!
Why is Dog Obesity Such a Problem Today?
Imagine a Grey wolf 70,000 years ago. He’s never seen a human, and his life isn’t impacted by humans in any way!
This Grey wolf lives with a pack of other wolves, which science tells us actually resembles something closer to a human family structure than the ‘hierarchal Alpha and below roles’ we once believed. His everyday survival depends on these other members of his pack!
Our Grey wolf needs to hunt for his food, and nothing is freely given like that of today’s domestic pet. Even after his pack gets a ‘kill’, one member must guard the prize from other preditors. These hunting activities require a lot of energy!
Sometimes Max and his fellow wolves will go for days without a meal of any kind! Each meal they do get is very precious to them. Hunting itself is demanding work and burns precious calories.
Now, compare this to the average household dog today.
Let’s call this dog Max. Max greets his owner in the morning, then lies on the couch for ten hours while his father works. There are no demanding hunting activities for Max, and he never misses a meal because there was no food to be found.
Max never burns nearly the amount of energy during the day, our Grey wolf of 70,000 years ago would! He never has to worry about other predatory animals stealing his meals, and never has to guard the entrance to his ‘shelter’.
When Max’s father does finally return home, he is exhausted from a long day at work! Dad doesn’t want to spend hours outside playing and would rather sit in front of the television until dinnertime. Max might get a walk-in, but this is rare.
Dogs are overall predatory animals that evolved to track and hunt. What happens when you take an animal that evolved this way and denies him the very thing nature intended for him?
Of course, this doesn’t describe every situation out there, but it is pretty accurate for many American household dogs today! Is it any kind of surprise at all that an estimated 40% of American dogs are at least overweight, with 25-30% estimated to be obese?
Exercise is very important for today’s dogs, and sadly most never get nearly as much as they should!
- Ideal Body Weight + 10-20% = Overweight
- Ideal Body Weight + 20% or more = Obese
Excess Dog Weight & Obesity Can Lead to Health Problems!
Consider arthritis, a condition nearly all dogs will endure in some form if they reach a certain age. The connective tissue around and between joints begins to erode with age and use, leading to those joints grinding against each other.
The more your dog weighs, the more pressure on those joints when he tries to move. Diabetes is also becoming more common with overweight dogs, as well as Hip dysplasia complications!
Poor Quality Dog Food
The American FDA will impose many regulations on pet food other countries don’t have, but most manufactured dog foods are still well below fit for human consumption. This also won’t stop companies from producing the absolute cheapest product they can while meeting those guidelines.
Starchy, carbohydrate-rich plant products are much cheaper to grow than livestock is to feed and house. This results in many pet foods filled with too many carbs, and ultimately-dog weight gain and obesity.
Try to avoid foods with corn as two out of the top three ingredients listed and look into the nutritional quality of foods you do provide! Plant products offer valuable nutrition but shouldn’t be your dog’s primary source.
8 Dog Weight and Obesity Tips
- Offer daily exercise! A walk alone normally isn’t enough.
- Ensure your dog gets a proper, nutrient rich diet.
- Don’t feed your dog table scraps/human food, or do so sparingly.
- Make exercise fun, so your dog is eager to participate!
- Create a weight reduction plan with your veterinarian.
- Follow recommended feeding guidelines from your food packaging.
- Treats are calories too, so count them.
- Rule out any potential medical conditions causing weight gain.
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