Do you know a fat dog when you see one?

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/dog-spies/2014/08/26/do-you-know-a-fat-dog-when-you-see-one/

Interesting!

Demps is definitely still pudgy, but not grossly overweight. Very difficult to keep his weight down when a certain man in the house keeps feeding him sneakily! But he'll be back on his flirt poling again very soon.

Yes but most dogs look fat to me, as it's something i'm a bit obsessed with, with the boys but then i love the look of a conditioned dog (not the extreme ones) and it's something i do with the boys a bit of body conditioning - hence why so many people tell me they are starving

does he look starved?



and chance?

I don't see too many overweight dogs on my walkies, tbh.  3 or 4 black labs and very occasionally two bassets.

Ella, your dogs look wonderful. Imho a dog is underweight if you can see their ribs and/or vertebrae. A dog is overweight if you can't even feel their ribs.

problem is lynda you CAN see the boys ribs quite obviously it just doesn't photograph well due to them being white BUT i purposely keep them that lean as i like to see ribs on a short haired dog. Not every single rib but the last 5-7 depending on the size of dog

ah ha found it!

see this is the only photo that really shows how lean i keep the boys, stood oddly i know but hey


So yes his ribs are visible but he is the picture of health, I keep him this lean to help with the overheating, to keep as little weight on those hips as possible with plenty of muscling, and he pulls over a ton when we get weight pulling

Old photos but harv top down, not the typical barrel staffy that walks the street around here!

In my opinion, the ribs aren't a very good indicator of weight with dogs who are kept very lean from exercise. The pin bones are far more telling! If they still have a good covering of muscle there, with no extreme jutting bones, chances are they're fine!

Your boys are in great condition!

Agree massively I think pin bones are definitely a big teller on a dogs condition!

Oh and thanks

Sorry, but what are pin bones?

I don't know how anybody could look at Chance and Harvey and think they're unfit/unhealthy in any way! Just look at those happy faces, shiny coats and bright eyes! Oh, and the bulging muscles. Kind of a give away!

Sorry, Lynda! Pin bones = hip bones! Blame mum for that. She got me into the habit of saying 'pin bones'.

Well, actually, I think they're a part of the pelvis... But they look like hips.

Or am I just confusing myself? Pfft.

Forget it! Ask Ella! Pay no attention to me and my insane ramblings!

Oh, thanks Eleanor! Never heard of hips being called pins before, but I'm a southern dinosaur!

Yeah easiest way to think about them is hip bones, if you look at the top down photo of Harvey where his hips are you can a dip which is the muscle in his legs if there were bones protruding there that would be his pin bones

Maybe it depends on where you come from!

I think a lot of people are used to having dogs who are healthy, but soft. Not that it's a bad thing, of course. Just means that there's a little layer of padding and the muscles are not quite as sharply defined. So when they see a very lean dog like Harvey or Chance, perhaps they automatically jump to the conclusion that they're underweight.

I get not everyone wants a really lean dog but it's sad that so many people are used to there barrel on legs that they think the boys are starved and abused, and not the athletes they are

OK thanks Ella!

Well it's typical of our chats how we got from too fat to too thin in one small step!

My brother-in-law bought a 10 month old English Springer bitch from a local gamekeeper about two years ago (she had failed in retrieving or something). Despite her somewhat camaflouging longer hair, she was definitely too thin - her backbone stuck out like little knobs all down her back, and she felt like a bag of bones to stroke. It took a while, he didn't feed her fattening foods like so many of us might have been tempted to, and she is now the very picture of health - like Chance and Harvey.

Tilly is podgy and I am sure my OH sneak feeds her but it is deceiving as she is very compact whereas Tommy is balanced and I think he is in nice shape without being ripped

Well you know how it goes on here we go from extreme to another

From what I've seen of Tilly she doesn't look fat! And Tommy of course looks fabulous.

How do ripped dogs do in shows?

I can't imagine ripped dogs do well in show rings, I can imagine the boys wouldn't

ripped dogs are actually quite common but not ripped to the point where they look like whippets with muscles Tommy needs more definiotion to compete against dome of the dogs

I'd love to say Dempsey is just very well built, but... If only the men of the household would stop feeding him junk food!

Although he's doing really well, considering my brother has been home for the summer and has been feeding him by the bucket-load when we've not been looking. His waist is quite well defined and we can see a gentle outline of a couple of his ribs.