Labrador Dog

zajdoo

Hi
Just wondering can anybody advise me on how much food my labrador should get. At the min I feed her two small portions of dry nuts a day, but my mam keeps giving her treats etc etc. I have noticed that she is over weight mainly in the last month or so. She starts off on a walk great and 40 mins later she is trailing behind. So I really want to sort her out and give her the best possible life there is.

I just bought the new Pedi Paws Pet nail trimmer yesterday so I am going to try that out at the weekend. We took my dog out of the pound a few years ago. She hates going to anywhere still that remotely reminds her of the place so I am going try out the nails myself! Has anybody else used one of these? Are they good?

Would love to hear from you about this.
Thanks all

andreac

There should be a recommended daily amount according to age, breed etc on the food bag so try and stick to that.

I would urge your mam to stop giving too many treats as its not good for the dog. Or maybe try increasing her exercise instead or do something like cycling with her to build up her fitness, or swimming is really good for them too.

zajdoo

Thanks for that, I am going try build her back up to walking more. I am going try 40 min session 3-4 times a week and then increase the time. Hopefully we will see an improvement. Fingers crossed!

andreac

Is she being walked everyday though?

zajdoo

Yeah she's a family pet so she gets walked about 20-25 mins a day and then plenty going round our big garden too. At weekends then sometimes on a sat Id take her up the woods for a hr or so. Which this doesn't seem to be a prob for her. Maybe it is because it is somewhere new and its not on hard ground. So Im def going to increase the walking times.
Thanks again

tk123

Our guy is a retriever and needed to lose a few kgs because he's had some problems with his legs so needed to get him on the skinny side to take the stress off. I cut his food back to 250 grams a day (he's on Burns) and split it into 100grams each for breakfast and dinner and then put the other 50 in the treat jar for him and that was it for treats. You need to be strict with it - ie just the dog food and no other treats until the weight is off. He still saw his treat jar so was delighted with whatever came out of it regardless. Once we got his weight down I left him on 200gs of food and he's allowed a small amount of treats everyday eg a biscuit after his walks and then if we're practicing his training a broken up biscuit/chopped up hot dog/slice of ham in his kong etc. Our guy is still a pup so gets 2 x 30 min walks and then playing in the garden.

zajdoo

Thats a brill idea I def going try that out. I have just noticed this morn that the food our pet suppliers has recommended for our dog is for greyhounds! So that is prob some of our prob also as she wouldn't be as active as them. I will def have to sort that one out. I just assumed as she loved it I shouldn't change it.
Thanks again

StupidLikeAFox

Yeah greyhound food generally has a much higher protein content to give the dog extra energy. If it isnt burned up it'll go on as weight.

zajdoo

Thanks for that. I was in the pet supplies today and told them this so they showed me a food that is 18% protein instead of the 20% that she was on and this has chicken so its very easy digest and on the system. So hopefully all this will help and she'll be back fighting fit in no time!:)