When Torii entered the shelter in January 2014 her intake weight was a bit over 16 pounds. When I saw her mid February she'd lost a little weight but, she was clearly overweight. I was pretty sure that the extra pounds contributed to her uncomfortable looking movement of walking. As you know Torii was adopted out of the shelter and then quickly returned. She was placed in observation at the shelter for a number of weeks before she came into foster care with us. During that time she lost some more weight which was good for her overall health but, she still had some weight to loose.
Having extra weight on dog isn't good for any dog and here's a link talking about some of the Health Risks in Overweight or Obese Dogs For Torii the extra weight impacted her breathing, she was lethargic, her mobility was affected and she had trouble getting up and down stairs. We also know that extra weight affects organs as well so, no doubt that was going on too.
Physically, Torii has had a rough life and one of the best things we could easily do for her was to get the excess weight off her. So, once Torii arrived into foster care, we began our plan of getting weight off of her little body frame.
During Torii's weight loss she has enjoyed eating her meals out of kongs, she's tried out a number of steamed & raw veggies which she thinks are amazing. We also use training treats and break those down into small pieces and she's perfectly happy with a small treat as you can see in this post Torii working on hand targeting.
Here's one of her meals - stuffed kongs, steamed broccoli drizzled with coconut oil
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