So what to do with the food? Part 4 of 4

If you as the human are still fretting that your dog isn't getting enough food here's some things you can do to enrich your dog's eating experience.

1) Go to amazon and type in interactive dog toys and purchase a feeder for your pup

 

 

2) Don't want to buy a feeder, no problem - go find some boxes
 

 

The above boxes were easy for ubber smart  Gramercy!  Below we tried a harder box.  Gramercy says "No problem".  If you have a nervous/shy/fearful dog always use easy boxes and work up. This is about having fun so, make sure your dog has fun.

 

3) Don't have any boxes, no problem - play find it!  

What I really like about the game of find it is that it's interactive with you. I can guarantee that your dog will love this more than a big bowl of food.
 

 

While dogs like to eat, what I've come to understand is that many of them like a challenge and YOU can help them with this during meal time. 
 

Gramercy waiting to work for his food

Does all of this take some work - of course it does. But, think of how much happier your dog will be with the simple changes in this series of posts. 

I can guarantee you that your dog won't think you are cheating him or her out of food.  If anything it will be the opposite as your pup will feel better at their ideal weight.  And you've given your pup something that works their brain and they've connected and interacted with you.

 

What's a 1/4 cup of kibble? Part 3 of 4

For many dogs the culprit of being over weight is portion control and that's on us, the humans. In this fast paced world, it's easy to just toss food in a bowl or feeder and move on. We do this with a guess and hope for good enough. We often error on the side of too much. 

 

Or we may measure but then mindlessly offer treats and lets face it, no one turns down a treat.  Many of us don't account for those "treat" calories.  This quickly increases a waistline on a pretty small dog. This is a mistake I've made with my own rattie!

 

A quarter measuring cup - every dog household should have one!

 

 

A level 1/4 cup of kibble

A "scoop" of a 1/4 cup of kibble

                                       



 Above is the amount of kibble Gramercy eats twice a day.  As you can see, it's less then 1/4 cup. He eats this amount as we are still working on getting some weight off of him and I'm factoring in his calories from the bully sticks he chews on and the 1/2 tsp of raw coconut oil in his meal.

 

 

Now, the above pictures may not look like that much of a difference in the amount of kibble. BUT it's actually a significant difference and those extra kibble calories add up fast.  I think it's easy for us to forget (me included) that we have small dogs - many between 7 and 15lbs they don't need a lot of calories.

 

The bowl on the far left is the "scoop" it contains 84 pieces of kibble.  

The center bowl is the what Gramercy eats, it contains 32 pieces of kibble. 

The bowl on the far right is the level 1/4 cup amount and it contains 56 pieces of kibble

 

So, you do the math and think about those extra calories at each meal that your dog could be consuming.  No big surprise why we may accidental end up with a chubby tubby dog.

 

 

The really great news is that because our dogs are small and don't need a lot of food, we can feed them high quality food!  There are some great choices out there that include high quality kibble, high quality canned, dehydrated and raw.

 

Wondering how the quality of your food ranks look here:  dog food reviews

 

Here's a link on why feed grain free food

 

 

 

Gramercy's weight loss - Part 2 of 4

So you may ask - what are we doing to help Gramercy lose weight? 

 

The biggest thing is portion control!  This includes everything that Gramercy ingests - food, bones and treats. Everything needs to be calculated.  While exercise is important to aide dogs losing weight remember Gramercy couldn't exercise very much due to his spine issue and he still lost weight.

 

People often get concerned that a dog will "feel sad" if he doesn't eat a lot and I think if Gramercy could talk he would tell you that while he doesn't get big portions of food - what he does get a body that doesn't hurt.  His mood is brighter since he's lost weight and he has greater mobility.  We often forget that being overweight can really impact a dog's mental health because they just don't feel good.   Think about how your body and mind feel when you loose 4lbs and we are all bigger than 15lbs!

 

Below are two excellent video's by Dr. Karen Becker that I urge everyone to watch:

 

How to Help Your Chunky Dog Release Excess Pounds

 

Why heavy dogs are becoming the norm

"Yes, this tasty duck foot counts towards my daily calorie count!"










 

Gramercy before and now - Part 1 of 4

When sweet Gramercy arrived to us in late December we were a bit surprised at how "thick" he was.  Poor Gramercy was overweight and bloated.  I'm guessing this was due to a variety of things which include:  poor quality of food, lack of portion control and lack of exercise.

 

The shelters do the best they can with the resources they have and they often feed whatever food they have on hand.  Likely Gramercy was eating food that was not grain free.  We've see that a grain free food makes a big difference for a dogs overall health and mental well being.  Gramercy, like most terriers likes to eat. So, if they just put multiple bowls of food in the dog runs (where he was housed with other dogs) I'd bet Gramercy would chow as much food as he could get to.  Then of course the shelter don't have the staffing to exercise the shelter dogs.  All of this brought us a chubby Gramercy. 

 

Gramercy's shelter picture

So today Gramercy has lost close to 4lbs.  For a 15lb dog that was a lot of extra weight he was carrying.  He still needs to lose about 1 more pound.  It's not good for any dog to be overweight and for our small terriers it's even more important to keep them at their idea weight.  A few extra pounds can really affect a small dog - more than I think many of us realize.  I will say that sitting in the waiting room of the specialist vet clinic for hours on end was an eye opening experience for me. There were a lot of overweight dogs coming in for medical issue related & complicated by them being overweight. 

 

Here's an article that talks about Health Risks in Overweight or Obese Dogs

 

The vet told me that one of the biggest things we can do for Gramercy is to keep him thin.  The more weight he carries, the more stress is put on his spine, vertebrae's and legs.  He like other type B ratties have the long back and carrying extra weight increases the probability that these shorties can develop intervetebral disc disease.  Also the heavier the dog, the more stress is placed on a dogs knees. This should catch your eye as  Luxating patella is a common concern for all rat terriers and other small breeds.

 

 Here's a great article to answer they question Do you have a tubby dog?

Gramercy looking & feeling good - April 2013

 

 

A good Sunday for Gramercy!

Yesterday Gramercy enjoyed laying in the sun, under the chair in our den while my husband did our taxes.  This was a win win for Gramercy - sun and being near foster dad!

Gramercy just being his cute, laid back self!

Hanging out under the chair and in the sun

You can see his hair is growing back nicely!

Gramercy is one of the very few dogs we've had that is comfortable with the camera so close to his face

 

Up close and personal!

Back to sleeping in the sun - such a sweetie pie!

How Gramercy wakes up...

 Unlike my Catty girl who is ready to take charge of the day starting at 5am - Sweet Gramercy is a boy who is happy to lounge around in the morning! 

 

This is often how Gramercy wakes up in the morning. Then it's outside to use the bathroom, eat breakfast and then back for a morning nap. 

 

I tried to get his tail a waggin but, it was too dark inside his bed! 

 

relaxed boy

Gramercy helpin some sisters out!

Last night I helped transport New Rattitude's 3 new foster girls to thier foster parents. Sweet boy Gramercy came along to let them know all was going to pretty awesome now that they are in Washington!  He was pleased to give a kiss of hello to all the foster parents as well.

 

Here are Sierra, Maggie May and Kasha 

 

 

Catty's car seat was still in my car so Gramercy rode in style!

 

"This seat is pretty awesome!"



"Enough pictures - lets get the girls"

"Waiting"

 Below is the pick up and you will want to watch the video that's in this post - pretty awesome even with the rain

3 new rattie girls arrive to Washington

"That was exausting AND welcome to Washington Maggie Mae, Sierra & Kasha"