Jake's Diet (Part 2)

A couple of months ago I wrote about Jake being a little "husky" and I resolved to put him on a diet.  I started feeding him less of the canned food and more of the dry, hoping that would fill him up with less calories.  I still feed him some table scraps, but not as much.  Well, I hope it's not as much.

This morning I thought it was time for a grand weigh in.  Weighing Jake is no easy task.  Holding him and balancing on a scale is tough.  Last time I weighed Jake, he weighed 42 pounds.  This time he weighed....drum roll, please......42 pounds.  What?!  All that work and nothing to show for it?  Jake wasn't upset by it at all.  He was just happy when I got off the scale and put him down. 

This morning I got my daily email from a pet website I subscribe to.  The topic happened to be about overweight dogs.  I opened it right away to see what I'm doing wrong.  The first thing it said is that in the world of pet owners, a common name for an overweight dog is "chunky monkey".  Even the vet didn't know how the term started but there it is.  He also said between 25 and 45% of dogs in the US are overweight.  Is that really surprising?  Look at the US in general.  Why should our pets be any different? 

I was sure this article was going to have all the answers and hopefully a diet plan I could rigidly follow.  I do well with plans.  I was hoping for a Weight Watchers for dogs.  A Jenny Craig, with the prepackaged meals for dogs, would be even better.  But first it said that all members of the family must admit that the dog is overweight.  Immediately I pictured myself standing in front of a room full of people and shamefully saying, "Hello.  My name is Cindy and I have a Chunky Monkey".  Ok, we're past step one because my family has been telling me for months that Jake is overweight.  They acknowledged it way before I did.  After that it said to check the food intake versus the exercise.  Jake gets plenty of exercise.  He gets at least one good walk everyday, sometimes two.  Jeff takes him to the park and walks him at least 1 or 2 miles and then through the neighborhood.  Some nights I take him to see his pals down the street and they run in their backyard.  Really, isn't that enough for a dog?  I've been told that people in my neighborhood have dogs but I couldn't tell you what they look like because those dogs never get out of the house.  Are their dogs overweight?  If not, then what's their secret?

So, I'm pretty sure exercise isn't the issue.  It must be his diet. He's eating the same food as always and like I said, I've cut down on the canned food.  I'm trying to think about the table scraps.  I can't imagine not giving a dog the occasional bit of people food.  Would you want to eat the exact same food everyday?  Dogs need variety too.  Now that I think about it, the table scraps might be the problem.  Yesterday he had part of my pizza (the dog loves pizza!), some King Ranch Chicken casserole, a bite or two of cheese, some crackers.  Yeah, that's not sounding too good.

The article went on to name several things that obesity can cause in dogs, like diabetes.  Ok, now I'm scared. I think I will make that appointment with our wonderful vet and get Jake checked out.  I also think I'm going to have to get tougher on the table scraps.  But in the meantime, if you know of any overweight pets support groups that my little Chunky Monkey and I could attend, let me know.