My Mom is killing her dogs with love

Overheal

What else is new? Just look at Marley here - she's a whale!



The other 2 arent much better. I live 5 hours away though and I rarely if ever see these dogs. They get walked too little and fed too much. I've been trying to tell her to train them on her treadmill. Does anyone have any experience doing that though?

The Sweeper

Treadmill?

Here's an easier solution - tell her to stop feeding them so much.

Increasing the exercise the dogs get is fine, but you have more control over simply not opening the treats packet than you have over the effort to rearrange your life so you can take them for a long walk twice a day.

Dogs can suffer similarly to humans if they have to deal with long-term obesity.

What is she feeding them? Is she one of those people who heaps the kibble bowl up like the himalayas? Gives the dog half of whatever she puts in her own mouth? Can't refuse a begging dog? Does all of the above?

If your mother finds it impossible to stop giving the dog tidbits, she needs to replace the crap she's feeding them (assuming she's handing out biscuits and bits of sandwich and all the other sorts of crap people feed their dogs) with a species appropriate foodstuff. Worst case scenario, if she can't change her OWN behaviour, she needs to edit it in a way that she stops hurting her dogs.

E.g. she either breaks the dog's kibble or petfood ration into treat-sized portions and hands them out instead of sandwich bits or biscuits, or she gives out things like cooked chicken or a bit of liver or whatever, but factors those treats in as part of the meals the dog eats in a day.

No offence to poor Marley, but a dog doesn't get that fat through lack of exercise - that's the result of being fed tidbits and crap day in, day out. Most dogs won't even overeat from the kibble bowl to that degree, so I can only assume they're getting appropriate-sized petfood dinners, and then their daily calorie allowance all over again in treats from one end of the day to the next.

Even specifically manufactured pet treats are the devil when it comes to overfeeding your animals. (My cats ended up on a diet because they'll perform for treats - hence anyone who comes over grabs the treats bag and interacts with the cats and rewards them with food. One day I realised I had a bunch of moggies who were developing middle-aged guts - treat packet has been stashed and they're on diets - looking better for it too.)

luckat

Show her this story:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20090513/tuk-overweight-dog-lands-man-in-court-6323e80.html

jen_23

Oooh I just read this. Yeah your Mom needs to get a handle on the treats.
It can really harm an animals health to be overfed. It's often hard to resist their gorgeous cute faces when they are begging and pleading for just a bit of your dinner but in the long run it really does damage the animals health and reduces the life span due to all the diseases they become basically sitting sucks for which go hand in hand with animal obesity.

You could chance taking the dog to the vet with your mom so the vet can explain all the harm she is doing by overfeeding and the vet may also put the dog on a special diet which would be no harm.

Good luc with this.k