Many diseases can be prevented and reversed by feeding your pet raw food and keeping it at the perfect weight. What is the perfect weight? We all know that if your dog or cat has a potbelly, it is too heavy.
When I consult with someone whose dog is overweight, they often comment that their dog just had a check-up and that the vet didn’t say anything about the dog’s weight. Some people get offended when you mention that their pet is overweight. A vet might not mention it so as not to offend the owner so that they keep bringing their pet back for further visits. Just because the vet doesn’t bring it up, doesn’t mean that the pet is not overweight.
Your vet's office probably has a weight chart, but it can be deceiving if your pet has a thick coat. To make sure you are getting a correct sense of the weight, you come from the back of the animal. You want to be able to feel your dog or cat's hips. There should be enough meat to cover the dip between the hip bones, but not so much that it piles up.
Research shows that dogs and cats with the right weight live an average of two years longer than their overweight counterparts. That should make it a no-brainer to keep your pet at a healthy weight if you want them around as long as possible. In my experience pets never live long enough.
I see people training their dogs by constantly giving them treats. There should be a gap of several hours between food. This counts for people, also, as this gives the body a chance to detox. Being overweight doesn't always come from eating too many calories, but because the body has no chance to take out the garbage.
The ancestors of cats and dogs would gorge themselves full on whatever they killed. They had no freezer, canning jars... After the kill was finished or spoiled, they would often not have a meal for a few days. During that time, their bodies had a chance to detox. I used to fast with my dogs one day a week.
When you train a sled dog to pull a sled you can’t use treats except when they are a puppy before they even get in front of the sled. Once you put them in front of a sled the treats for training purposes are off the table unless you want a bunch of dogs on your sled, but you are going nowhere. How do we do it? We make it fun and have a deep lasting connection so that the dogs want to please us, just like you do with your friends. This is what you are looking for, but you won’t find it in a snack bag. It’s in your heart.
Some of the greatest lead dogs were injured and sick earlier in their life. Instead of being in the dog yard with all the other dogs, they were in the house with the family and musher, it deepened their bond, and the dogs were more in tune with their people and wanted to please them more. They became outstanding lead dogs. I have an amazing story about one of my lead dogs on my website https://www.aichele.ca
When we raced dogs at -40C/F we were not worried about them being too heavy. We needed to make sure they were heavy enough, hence one ton of bacon for the team. The fastest way for your dog to lose weight is more exercise. It also keeps the teeth clean through the panting when they run.
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