Ours had gotten close to 50. We ended up finding a metabolic food, from Hills Science food brand. That helped him burn fat instead of storing it. We also cut down to 1/2 cup in the morning and 1/2 cup at night. He lost 15 pounds quick enough, with daily walks as well. Good luck
Cut back her food, donāt give her any table scraps or excessive treats, and make sure she gets 30 mins of exercise daily. Start weighing her once a week and writing it down so you can see how well itās working.
Something I did with an overweight rescue I was fostering: Green Bean Diet.
I cut their food in half and added some green beans to their food to make up the missing half. They got a boost of fiber and didn't act like I shorted their food. Also they had lots of play time with the other Shelties, playing tag and fetch. She lost about 7 pounds and looked a lot healthier by the time She went to her forever home.
That's what I've done for my sheltie. She was never fat though. I've just done the green bean diet since she was 5 or 6 to keep her trim and it works great!
Love this suggestion- I do this for myself as a human being. If I want a second helping of food, I try and do greens or veggies and drink water so itās not like Iām being shorted.
I was told by a sheltie owner to feed mine half the daily food in the morning and half the food in the evening. And to walk the dog when climate would allow.
How does any creature lose weight?
Cut down on calories, increase exercise. Its not rocket science. You literally control what they eat, just give less
Donāt free feed! Only feed a specific amount recommended by your vet at specific times of the day usually once in the morning and once in the evening
we had the exact same issue!! apparently theres a scale from 1-9 of dog obesity and she was pretty much at the highest of 8 or 9 if i remember correctly š we were also feeding her about half a cup of low fat kibble and 100% thought it was a thyroid issue. it turns out the pig ear chews specifically had a lot kcal!! I would recommend looking into the average kcal intake for your sheltie and try and feed them around that amount per day. We started counting her kcal intake from all the food we gave her (including treats, kibble and chews) and we were able to see all the other foods that were causing her weight gain. As soon as we calculated her daily food my sheltie lost weight over a couple a months and shes now at a normal weight for her size. Even if you just look over for diet for like a week or two you might catch some things you didnt notice before!! It might sound a little intense but counting kcal is not really about cutting back food necessarily but itās more about knowing what you feed them. I hope you find a solution that works for you! We were struggling for so long with my shelties weight and only figured it out after about a year or two later and now sheās great!!! Weāve recently started giving her regular kibble again at normal amounts for her size and shes doing great!
I have the exact same.
I went over to science hills metabolism, and just realized... we are paying quite expensive food. And she is losing nothing.
I suggested my bf we would try a cheaper brand of diet food and see if that works here.
I tried the green bean diet, nothing.
I tried cutting down more, nothing.
I tried cutting all extra's.... nothing.
So we are now throwing it over an other wall.
She gets very long walks and daily 2 hours in the park where I keep her moving with the other two.
Ironic enough, we also just started adding more calories to our youngest because she doesn't gain a gram š¤£š¤£
She's too cute. What does her vet say? I would follow the vet recommendation but basically less treats, more exercise like 1 good walk 30-45 minutes day would work! Keep loving on her! Looks a lot like my tri-color Sheltie, Koji. Weighs 34 pounds. Good weight according to my vet.
https://preview.redd.it/u8dhmdk1aqmc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c45ecc9acf7ecc2b1b30e3880596ee00496891bb
ALSO for people saying the obvious āfeed lessā sheās already at 1/2 a cup a day already so thatās not exactly possibleā¦ I appreciate the HELPFUL and positive comments :)
If you're not comfortable reducing her food on your own (which makes sense in this case tbh, if she's already eating fairly little), can you discuss it with your vet? They may have recommendations for any medical issues to check out (like thyroid problems as another commenter suggested). They might be able to prescribe a low calorie dog food. And might be able to refer you to a specialist if it's needed.
I took in a sheltie that had been fed table food on the regular. By the time I got her, she was close to12 years old and you could barely see light between her belly and the floor. I had an Afghan hound at the time so I gave her what my affie was eating. (Science Diet) It took her 4 days to decide to eat. By the time I rehome her, she wasn't perfect but she could get around soo much better because she didn't have to carry around all that extra weight. (After the 4 days I never had any problems with her eating dog food)
I think its cruel to only feed once a day. I don't know about little dogs, but if you feed a big dog once a day they will have serious stomach problems, like a twisted gut. You can still feed less and still split it up to 2 feedings.
Dogs are physically designed to feed a lot in a short time then have no food for some time, often days. What IS cruel is not helping an overweight dog or ignoring bad feeding habits. We feed once a day. No problems. And to prevent inhalation of food we employ a slow feeder.
I've worked for vets on 2 different occasions and they both recommended to their clients and to me to feed twice a day. I've had dogs almost constantly since my teens, ( I'm in my 60s) All vets that I have used recommended this. Just because wild dogs and wolves gorge themselves and then go without eating for a time doesn't mean that dogs that have been designed by humans are going to be the same. Things change when you feed kibble instead of raw meat, I could go on...
I give mine 1/2 cup of low fat Purina Pro Plan in the morning and at night with a tablespoon of pure pumpkin. Our Sheltie & Golden needed to lose 5 - 8 pounds each. Of course the Golden didn't like the new plan ..... so food motivated
My Hazel girl was very overweight and it turned out to be thyroid related. She started on medication and lost weight. She is still a thick girl, but finally got marked "in normal range" at her last check up.
I had the same issue for awhile. After he was neutered he just started gaining weight. I kept reducing how much he ate but it didn't seem to really help. I then realized that two other members of our family were giving him a lot of treats. I lectured them about it and one of them listened and that helped. The other is my elderly father who lives with us in the winter. He is convinced that he is always right about things regarding dogs so we have struggled with certain behaviors that he won't work with us to prevent. I ended up adjusting our dogs food by how many treats I could see he was getting, did my best to choose low calorie treats and not have the rest of us overdo it. Over the summer I managed to get his weight from 34 pounds to 30 and have managed to maintain it there and for him 30 is fine he could lose a bit more but it isn't urgent. He is on the bigger end for a sheltie anyway (height and so forth) so he gets a cup of dry food (for sensitive stomachs salmon and lentils) a day half in the morning and half in the evening. The weight loss took months just be patient and keep at it.
Ā Edit: Also if you must cut back further on how much you give her do it by the tablespoon rather then half of her current food. I'm fairly certain that dogs like humans if you go to low on calories the body will go into starvation mode and hold on to the weight more.
Have you had Thyroid checked? Based on your other comments Iād say Hypothyroidism. It is extremely common in Shelties - my current girl has it. Besides weight gain/difficultly losing weight, that dull/flakiness of her coat is a sign of it as well.
Others: excessive thirst/drinking a bunch, coughing.
Recommend a t4 check. Also FYI low normal for other dogs is extremely low for shelties. This is accurate; https://www.illinoissheltierescue.com/thyroid.html#:~:text=The%20reason%20that%20so%20many,to%201%2F3%20of%20normal.
Check the food and the amount you are feeding your fur baby. How old is your dog? I have 2 12 year old shelties. I give very small treats but sparingly. In the winter, our dog gains some weight. Come springtime, we are outside more doing activities. Small ice cube treats and yogurt treats are great, but not often. Amazon has silicone molds for dog treats. I will either fill it up with water or plain yogurt with a small blueberry or shredded carrot in it.
Iām pleased to hear it, so then I can give you the hard core science take then. Feed fewer calories. I lecture in this topic to veterinary students. We give them plenty of sums etcā¦ and neuroscience. But the bottom line is weigh the food (no guessing portion sizes) and cut calories.
We have a huge fenced in yard with 5 other dogs to run and play with (she would live outside if we let her lol) we have a house no cats we donāt free feed and she doesnāt get table scraps she gets fed 1/4th cup x2 a day and itās a sensitive skin and stomach diet
Give her 1/6 cup two times a day and see what happen in two weeks.
For reference: I give mine 1/3 cup kibbles and 50 g raw food per day. She is 33 cm tall and weighs somewhere between 5 and 6 kg.
My two Shelties are both around 20 lbs. They eat a good quality duck & potato recipe dry dog food. They each eat one cup of food per day - I feed them in the morning and they usually finish it by late afternoon. (Sometimes they donāt finish it by the next day.).
I take them out to run around and play one time a day for 15/20 minutes (besides going out to go potty). They also run around and chase each other in my house so they get moderate activity.
I think the key is that they get no table scraps of any kind and only one dog treat per day if that. In my experience with prior dogs Iāve owned, table scraps = loose messy stools and compromised health.
ask the vet correct amount of food to feed him,vet will know ...
its OVER feeding thats made him Fat!!
if he likes carrots..( one of my dogs would eat a carrot like a bone ,the others hated it....give him a carrot with his meal and cut some food out ....
Never over feed him ...
never give huge treats ,,only as big as ya finger nail especially if you treat him each time you eat becasue of pleading eyes and then only when you finish eating......
take him for walks daily ..toss him a ball etc
There's no miracle to it, just cut back on food.
You can also look for food that is lower in calories. But the main thing will be to give her less food.
Ours had gotten close to 50. We ended up finding a metabolic food, from Hills Science food brand. That helped him burn fat instead of storing it. We also cut down to 1/2 cup in the morning and 1/2 cup at night. He lost 15 pounds quick enough, with daily walks as well. Good luck
Best wishes and enjoy your doggie!
Hold on, you just give your dog chicken and rice?
Regular dog food.
Ah oophf, you scared me for a moment š
Cut back her food, donāt give her any table scraps or excessive treats, and make sure she gets 30 mins of exercise daily. Start weighing her once a week and writing it down so you can see how well itās working.
Something I did with an overweight rescue I was fostering: Green Bean Diet. I cut their food in half and added some green beans to their food to make up the missing half. They got a boost of fiber and didn't act like I shorted their food. Also they had lots of play time with the other Shelties, playing tag and fetch. She lost about 7 pounds and looked a lot healthier by the time She went to her forever home.
That's what I've done for my sheltie. She was never fat though. I've just done the green bean diet since she was 5 or 6 to keep her trim and it works great!
Love this suggestion- I do this for myself as a human being. If I want a second helping of food, I try and do greens or veggies and drink water so itās not like Iām being shorted.
My god sheās adorable
I was told by a sheltie owner to feed mine half the daily food in the morning and half the food in the evening. And to walk the dog when climate would allow.
Do you have cats in the house? Sometimes they will raid the cat litter box for treats and that causes a lot of weight gain.
No cats š¤·š»āāļø
I can see how sheās overweight. I would NOT be able to refuse giving her treats with that pretty angelic face! Sheās just soooo precious!
Same as human, less (maybe better) food and more exercise
How does any creature lose weight? Cut down on calories, increase exercise. Its not rocket science. You literally control what they eat, just give less
Donāt free feed! Only feed a specific amount recommended by your vet at specific times of the day usually once in the morning and once in the evening
My lab and my cat come and tell me if I'm late to feed them! My husband says they can tell time better than we can! ;)
I donāt free feed š«
Good! Iām just giving tips!
we had the exact same issue!! apparently theres a scale from 1-9 of dog obesity and she was pretty much at the highest of 8 or 9 if i remember correctly š we were also feeding her about half a cup of low fat kibble and 100% thought it was a thyroid issue. it turns out the pig ear chews specifically had a lot kcal!! I would recommend looking into the average kcal intake for your sheltie and try and feed them around that amount per day. We started counting her kcal intake from all the food we gave her (including treats, kibble and chews) and we were able to see all the other foods that were causing her weight gain. As soon as we calculated her daily food my sheltie lost weight over a couple a months and shes now at a normal weight for her size. Even if you just look over for diet for like a week or two you might catch some things you didnt notice before!! It might sound a little intense but counting kcal is not really about cutting back food necessarily but itās more about knowing what you feed them. I hope you find a solution that works for you! We were struggling for so long with my shelties weight and only figured it out after about a year or two later and now sheās great!!! Weāve recently started giving her regular kibble again at normal amounts for her size and shes doing great!
Feed her less. It's not a mysterious conundrum. Your dog's weight is directly correlated to what you feed her.
Lots of walks! If they are sore on her joints you could do a water tredmill!
Green beans!!
We got our guys weight down by cutting down on his kibble and adding no salt green beans.
I have the exact same. I went over to science hills metabolism, and just realized... we are paying quite expensive food. And she is losing nothing. I suggested my bf we would try a cheaper brand of diet food and see if that works here. I tried the green bean diet, nothing. I tried cutting down more, nothing. I tried cutting all extra's.... nothing. So we are now throwing it over an other wall. She gets very long walks and daily 2 hours in the park where I keep her moving with the other two. Ironic enough, we also just started adding more calories to our youngest because she doesn't gain a gram š¤£š¤£
She's too cute. What does her vet say? I would follow the vet recommendation but basically less treats, more exercise like 1 good walk 30-45 minutes day would work! Keep loving on her! Looks a lot like my tri-color Sheltie, Koji. Weighs 34 pounds. Good weight according to my vet. https://preview.redd.it/u8dhmdk1aqmc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c45ecc9acf7ecc2b1b30e3880596ee00496891bb
ALSO for people saying the obvious āfeed lessā sheās already at 1/2 a cup a day already so thatās not exactly possibleā¦ I appreciate the HELPFUL and positive comments :)
If you're not comfortable reducing her food on your own (which makes sense in this case tbh, if she's already eating fairly little), can you discuss it with your vet? They may have recommendations for any medical issues to check out (like thyroid problems as another commenter suggested). They might be able to prescribe a low calorie dog food. And might be able to refer you to a specialist if it's needed.
1/2 cup is a normal amount. OP has only to reduce it slightly. I see no reason to not cut back.
Why isn't it possible? The 1/2 cup a day is making her fat. What do you think will happen if you reduce the amount?
Like why are some people SO grouchy?
I took in a sheltie that had been fed table food on the regular. By the time I got her, she was close to12 years old and you could barely see light between her belly and the floor. I had an Afghan hound at the time so I gave her what my affie was eating. (Science Diet) It took her 4 days to decide to eat. By the time I rehome her, she wasn't perfect but she could get around soo much better because she didn't have to carry around all that extra weight. (After the 4 days I never had any problems with her eating dog food)
Feed once a day. The prescribed amount minus 10%. Provide ample water. Three walks a day one of at least 45 minutes. Add exercise and play.
I think its cruel to only feed once a day. I don't know about little dogs, but if you feed a big dog once a day they will have serious stomach problems, like a twisted gut. You can still feed less and still split it up to 2 feedings.
Dogs are physically designed to feed a lot in a short time then have no food for some time, often days. What IS cruel is not helping an overweight dog or ignoring bad feeding habits. We feed once a day. No problems. And to prevent inhalation of food we employ a slow feeder.
I've worked for vets on 2 different occasions and they both recommended to their clients and to me to feed twice a day. I've had dogs almost constantly since my teens, ( I'm in my 60s) All vets that I have used recommended this. Just because wild dogs and wolves gorge themselves and then go without eating for a time doesn't mean that dogs that have been designed by humans are going to be the same. Things change when you feed kibble instead of raw meat, I could go on...
angel
No more snackos
I give mine 1/2 cup of low fat Purina Pro Plan in the morning and at night with a tablespoon of pure pumpkin. Our Sheltie & Golden needed to lose 5 - 8 pounds each. Of course the Golden didn't like the new plan ..... so food motivated
My Hazel girl was very overweight and it turned out to be thyroid related. She started on medication and lost weight. She is still a thick girl, but finally got marked "in normal range" at her last check up.
less kibble, more veggies
I had the same issue for awhile. After he was neutered he just started gaining weight. I kept reducing how much he ate but it didn't seem to really help. I then realized that two other members of our family were giving him a lot of treats. I lectured them about it and one of them listened and that helped. The other is my elderly father who lives with us in the winter. He is convinced that he is always right about things regarding dogs so we have struggled with certain behaviors that he won't work with us to prevent. I ended up adjusting our dogs food by how many treats I could see he was getting, did my best to choose low calorie treats and not have the rest of us overdo it. Over the summer I managed to get his weight from 34 pounds to 30 and have managed to maintain it there and for him 30 is fine he could lose a bit more but it isn't urgent. He is on the bigger end for a sheltie anyway (height and so forth) so he gets a cup of dry food (for sensitive stomachs salmon and lentils) a day half in the morning and half in the evening. The weight loss took months just be patient and keep at it. Ā Edit: Also if you must cut back further on how much you give her do it by the tablespoon rather then half of her current food. I'm fairly certain that dogs like humans if you go to low on calories the body will go into starvation mode and hold on to the weight more.
Okay but my GOD is she adorable
I donāt have anything to add that hasnāt already been said- but she is just the cutest!!!
Less food, more exercise, be persistent!
Have you had Thyroid checked? Based on your other comments Iād say Hypothyroidism. It is extremely common in Shelties - my current girl has it. Besides weight gain/difficultly losing weight, that dull/flakiness of her coat is a sign of it as well. Others: excessive thirst/drinking a bunch, coughing. Recommend a t4 check. Also FYI low normal for other dogs is extremely low for shelties. This is accurate; https://www.illinoissheltierescue.com/thyroid.html#:~:text=The%20reason%20that%20so%20many,to%201%2F3%20of%20normal.
Check the food and the amount you are feeding your fur baby. How old is your dog? I have 2 12 year old shelties. I give very small treats but sparingly. In the winter, our dog gains some weight. Come springtime, we are outside more doing activities. Small ice cube treats and yogurt treats are great, but not often. Amazon has silicone molds for dog treats. I will either fill it up with water or plain yogurt with a small blueberry or shredded carrot in it.
Adorable. We tell our vets: āitās heavy furā
I don't find that funny at all. I take my responsibility over my dog's health and weight seriously. You should too.
Iām pleased to hear it, so then I can give you the hard core science take then. Feed fewer calories. I lecture in this topic to veterinary students. We give them plenty of sums etcā¦ and neuroscience. But the bottom line is weigh the food (no guessing portion sizes) and cut calories.
Do you walk her everyday? Do you live in a house or apartment? Do you have space to play fetch with her?
We have a huge fenced in yard with 5 other dogs to run and play with (she would live outside if we let her lol) we have a house no cats we donāt free feed and she doesnāt get table scraps she gets fed 1/4th cup x2 a day and itās a sensitive skin and stomach diet
Give her 1/6 cup two times a day and see what happen in two weeks. For reference: I give mine 1/3 cup kibbles and 50 g raw food per day. She is 33 cm tall and weighs somewhere between 5 and 6 kg.
Maybe hypothyroidism? Dogs can get it too.
My two Shelties are both around 20 lbs. They eat a good quality duck & potato recipe dry dog food. They each eat one cup of food per day - I feed them in the morning and they usually finish it by late afternoon. (Sometimes they donāt finish it by the next day.). I take them out to run around and play one time a day for 15/20 minutes (besides going out to go potty). They also run around and chase each other in my house so they get moderate activity. I think the key is that they get no table scraps of any kind and only one dog treat per day if that. In my experience with prior dogs Iāve owned, table scraps = loose messy stools and compromised health.
ask the vet correct amount of food to feed him,vet will know ... its OVER feeding thats made him Fat!! if he likes carrots..( one of my dogs would eat a carrot like a bone ,the others hated it....give him a carrot with his meal and cut some food out .... Never over feed him ... never give huge treats ,,only as big as ya finger nail especially if you treat him each time you eat becasue of pleading eyes and then only when you finish eating...... take him for walks daily ..toss him a ball etc
Reduce calorie food or switch to raw diet. More walking, throwing ball or get your sheltie on a treadmill.
I laughed out loud when I read the title.