Lessons from dog trainers

Today I watched a Brittish show called "It's me or the dog". http://animal.discovery.com/convergence/its-me-or-the-dog/bio/bio.html

It is a reality show about disobedient dogs and their owners. A super fab trainer, Victoria Stilwell, comes to the rescue and whips these families and dogs into behaving better.

Today it was truly like "The Biggest Loser" for dogs. There were three obese dogs who Victoria took on as clients. Most of the poor dogs had been fed into DOUBLE their ideal body weight by their owners. Unreal.

What struck me about the show today was how difficult it was for some of these families to get their dogs to lose weight! Literally every single calorie the pooch intakes can be controlled by the owner. There is no reason these dogs shouldn't have fabulous results. Two out of three families did really well and the pups got their figures back. The third kept slowly killing their dog by feeding it too much. By the end Victoria took the third pup for one month bootcamp and gave the dog its life back. 5 months later when she returned to the families, this dog was fat again at DOUBLE her ideal body weight.

I think this is unexcusable! It is much harder for humans to lose weight because we eat for other reasons besides hunger and we have an abundance of food available. A pet dog can only eat when it is given food. It is a form of animal abuse to not feed and exercise your dog properly.

My theory on why fatty beagle's "mom" was keeping the dog fat is that she wanted company. She couldn't allow her dog to be slim if she couldn't be slim herself. Sadly the "mom" kept gaining weight throughout the 6 months of taping.

I would venture a guess that if you have a fat dog, he or she is not getting enough exercise. This probably means you are not getting enough exercise. Get off your bum and help your dog lose weight. Hopefully in the process you will get fitter too!

I will leave you with the a quote from the show about over eating:
"A moment on the lips, is a life time on the hips."

Make good choices.

Salut i felicitat,
Kaisa