Poseidon's weight and idiots (rant...sorry) - Page 2

Lori Z · 07-02-2008, 05:39 PM

omgosh I also wanted to add that I think is bizarre and incredibly rude for people to just burst out with comments about your dog. I'm sorry about that, I don't get the rudness. AND we have a society with many, many, many fat dogs lumbering around, it is horrible, most dogs I see are overweight at a place like petsmart, once over 5years of age and I would NEVER say anything to those owners but it bugs me.

reddobes · 07-02-2008, 11:03 PM

I agree w/ some of the others in that people are so used to seeing overweight animals that many think it's the norm. I regularly have people that are surprised that I tell them their pet is overweight. This is especially true of cats... or they ask if their normal weight cat is "too thin".
In fact, just tonight I told my neighbor that his dog needs to go on a diet

Patches Mom · 07-02-2008, 11:47 PM

MIL was complaining about her Papillon panting too much I just told her she is too FAT her answer was well I'm not going to starve her??? None of my dogs have been overweight except Patches was up too 15# over winter now is 13.7# still want her to loose a little more.My MIL,sister & Mother all think I'm mean because I feed Patches 1/8 of a cup in the am & 1/8 of a cup in the pm. If exercising trotting beside the scooter I may give her a tad more.My sister got a rescue Boston Terrier he looked great now weighs 46#. I could scream they keep calling him a Bulldog he is not a Bulldog he is a Boston Terrier. My son has a Bulldog weighs a great weight of 47#he looks great.Ok sorry for my vent but know how you feel I do agree older dogs may loose some muscle may look thiner & feel a little bonier.I think some people with overweight dogs defend their dogs being over weight by saying other dogs are too skinny. They have to know deep down inside they are wrong to keep feeding their dogs too much but cannot resist Fluffy's begging eyes & ways. Dogs will try until the day they die to see if they can get something better to eat its hard wired into their brains.MIL says dogs will not over eat she free feeds.HA
Patches Mom

dusuwho · 07-03-2008, 02:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dobermandude

sounds like jealousy to me. when do people put things down the most? when they are envious of it. they are amazed at how beautiful your dog is, and feel the need to find the most "flawed" thing and slip in a remark to bring you down. just laugh, and wish them luck in life cause they are gonna need it.

Your signiture picture is really nice by the way

Nicola · 07-03-2008, 05:05 AM

people are quick to pass judgement when they have no knowledge to base it on... i mean if you were to walk up to someone and ask them, then fair enough, they can offer their opinion. but why do people feel the need to offer their opinion when it's not required?! obviously if a dog is skin and bone and clearly malnourished i would feel the urge to say something... but every dog is different and i put a lot of thought and effort in to what's right for my dogs - people obviously don't realise that.

people think my lab x dalmation Shadow is thin but that is only because when i got him he was drastically overweight... so they have seen him shrink! i was not overly concerned after people had said this to me but i spoke to my vet and he said that he is one of the healthiest dogs he's ever seen and that he looks like a working dog at peak health

and at first glance thought he was 2-3 years rather than 6-7!

Shadow stayed at my sister and brother in law's for a week with strict instructions about his feeding requirements (he would eat til he popped if allowed). I got him back and it turns out my brother in law's parents had felt the urge to 'feed him up a bit' and boy could i tell by his weight! I was so angry.... and poor Shadow groaned for the next 2 days because his stomach couldn't cope.

i feel more angry when i see dogs who are overweight - to me that is abuse and makes me very sad to see.

i'll stop ranting now... it's quite a sensitive subject for me!

Burns and Lexxsmom - you know your dogs and you know what's right - i guess people just don't see that many healthy dogs about.

Nicola · 07-03-2008, 05:23 AM

here is a before and after of Shadow following his diet - sorry they're not the best quality. he is a much happier dog now

LPacker79 · 07-03-2008, 08:28 AM

I had a lab come into my store last week that had no waist. Absolutely none. I overheard her talking to another customer about the dog and his size, and the owner said "You can see he's just big, he's not fat." I almost passed out. Not fat? He's freaking jiggling!

On the other hand, I've seen some godawful skinny dogs, usually at the vet. I had customers complaining left and right about this one dog one day, it looked like a lab mix of some sort. It was very very skinny. I talked to the lady a little bit later, and it turns out this dog is 17 years old and they couldn't keep weight on it. They had even been feeding it satin balls to try to put some weight on it and it wasn't working.

I think people are too quick to pass judgement.

I didn't think of the boniness coming with age, that does make sense. Poseidon's been 55lbs for at least 3 years, he went to 56lbs over the past 8 months or so. So him being 54lbs right now should not be making such a difference that people are telling me he's skinny.

Not a great picture (blurry), but here he is 3 weeks ago at 53lbs.

Of course when he's sitting or laying he looks a lot different but he always has. He's not a very large bodied dog. (these were taken the same day as the last pic)

As for food, he won't eat anymore than I'm giving him and there's days where he chooses not to eat at all (like every Sibe I've known). They're known for having an efficient metabolism. Poseidon's been free fed his entire life. I think if he were a lab he would have exploded by now LOL.

**Burns** · 07-03-2008, 08:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LPacker79

I didn't think of the boniness coming with age, that does make sense.

You get more muscle wasting as you get older - we see it a lot with cats too. They just lose msucle mass and feel bony, especially over the hips. And that translates into weight loss. Joints become painful with arthritis, making the animal less active and therefore loses muscle tone, or there can be more serious underlying diseases causing the weight loss and muscle wasting.

thea2003 · 07-03-2008, 09:37 AM

The problem is now days, everyones pets are TOO FAT!!!!!
So the dog that is of the right weight in everyones eyes looks too skinny.
Someone made a comment about how skinny my dog was, at the time i thought she could dtand to lose a couple pounds(couldnt feel her ribs)
Anyways dont let it bug you, people just dont know what a "healthy" dog looks like, as opposed to an obese dog.

I will admit I have one OBESE cat, she is 15lbs, I need to put her on a diet, but my problem is my other cat cannot keep wieght on and diet food makes her vomit.

I may have to go a prescription diet like m/d just to get the weight off her, but the other cats would steal her food.

Also we had a cat come into the clinic i used to work at and she was so fat she couldnt groom herself one time she came in to be groomed and had maggots around her hind end, they had tried putting her on diet food, but then she started having kidney and liver issues, so they didnt keep her on a diet, she was so fat, that to get her out of crate you had to undo the screws.

Lori Z · 07-03-2008, 11:57 AM

Ahh see now to me he has that older dog boniness look to him. A lot like my Sierra. He is beautiful old guy! Funny you were asked if he was an "Alaska Husky" I am always asked if Sierra is a border collie, which never fails to suprise me since although she is a black tri, she has a docked tail...whatever, most people are dog ignorant. The body structure of the australian shepherd and the border is different but I suppose only people who know the breeds well would see that.