I am taking care of my friend's dog for 8 days. He is a yellow lab. Very overweight. They do not know how much he weighs, my guess is at least 125-130. My initial guess was that he could lose 50 lbs to be at a healthy weight.

How much weight do you think he can lose in 8 days with 2 walks a day 1 mile each. Currently, he does not get a lot of exercise, so plan to ease him into these walks and play 2 rounds of fetch per day.

What is reasonable and healthy? I've never worked with an obese dog and boy it felt different walking with him tonight. Good, just different.

What weight loss is reasonable in a week?
* 1 to 2 lbs
* 2 to 5 lbs
* 5 to 10 lbs
* 10 to ? lbs

I'd like to get him started for her and then give her something concrete to shoot for later. He's a great dog and has excellent leash manners, also loves fetch.
Oh, and just for the record, he was eating Purina and now she's changed him to Purina light or something. (it's mixed in with the regular purina, so don't know exactly what it is...)

 Quote: Michele McAtee

I am taking care of my friend's dog for 8 days. He is a yellow lab. Very overweight. They do not know how much he weighs, my guess is at least 125-130. My initial guess was that he could lose 50 lbs to be at a healthy weight.

Whoa! I saw a Lab that weighed 135 lbs. and that dog looked like an enormous stuffed sausage bursting out of its casing. Sad to see any animal so grossly obese.

I'm more familiar with human weight loss where the goal is 1-2 lbs/week. Slow and steady. Exercise and a good diet. I'd probably apply the same to my dog if he needed to lose weight. 5 lbs seems like an awful lot of weight to lose in 7 days.

A raw diet would get that weight off. Switching to a good-quality kibble would be helpful, healthful, and better than any Purina product.

If your friend needs an incentive to get serious about this, her dog has a high risk for health issues requiring costly vet visits if she doesn't get cracking on the diet and exercise. :wink:

i put him to eatting once a day it is not going to hurt him and for purina i dont like it but it is hard to say in this day and time

A dog that obese, I would limit exercise (HUGE stress on bones, joints, heart, lungs) and work on the food.

Purina is crap. There is very little nutrition in there which is probably why the dog is so fat in the first place. He needs quality nutrition, not quantity. Feed him a better food, if you want to stick with kibble choose (Canidae, Orijen, etc). Here's a hint: if you can buy it in a grocery store, don't feed it to the dog.

In addition to increasing the quality of his food, reduce the quantity. If the dog is feeling hungry, you can add some canned unsalted green beans or some other low calorie vegetables, or white rice to his food. He can gnaw on frozen carrots for a treat.

Slow steady exercise is the key, I wouldn't play fetch too long, a Lab would certainly over do it. Wait until some of the weight is off.

If your friend does not know how much the dog weighs now, she probably isn't weighing him and giving her a number of pounds to lose per week isn't going to help, IMO. A dog that size would be near impossible to weigh unless she takes him to the vet every week. I would just go by the dog's condition. Reducing his food (you could probably even halve his portions) and see how he looks in a week, there should be some noticeable change but nothing too drastic. Taking pictures is the easiest way to record accurate progress. His energy levels should gradually improve too.

Good luck! I applaud you and the dog will thank you when he has enough energy to fetch that ball!

I would also suggest suggesting that he be checked out by the vet. Having his thyroid checked, as this is often a cause for this much weight gain. Also it would probably be good for him to have a check up prior to any new exercise program.

Once a day is not often enough for a large dog that is used to being overfed twice a day. He'd be hungry all the time.
Wellness just started to get sold in PetCo so they wouldn't have to order a better food.

I plan to take him down to the vet tomorrow and weigh him, just to have a baseline.

I had no real idea what to expect with implementing a regular exercise regime. I already suggested raw, however, you all know how that goes. ?! Will mention the Wellness too.

No doubt on the thyroid check, I will pass that on too. He really does seem healthy and is motivated to get up and go. He is only 2 years old, however, I did think he was like 5 or something when I first met him.

Will definately keep things slow and steady and not overdo. WHat a great and easy guy to have around! MUCh different than my last pup (GSD).(no, I am not getting pulled to the "light" side HAA!)

Don't forget swimming, either. Maybe you have some water available to you?

the thing is, if they are feeding purina.....do you honestly think they are going to switch to something like wellness?

no matter HOW unhealthy the dog is? if they were honestly concerned about health, they would already be aware of better food, weight loss etc....

it breaks my heart. it's like people think labs are SUPPOSED to be that fat.....it's pure ignorance.

Mallory I have to disagree, what they feed has nothing to do with whether or not they care. Showing they don't care is understanding canine nutrition, that Purina is not a good food, and still choosing to feed Purina because it is cheap or convenient.

I know a lot of people that really care but just do not have the knowledge, from being brainwashed by pet store employees and vets.

P.S. Weight loss for such grossly obese dogs can be surprisingly fast and still done in a healthy way. Exercise AND reducing his calorie intake are great, but for 7 days I would still say no more than 5 pounds, probably to 3-4