The reality is clear APOP’s 2017 clinical survey, showed that 56% of dogs were classified as clinically overweight (body condition score (BCS) 6-7) or obese (BCS 8-9) by their veterinary healthcare professional.
That equals an estimated 50.2 million dogs are too heavy, based on 2017 pet population projections provided by the American Pet Products Association (APPA). In 2016, APOP found 54% of dogs were overweight or obese. With all of the high quality foods on the market today, and pet owners expecting more for the health of their pets why is the problem getting worse?
Though you might think it’s obvious, here’s another statistic from APOP. Even though we know that 56% of dogs are overweight, 93% of dog owners think their dog is a healthy weight. And even though 93% of dog owners think their dog is a healthy weight, 43% of dog owners actually admit that they don’t know what a normal weight dog looks like. We can’t help are dog lose weight if we don’t know they need to lose it. Above is a diagram of what a normal dog should look like, but it can vary slight from dog to dog.
So if you see that your dog is overweight and you’re trying to get your dog to slim down but you’re having trouble, here’s 10 reasons as to why that might be happening. Continue reading 10 Reasons Your Dog Doesn’t Lose Weight
The reasons why we train this way is beyond the scope of this review, but it is what we do. However, I am always looking to integrate a variety of stability challenge pieces of equipment in a multitude of configurations to the curriculum.