Bragging on the weight loss

Dr. Becker will be so proud.

In the book due out this spring (What? What do you mean, “What book?” Your Dog, The Owner’s Manual. Where have you been?), a key topic will be watching your pet’s weight. We say it here all the time. All things being equal, if you want a predictor of the health and longevity of your pet, look at their weight.

I am ashamed to admit that until the past couple years, exhibits A and B in the display of Dogs Who Need To Get Slim Pronto were Cami and Harry. Cami Missy Diva Piglet Punky Girl weighed in 19.9 pounds in May of 2009. That was her chunkiest. Harry Potter Dachshund Greene is built bigger than his sister anyway (since he’s a boy), and as recently as last June, he was 22.8 pounds. At his sausageiest (that is too a word — don’t get all Merriam Webster on me), Harry tipped the scales at 26.4 during his annual physical in August of 2008.

Today, I took them in for a routine visit. Drum roll please…..

Cami is down to 15.9, and her brother is 18.4. The sveltest our furry little Teckels have been since, well, a long time ago. They have tapered little waists again. While they’re nowhere near skin and bones, I can feel their ribs.

The weight loss has been a long, gradual process that didn’t begin in earnest until I got religion from our resident veterinarians (particularly the blond dude with the blue shirt, red tie and long publishing history). Here, for the first time, I can reveal to the readers of Pet Connection what our secret was to achieving this remarkable level of health.  I think it’s fair to say it’s a groundbreaking new weight loss regimen.

Ready?

Our secret was….diet and exercise. I’ll wait a moment for you to write it down. Diet and exercise. Or, if you prefer, exercise and diet.

Diet: We stopped feeding them the standard crap that they had been ingesting morning and night for the first eight years of their lives. After returning from last year’s Global Pet Expo, we switched them to Force from The Honest Kitchen (full disclosure, a Pet Connection sponsor, though I pay what everyone else pays. I receive no kickbacks, monetary or other remuneration for saying how much I love their product. If I stopped blogging tomorrow, Cami and Harry would still be eating Force, occasionally with mashed butternut squash stirred in).

Also, the only treats they get are raw baby carrots, raw string beans and pea pods. Plus, for extra special desserts, JillCookies delivered fresh from Bozeman, Montana, courtesy of Cami and Harry’s BFF Jill Gibbs. That’s the entire diet.  In other words, no more crap.

Exercise: A definite advantage of working from home is I can take an hour out of my day to take the kids on a long, vigorous walk around the neighborhood, or through the meadows and wooded trails just a few miles away from us.

I’ve tried to be good about this, though this winter has made some weeks more treacherous than others. Still, when we go, I keep up a pretty good clip, and the goal is to get them panting and ready to conk out in the car, as they did today in this picture.

That’s it, really. That’s how they’ve gone from being, frankly, walking risks for Dachshund spinal disorders (weight is the #1 risk factor) to being their current, pesky little track star selves.  I’d still like for them to shed another pound or so apiece, but I’m very happy with the progress we’ve made with them in just the past two years.

It can be done. If your pet is porkier than they should be, don’t just throw your hands up and say, “That’s the way it is, I guess.” If Cami and Harry can slim down, anyone can.

Photo credits: Both pictures, David Greene. Top, Cami’s diet has improved, but she’s ever hopeful that a wheel of brie will fall from the sky. Bottom, exhausted dachshunds after a romp in the woods.

View the original article here

Lab Eats One-Eighth His Weight in Cookies

Gus, clearly contemplating cookies. (Oh, do I ever know that Lab expression...)

Leave it to a yellow Lab. Gus, a Wisconsin dog with a very large sweet tooth, is the first nominee of 2011 for this year’s VPI Hambone Award, thanks to his snarfing a very large amount of cookies — one-eighth his weight, according to VPI — in one sitting over the holidays.

Gus, age 2, didn’t appear to have much interest in a never-ending supply of cookies, fudge, and other treats his owners would leave out on their counter during the holidays. Most were covered with plastic wrap on trays, or in tins. His people were lulled into a false sense of security, and left to go out one day, never suspecting that innocent-looking Gus would Hoover up the goodies.

“We came back from an afternoon Packers game, and everything was gone,” owner Ken Boll said on Gus’s Hambone page. “And there’s Gus standing in the kitchen, wagging his tail, happy as can be.” Here’s what Gus ate: Every cookie on the counter, a plate of fudge, and the plastic wrap that had been covering the fudge. He even started chewing on a metal cookie tin. “He left the chocolate covered blueberries,” Boll said. “He must not have liked those.”

Of course, when the Bolls discovered what Gus had done, they rushed him to the doggy emergency room, where a vet helped him vomit up five pounds of holiday cheer. Boll said Gus wasn’t in any discomfort before or after, and that they’re going to be extra careful about leaving food anywhere within harm’s way from now on.

View the original article here

Weight Lifting & Weight Training

Instruction on weight lifting with free weights. General fitness and weight training. Safety tips for weight lifting. Tips on lifting at home & on the road. Strength training instruction.

Check it out!