How to Put Your Dog on a Diet Properly
A clumsy puppy can be an adorable little chonker, but if your pet is big enough and the vet says it’s time to lose weight, it can be difficult to figure out exactly how to diet. Here are some tips to help you fulfill your plan without disrupting their diet every night when they start puppy eyes on your pizza.
Develop a plan with your veterinarian first
In the same way that there is no best diet for humans , there are many approaches that can work for your pet, but it’s difficult to stick to a plan if you don’t actually have one. If “just feed them less” still doesn’t work, you may need some specific guidance on what and how much to feed your pet, and what to do instead of regular treats.
Luckily, if your veterinarian tells you that your pet needs to lose weight, this is the person who can help you plan. Make sure they capture some features that you can work with or point you towards someone who can. The American Association of Animal Hospitals (AAHA) guidelines state that an appropriate plan should include:
- Real target weight for your pet
- How to reduce calories
- What foods and treats they should eat
- A plan for how much to eat and how much exercise they should do.
- Schedule a return visit to see how things are going
If you’ve noticed that your pet may be losing weight, ask about it the next time you visit the vet – both to make sure your assessment is correct and to develop a solid plan.
It’s important to make sure everyone who cares for your pet agrees with the plan and that you communicate well. You don’t want to feed your dog dinner and then ask your partner to feed him a second dinner an hour later.
Measure to track how much your dog eats
You need to specify exactly how much food you feed him, especially if your pet is small. Your veterinarian’s plan should include the number of calories per day; break that down by their usual number of meals, plus the treat allowance (AAHA offers 10% on treats).
It may be that a full can of cat food is too many calories for one meal, so you may need to weigh the correct amount of food and store the rest in the refrigerator until your next meal. Annoying but worth being able to stick to a plan.
How much exercise does your dog need?
It’s the same in pets and humans, where diet is more important than exercise when it comes to losing weight or maintaining weight, but exercise is still good for us no matter what. Of course, the right amount of exercise depends on the dog, so your plan should include some idea of how to get the right amount of exercise for your pet. With dogs, it’s simple: start with a few short walks and work your way up to longer walks. If they love to run in a dog park, visit the dog park more often.
For cats, exercise will be mostly in the form of play and “enrichment,” in other words, making their home more interesting. If they love chasing a laser pointer or running through boxes, give them more options to do so.
Find ways not to say no
A hungry pet will beg for food. A bored pet can also beg for food. If you’re comfortable with being cool and just saying no – congratulations, it’ll be easy for you. But most of us don’t, and that’s okay. We love them. They are hungry. They whine. We’re reaching for treats.
As Deborah Linder writes in The Conversation , treats are one way to show love for our pets. But there are other ways to express love or respond to a request. Of them:
- Encourage or entertain your pet with things that are not food, such as throwing a ball. Often times, begging has more to do with the desire to play with you than the food itself.
- Use puzzles with food to slow food pet and entertain him.
- Feed your pet when you play games with it so that it “earns” food by performing tricks (they just get food and attention at the same time, so it doesn’t really work if they’re having fun).
- Find low-calorie treats that you can feed your pet without breaking their diet.
- Feeding time so that if there is a certain time for them to beg, they are already full. Cats are especially fond of eating at night, so you can set the timer feeder to go off while you sleep.
And if your pet asks while you eat, the easiest way is to keep him out of the kitchen while eating, so that the food is out of sight and out of sight.
This story was originally published in 2019 and has been updated with the Lifehacker style guidelines.