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How The Right Diet Can Help Your Dog Lose Weight

Amy Tokic
by Amy Tokic
Updated:  May 6th, 2024 Published:  May 5th, 2022

The pet obesity epidemic is rightfully named so – according to Association for Pet Obesity Prevention, an estimated 60% of cats and 56% of dogs in the United States are overweight or obese, and the numbers are only growing each year.

These are alarming rates, considering that obesity is directly linked with a number of serious health issues, including cardiac disease, diabetes, and cancer, and has been associated with a shorter lifespan in dogs through scientific studies. According to Dogster, around 22% of dogs in the US are considered obese while 32% of owners with overweight or obese pets consider their pets normal. Needless to say, making sure your pet is at a healthy weight should be one of your primary concerns as a responsible pet parent, as it can help majorly improve your pet’s quality (and longevity) of life, as well as help prevent many serious illnesses. Obesity can reduce a dog's lifespan by up to 2.5 years! But the big question is how do you help your dog lose weight? One way is to try a pet food specifically formulated to do just that. Right now, you can get Hill’s Science Diet featured products for up to 15% off.


If you're unsure if your dog needs to lose weight, you can follow these few steps provided by the American Kennel Club:

  1. Observe Your Dog’s Body Shape: Look at your dog from above to see if the body appears round and oval-shaped, which indicates obesity. A healthy weight dog will have a noticeable waist and straight sides.
  2. Feel for Ribs: Check the prominence of your dog’s ribs. If you can feel the ribs easily without pressing hard, your dog is likely at a healthy weight. Difficulty in feeling the ribs because of excessive fat suggests overweight.
  3. Side View Analysis: View your dog from the side. A raised waist and a tucked-up abdomen are signs of a healthy weight. An oval-shaped or sagging waist indicates overweight.
  4. Check for Fat Pads: Feel for any excess fat, particularly around the hips and between the legs. Overweight dogs often have noticeable fat pads.
  5. Monitor Behavior: Observe your dog’s activity level and mobility. An inactive lifestyle, difficulty moving, breathing problems, and excessive tiredness during activity can all be signs of being overweight.
  6. Weigh Your Dog Regularly: Regular weigh-ins at the vet are important. The vet can compare your dog’s weight to a body condition score chart to determine if your dog is at an appropriate weight for its breed and size.


What You Can Do to Help Your Pet Lose Weight in a Healthy Way

Image by simona pilolla 2/Shutterstock.com


Unlike us, dogs can’t just hit the gym after binging on junk food. While beneficial and necessary for their overall health, exercise can't entirely compensate for a healthy diet. Dogs need to have a good balance of daily movement and a healthy diet; that combination is the best way to help them get to and maintain a healthy weight while keeping things natural. Take your pet on daily walks, play fetch or Frisbee, let them run around your backyard, or explore nature on hikes together. It will help them stay fit and healthy, for sure – not to mention be quite fun for them – but on its own, it may not help shed off all of those extra pounds. Combining exercise with a healthy diet is the best way to get the results you want.


“Weight loss begins and ends at the food bowl for dogs and cats,” Ernie Ward, DVM, and founder of the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention (APOP), tells American Kennel Club. “Weight loss for humans and dogs is 60-70% diet and 30-40% exercise.”


Get 15%-off Select bags of Hill's Science Diet Specialty Foods at PetSmart.com! Valid 5/1 - 5/31




Image by evrymmnt/Shutterstock.com


Unlike us, dogs can’t just hit the gym after binging on junk food. While beneficial and necessary for their overall health, exercise can't entirely compensate for a healthy diet. Dogs need to have a good balance of daily movement and a healthy diet; that combination is the best way to help them get to and maintain a healthy weight. Take your pet on daily walks, play fetch or Frisbee, let them run around your backyard, or explore nature on hikes together. It will help them stay fit and healthy, for sure – not to mention be quite fun for them – but on its own, it may not help shed off all of those extra pounds. Combining exercise with a healthy diet is the best way to get the results you want.


Get 15%-off Select bags of Hill's Science Diet Specialty Foods at PetSmart.com! Valid 5/1 - 5/31

One of Our Favorite Weight Control Foods for Dogs

One great example of a high-quality weight control food for dogs is Hill's® Science Diet® Perfect Weight Adult Dog Food. Made with natural ingredients and packed with protein, it puts an emphasis on lean muscle maintenance, while also providing optimal ingredients for weight management. High in protein and high in fiber, this dog food includes L-carnitine and coconut oil to support your pet’s metabolism and encourage healthy weight loss. In fact, the effects and the efficiency of this formula have been clinically proven to work wonders for obese and overweight dogs: over the course of 10 weeks, over 70% of dogs who were fed Hill's® Science Diet® Perfect Weight Adult Dog Food lost weight. That’s quite impressive considering that this is not an unhealthy diet for quick fat loss, but a nourishing, sustainable diet that can be fed exclusively to maintain ideal weight throughout your dog’s life.


Calculating Caloric Needs for Weight Loss in Dogs

When embarking on a weight loss plan for your dog, the initial step involves your veterinary care team determining the necessary caloric intake for weight reduction. This calculation is tailored to the unique needs of your dog, utilizing various formulas that consider average needs, but adjustments will likely be necessary as the plan progresses.


It's crucial to maintain regular communication with your veterinary team to adjust the calorie count as needed, ensuring it aligns with your dog's changing weight management requirements.


Caloric Calculation and Monitoring by Your Veterinary Team

Your vet might request a detailed food diary to better understand your dog's current caloric intake. This diary should include everything your dog consumes over several days. From there, your vet can set a starting point for caloric reduction based on the specific energy density of the prescribed weight-loss dog food. This precise approach highlights why it's important to stick with one type of weight-loss food unless advised otherwise by your vet.


For more accuracy in portion control, your vet will likely recommend measuring your dog's food in grams using a kitchen scale rather than cups or cans, which can lead to overfeeding or underfeeding. Adjusting food portions is significantly more precise with a scale, facilitating easier and more effective modifications to the diet plan.


Introducing New Weight-Loss Food

Introducing new food should be a gradual process, especially for dogs with sensitive stomachs or picky eating habits. Start by mixing a small portion of the new food with their current food, gradually increasing the new food's proportion over approximately three weeks. This slow transition helps mitigate gastrointestinal upset and allows your dog to adjust to the new taste and texture.

Once your dog has started to accept the new diet, follow the recommended transition schedule:


  • Step 1: Mix 25% of the new food with 75% of the old food.
  • Step 2: Mix 50% of the new food with 50% of the old food.
  • Step 3: Mix 75% of the new food with 25% of the old food.
  • Step 4: Give 100% of the new food.


If your dog is hesitant about the new food, consult your vet for strategies to make the food more appealing, such as warming the food or adding a palatable supplement.


Managing Treats During Weight Loss

While treats don't have to be eliminated, their management becomes crucial in a weight-loss regimen. Treats should constitute no more than 10% of the total caloric intake. For example, if your dog's diet consists of 600 calories per day, only 60 calories should come from treats. This requires careful selection and portion control of treats, and possibly consulting with your veterinary team to integrate treat consumption into the overall dietary plan without exceeding caloric limits.

Image by Poltavets Anastasiia/Shutterstock.com


Combined with physical activity your pet is comfortable with, be it a short walk around the block to start with, or hour-long play sessions in the dog park, an optimized weight management food formula such as this one by Hill’s can help you put your dog back on track with their health and quality of life. Losing weight may help improve their joint health and mobility, reduce the risk of cardiac disease, diabetes, and cancer, and increase their chances of living long, happy lives by your side.


To find out how much exercise your dog may need, try this dog exercise calculator to figure out a good starting point.


Get 15%-off Select bags of Hill's Science Diet Specialty Foods at PetSmart.com! Valid 5/1 - 5/31


Feature Image by studio37th/Shutterstock.com

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Amy Tokic
Amy Tokic

Amy Tokic, Editor of PetGuide.com, is a passionate animal lover and proud pet parent of Oscar, a Shih Tzu/Chihuahua cross, and Zed, a Japanese Chin. Her love of animals began in kindergarten, when she brought her stuffed dog Snoopy into class with her every day. Now, she writes about her adventures in pet ownership and tirelessly researches products, news and health related issues she can share with other animal enthusiasts. In her free time, Amy loves perusing used book and record stores, obsessing over the latest pet products available and chasing squirrels with wild abandon (a habit attributed to spending too much time with her pooches).

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Descriptions of paranormal encounters with the ghosts of deceased loved ones can be found in many human cultures. According to a YouGov survey, two in five Americans believe ghosts are real, while one in five report they’ve actually seen a ghost. In most cases, these paranormal experiences involve a deceased family member. But what about paranormal encounters with deceased pets? After all, most American paw parents consider their cats and dogs members of the family.Jennifer Golbeck, a computer science professor at the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland, recently conducted the very first systemic study of the supernatural experiences of grieving pet owners. The results of the study were published in the journal Anthrozoos.Golbeck ran the study using social media, posting a question on Instagram and X (formerly known as Twitter): “If you have lost a dog, have you had an experience like seeing their ghost, receiving a sign, did they communicate with you?” Then, she developed a coding system to categorize the answers.Golbeck received 544 responses, which she organized into two large categories - physical experiences (hearing, seeing, and touching the ghost of the dog) and interpreted experiences (receiving visits from the deceased dog in dreams, seeing signs in nature, and attributing feelings and phenomena to the spirit of the dog). A total of 315 owners experienced sensory encounters involving their dogs' ghost. The owners felt their dog’s touch, heard ghostly sounds, and saw their deceased pet. The most common sensory experience (37% of cases) involved hearing the dog, like a bark or the sound of nails clicking on the floor. Almost half (44.4%) of the physical experiences happened at night, and 45 owners reported that they’ve felt their dog lying in the bed next to them. According to Golbeck, 264 owners experienced interpreted interactions with the ghost of their dog. These included dreams in which the dog appeared, ghostly activities, such as objects moving, and signs in nature, which owners interpreted as messages from the deceased pet. Golbeck also asked the owners to describe their feelings about their supernatural experiences. The majority of respondents (74.6%) reported positive feelings, such as a sense of comfort, protection, reassurance, and even a gift. Only in a few cases (9%) owners reported feelings that fell into the mixed/sad category, including bittersweet, spooky, and heartbroken. The remaining pet owners (16%) viewed the paranormal encounters as messages from the deceased pet. According to Golbeck, these findings are significant because “psychology largely categorizes externalized continuing bonds - particularly seeing ghosts - as negative and even maladaptive.”On the other hand, the majority of pet parents participating in this study considered their supernatural experiences comforting rather than distressing. “This suggests there is something different going on in the grieving process for dog guardians that makes supernatural encounters operate differently than they do in more typical human mourning,” Golbeck wrote in the study.The study’s author also noted that there are only a few socially accepted rituals around pet animal deaths and no recognized mourning period. Often, pet owners' grief is downplayed, which creates an experience of disenfranchised grief where the owner is denied the grieving process. Golbeck also added that ghosts typically have a bad reputation, and are considered scary or a sign of guilt. However, she argues that seeing the ghosts of dead pets can be psychologically healthy, as they are displays of continuing bonds. “A seemingly magical visit from a ghost of a beloved lost dog offers a feeling of the mystical, the special, and a signifier of the importance of the relationship,” said Golbeck. “Such experiences would reasonably be seen as validating and comforting in the face of the invalidation of disenfranchised grief.”Join the PetGuide community. Get the latest pet news and product recommendations by subscribing to our newsletter here.

Meet the Lancashire Heeler, the AKC's Newest Dog Breed

Say hello to the Lancashire heeler - the American Kennel Club’s 201st recognized dog breed and the newest member of the Herding group. Although small in stature, Lancashire heelers are active and sturdy dogs ready to compete with 200 other dog breeds at thousands of U.S dog shows.“A small, powerful herding dog that thrives on human interaction, this breed would make a great companion for active families that can provide a great deal of love and attention," said Gina DiNardo, American Kennel Club’s Executive Secretary.These small dogs have long bodies and short coats, often black and tan or liver and tan. The Lancashire heeler is a solidly built dog that is around one foot (30 centimeters) tall at the shoulders and weighs up to 17 pounds (7.7 kilograms). Traditionally, Lancashire heelers worked on farms as ratters and herders. Today, these feisty dogs participate in various canine sports and pursuits.“They are gritty little dogs, and they are very intelligent little dogs,” said Patricia Blankenship, who has bred Lancashire heelers for over a decade. “It’s an enjoyable little breed to be around,” she added. The official breed standard calls for Lancashire heelers to be courageous, happy, and affectionate to owner. The owners of these pooches say that happy heelers sometimes pull their lips back and smile. These small but powerful dogs won’t be content to lounge around all the time. They are highly energetic and just as skilled in performance sports as they are in conformation. Lancashire heelers can be found competing in agility, herding, obedience, rally, barn hunt, tracking, disk dog, dock diving, and therapy trials. “There are even a couple that have competed in Earth dog and weight-pull events,” said Sheryl Bradbury, President of the United States Lancashire Heeler Club (USLHC), according to AKC. “It’s a breed that will work hard all day and is happy to curl up at your side and watch the TV news at night.”“The breed is different but in a good way,” said Jeff Kestner, Club Chair of Judges’ Education Committee. “It’s not a run-of-the-mill dog. Its eyes and expression are like magnets. Being a herding breed it's extremely intelligent - it definitely needs a job to do.” According to Bradbury, the biggest misconception about the Lancashire heeler is that it’s adorable and sweet and the perfect size to sit on your lap. “I always caution the buyers to not let a puppy’s cuteness fool you. The minute it is off your lap it may be chewing your shoes or nipping at your heels. Conversely, it will be your loyal best friend.”This cute breed often develops a strong bond with one household member. They will like to interact with the entire family but will pick a favorite person. “It is great with children as long as the children understand how to respect the dog,” added Bradbury. The breed’s origin is packed with mystery but they were first bred in the United Kingdom. The Lancashire heeler is regarded as a “vulnerable native breed” and faces extinction in its homeland. The United Kingdom’s Kennel Club has added an average of just 121 Lancashire heelers to its registry in recent years.Being recognized as a dog breed doesn’t mean that the breed in question is newly created. To officially recognize the Lancashire heeler, the American Kennel Club required proof of a minimum of 20 litters bred with a three-generation pedigree. This guarantees that the breed is established and sustainable. According to Bradbury, there are around 400 Lancashire heelers nationwide but there’s no doubt we’ll see more of these dogs in the future. Join the PetGuide community. Get the latest pet news and product recommendations by subscribing to our newsletter here.

Ready for the Solar Eclipse? What You Need to Know

Sunglasses? Sunblock? Treats? What should your solar eclipse arsenal include?

Check Out Giant Dogs On the Free 2024 Calendar of the Portland USACE

Who knew that calendars featuring gigantic cats could be such a hit! Last year, the Pacific Northwest-based U.S. military personnel issued their own calendars which featured enormous kitties that oversaw construction projects making a seemingly ordinary calendar - a ton of fun. Needless to say, their hilarious (and completely free) calendar went viral, so they wanted to repeat last year’s success. This year, however, the Portland branch of the US Army Corps of Engineers, which is based in Oregon, decided to “branch out”, and their new yearly 2024 calendar will feature gigantic doggos as well. This was a logical follow-up to their viral social media campaign of the previous year, when kittens stole the show. The personnel of this military branch handles tough civil works in the whole of Oregon and southwestern Washington, so a bit of lighthearted humor really goes a long way for them. Their staff got the idea of superimposing photos of cats and dogs into quality landscape photos of the most important public infrastructure projects that the teams were involved with. The idea was an instant hit. And now, their 2024 calendars in both cat and dog editions can be freely downloaded in a PDF format, allowing quick and easy printing. You can find the dog calendar here and the cat calendar here.“This product was created to tell the story of our district and what we do in a way that’s actually enjoyable for the average member of the public,” Portland district spokesman Chris Gaylord said. Mr. Gaylord further said that the whole project was their effort to portray an otherwise rough and industrial work in a more entertaining light. And it is also a way for the workers to get some steam off as well. After all, they are busy throughout the year, operating more than 700 dams and 12,000 miles of inland waterways. “It was really so inspiring to see how much joy this little product brought to people all over the world,” Gaylord said, after their first calendar “won over the internet”, getting an incredible 530,000 downloads on their website. To make matters even more memorable, the photos of the pets are from the employees themselves! Gaylord received almost 750 photos from 150 workers. Choosing just a few to include in the calendar was no easy task. But to make everyone satisfied, a page at the end of the calendar includes a grid with most of the pets that did not make it onto the big pages. What do you think – which pooch of the month is your fave?

What Are the Symptoms of Dementia in Dogs?

As the years go by, health issues tend to pile up, even in canines. Old age can bring a range of problems – some doggos have troubles with arthritis and limited mobility, while others suffer from cognitive decline and experience issues such as dementia. That’s right, even dogs can suffer from dementia, which is also known as canine cognitive dysfunction (CCD). This illness can bring about some troubling changes in your pet’s behavior, and it would be wise to be familiar with all the symptoms of dementia, especially if you are a senior dog owner. Let’s go over them and get familiar with the challenges of canine dementia.Doggy Dementia: Symptoms and What To ExpectAs your pet reaches their golden years, some issues are bound to pop up, including dementia. Known as canine cognitive dysfunction, it has similar symptoms to Alzheimer's disease in humans. The main cause is the aging of the dog’s brain, which results in many troubling issues. Of course, CCD doesn’t happen to all old dogs. Latest studies revealed that it only happens to roughly 50% of dogs that are over 11 years old. Of course, if you own a senior doggo, it is wise to get to know the symptoms of dog dementia. Here are some of the most common ones:Confusion and Disorientation:As dementia sets in, your pet might seem suddenly disoriented and awfully confused. They could get lost in spaces that should be all too familiar to them (the house for example), or could just stand and stare blankly into space. Major Sleep Pattern Changes:Dogs tend to have a solid sleep routine. But with dementia, this can suddenly change. They could experience alterations in their sleep-wake cycle, sleep a lot during the day, and become restless and sleepless throughout the entire night.Loss of Interest:Your dog, with dementia, could suddenly become a totally different pet. They could lose all interest in common interactions. They could have zero interest in playing with you or interacting with the family members. The same goes for interacting with other pets, or playing with toys - even if they were their favorites. Forgetting Housetraining:

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