The Joy of One Pound Dropping

Anyone who has struggled to get their dog to lose weight can understand my excitement over Casey and Star losing one pound. Especially when I reveal no exercise was done in the three weeks since the first weigh-in.

So how did we accomplish losing the pound? Well it wasn’t a miracle. I’ve tried praying the pounds off, believe me, it doesn’t work. I credit the loss to a change in their dog food.

Scotty has some health issues, namely high cholesterol, which has him eating a low calorie dog food. I switched Casey and Star over to the same low calorie diet after talking to my vet. She agreed the change might benefit them and we were right.

I don’t except the dog food to continue to take the pounds off Casey and Star. And since it didn’t take anything off Scotty, an activity is needed. I’ll work on an idea and report back.

How Many Biscuits Does It Take?

Scotty isn’t crazy about dog biscuits. He will eat them, but only after he’s come to realize no better option is available. So it didn’t surprise me when I was handing them out and he didn’t take it. I set it on the floor in front of him, figuring, once I was done he’d give up his “better treat dream” and eat it.

Casey, on the other hand, doesn’t pass up anything. Another thing about him is he has a hamster mentality when it comes to food. He will stuff as much as he can in his mouth and go off and eat it at his own pace. So I guess it didn’t surprise me when, after he got his biscuit, he picked up Scotty’s and took both down the hall to eat in peace.

Scotty looked as sad as the kid who gets his candy stolen, how could I refuse him another? Apparently having his last biscuit stolen wasn’t enough to make him want to take the new offering from my hand, so I put it on the floor in front of him, again.

And again, Casey came out of nowhere and snatched it up. And again, Scotty looked to me.

I’ve caught on by now. This way wasn’t working. So I take one last biscuit out and call Scotty over to the couch. He jumped up and I put it in front of him. Casey came over and I held him back so he couldn’t get too close to the couch to steal it. Scotty looked down at the biscuit, licked it and it fell onto the floor in front of Casey!

I gave up.

The Challenge

I won’t bore you with the details when I can sum it up with facts: my dogs are overweight and I’m to blame. Simple. What isn’t is how I am going to get them to lose the weight. I live in the Midwest and anyone who lives in a place with similar seasons is shaking their head at the obvious. It's freeze-your-butt-off cold outside.

And let’s face it, the Midwest has only two seasons: too-damn-cold and too-damn-hot. So even in the Summer months I find myself sheltered inside away from the heat. So that is my excuse for why I have allowed my dogs to be overweight, when the cause of it is not enough exercise, for far too long.

But that is my challenge: to get them to lose weight despite not being able to walk them outside on a regular basis. And I’m going to share how I do it all with you.