Proper nutrition is very important for your dog’s health. Overweight dogs have an increased risk of heart disease, arthritis and diabetes. Obese and overweight dogs become reluctant to exercise and longer walks and tend to move much less. The less they move, the more weight they gain. It is hard to put a dog on a strict diet to lose weight. Much better is to feed him dog a healthy, well-balanced diet that is nutritious so the problems won’t even arise!

Count the calories! Yes, that sounds like something we humans have to do, but it is also important for your dog (and cats, but we will discuss the felines in a different forum). You can prolong your dog’s life by keeping the daily calorie intake appropriate. If in doubt, please ask your veterinarian for feeding suggestions, how much, how often, and how many calories your dog should be given per day.

You can also follow feeding directions on the dog food package. Keep in mind though, that very active dogs, especially dogs that run a lot or into agility training burn more calories than dogs that stay inside most of the time and are not too playful. The directions on the food packages are only guidelines, and might have to be adjusted depending on activity level of your animal.

Feed your dog nutritious, healthy food. Especially the no-brand-name dog foods that you can buy in supermarkets contain a lot of fillers and carbohydrates. We do recommend, if possible, to feed your animals organic food. See our article about Animals – Feeding where you can find a lot of information about the difference between organic and non-organic food. A balanced, healthy diet for your animal contains just the right amount of fat, carbohydrates and protein.

Your animal needs regular feeding times. Most people feed mornings and evenings. We do not advice to leave the food bowl up for grabs all day long. Even some dogs are not “nibblers”, they might become “nibblers” and will eat constantly. (Compare it with a bag of chips for us humans. It’s hard to eat just a few if they are kept in reach!). Don’t teach your dog this bad habit. He might eat out of boredom when you are not home – and gain weight. You can leave some dry kibbles in a separate bowl, just don’t forget to count these calories and deduct them from the two main portions.

Remember that treats given for training, praise, as rewards, filled in Kong Toys, etc. contain calories. Keep track of these calories and deduct the amount from the daily limit.

And speaking of treats, don’t give your dog cookies, or table scraps, offer healthy treats instead. Some of these treats are even designed to freshen your dog’s breath! We have reviewed several and so far two of them really found our approval (and our dogs). See the reviews on our sistersite >> PetStuffReviews – Dog Treats.