Easy Tips to Keep Your Dog in Shape and Help It Lose Weight

With summer already at your door, you’ll want to spend even more time with your pooch outdoors, running, exercising, and playing. However, your busy working schedule, combined with the hectic family life can easily make you neglect your pet and, most importantly, its eating and sleeping patterns.

Keeping a dog with the rest of the family is not always a great idea because the animal can be overfed by various members. You give it a handful of kibbles right before going to work, while your daughter decides to serve it a delicious snack after she comes back from school.

At dinner, the dog puts on its long face and sad eyes until it’s left cleaning out the food scraps and licking the plates.

Unfortunately, all of these habits that are mainly done out of pure love can end up harming your pooch in the long term, leading it to gain weight and become obese. Along with obesity, it ca also suffer from a long list of health issues which includes limited mobility, back pains and bone pains, heavy breathing, heart problems, and diabetes.

If you want to keep your pet safe and allow it to live a strong, healthy, and active lifestyle, here are some tips you should follow.

Stick to a strict feeding schedule

Decide on just a member of the family that has the task of feeding the pet and don’t give in to its sad puppy eyes every time it wants a treat or a snack. By keeping a strict feeding schedule, your pet can lose a couple of pounds and become more active.

Based on your dog’s age and weight, we suggest feeding it three times a day while a pup and two times a day once it reaches adulthood.

Providing enough food for the entire day is not a smart technique as your pooch might eat it all at once. If you’re worried about overfeeding or not making it home in time to serve your pet dinner, you can always consider investing in an automatic dog feeder that will dispense the right amount of food every time.

Switch to organic food

One of the easiest ways to help your mutt lose a couple of pounds is to control the quality of the food you serve. If it is used to eating kibbles from regular brands that are rich in corn, starch, and empty calories that provide zero nutritional values, it’s high time you switched to organic food.

Check out this review on Wellness CORE grain free food and compare it with other brands and products until you find the mix and flavor your dog loves the most. Remember that the main ingredient in all foods should be proteins, closely followed by veggies or low-carb foods.

Check the ingredients

Not all organic food brands are designed to maintain a healthy weight for your dog, especially if it is not used to running or exercising daily. Therefore, you need to learn to check the labels properly and find the most suitable dog food.

If you’re feeding dry foods and kibbles, look for a minimum of 25% proteins, although a higher amount would be better. Dogs are mainly carnivorous animals so they will need a clean source of proteins, whether we’re talking about eggs, chicken, turkey, beef, lamb or fish.

The fat percentage shouldn’t exceed 16% either, although, ideally, should be around 12%. Keep in mind that apart from kibbles, your dog will also receive snacks, treats or even home-cooked food that adds to the total number of calories, carbs, and fats.

Foods that contain more than 5% fiber should also be avoided as it may interfere with the absorption of nutrients. And, if you’re not entirely sure of your pet’s diet requirements, it is best to talk to a veterinarian.

Be more active

All dogs require at least 20-30 minutes of physical activity daily, whether it’s indoors or outside. In the wintertime, you can keep your pet busy by hiding snacks throughout the house and asking it to find them.

From spring to late fall you can try all sorts of fun outdoor activities with your pet, including jogging, long walks, swimming, playing frisbee, hiking or camping.

This is a guest blog entry.