Seven easily overlooked factors that could be affecting your dog’s weight

Maintaining an appropriate and healthy weight for life can help to ensure that your dog lives for longer and maintains a good quality of life too. Being overweight not only means that your dog will look a little round around the edges and not be as fit and lively as they could be, but it also places additional stress and pressure on their joints and bones, as well as increasing the risks of problems like heart disease as your dog ages.

Dogs that are underweight, although less common, also aren’t as robust and healthy as they should be, and helping an underweight dog to gain weight can be just as challenging as slimming down a rather paunchy pooch!

However, finding the right balance of diet and exercise for your dog so that they remain at a healthy weight for life can be difficult, as there are so many different factors to consider as part of the equation. Every dog owner knows that too much food and not enough exercise leads to weight gain, and vice versa – but in this article, we will look at seven easily overlooked things that could be affecting your dog’s weight, and ability to gain or lose weight as needed. Read on to learn more.

Worm infestation

Intestinal worms in dogs can be prevented with the regular use of a veterinary-approved worming product, but because dogs will often have worms without the owner realising it, it is all too easy to skip a dose or be little lax about keeping to a schedule.

Worm infestations that are acute and present for a while can lead to your dog losing a lot of weight whilst maintaining a keen appetite, and being unable to gain weight. Worms can also cause dogs to develop a bloated, pot-bellied appearance, which can make them look as if they are overweight when in fact they may be malnourished.

Fortunately, to resolve the issue all you need to do is ask your vet to recommend an appropriate wormer for your dog and use it appropriately.

Your dog’s build and breed

Different breeds and types of dogs have different builds, average weight ranges and levels of musculature – for instance, the English bulldog is perhaps the most stocky and muscular of all of the dog breeds that are commonly seen in the UK, but their accepted average weight range falls a couple of kilograms below that of the Greyhound, which is of course a very lean, leggy dog with a very low bodyfat ratio.

This means that there is no arbitrary table of normal weight-to-height ratios that work for all dogs, and different breeds and types of dog have very different average builds, regardless of their actual weight.

Taking into account your dog’s conformation and natural build is important in order to assess their weight and healthy norms, and your dog’s breed and type are important factors to consider when working out where your dog lies along the weight scale that is appropriate for them.

Not feeding a balanced diet

Overfeeding your dog will of course lead to weight gain, whilst not feeding them enough will lead to weight loss – but maintaining a healthy weight balance depends on feeding the right types of food, as well as the amount that you feed.

If you give your dog scraps from your own dinner when you have finished eating, even if you measure out their canine food to take this into account, all you are effectively doing is taking away some of the balanced nutrition that is designed for your dog and offered them something that may be inappropriate or variable in terms of its calorie levels and nutrients.

Try to ensure that your dog’s diet is wholly or at least mainly composed of a specially designed dog diet, and don’t be tempted to swap things about for the sake of it by integrating human food and scraps into your dog’s diet!

Hormonal health conditions

A range of canine health conditions that affect the body’s hormone levels and natural balance – such as thyroid disorders – can play havoc with your dog’s natural ability to moderate their food intake, turn calories into energy, and maintain a healthy weight.

If your dog is losing or gaining weight unexpectedly or for no good reason, this is something that you should ask your vet to investigate and check out.

The wrong kind of treats

Incorporating treats into your dog’s daily food allowance is fine, and gives you an opportunity to reward your dog with something special or to use as part of training, but not only should you measure out a daily allocation of treats to avoid your dog gaining weight, but you should also ensure that you are giving your dog the right kind of treats too.

Good dog treats should be reasonably low in fat, and not contain too much salt or sugar, and choosing very simple, plain treats like morsels of freeze dried chicken is much healthier than buying cheap shop-bought bags of treats with lots of added ingredients.

Scavenging for food

Dogs are excellent scavengers, and if your dog is good enough at homing in on and gulping down food that they shouldn’t have, this will soon begin to affect their weight! Your dog might scavenge for scraps and roadkill when out on walks, but they might also be managing it within the home too, such as by eating the cat’s food, stealing food from worktops, or getting into the bins!

The weather and temperature

Finally, dogs’ weights often fluctuate slightly throughout the year, as they have different requirements and natural patterns that are partially dictated by the season and weather. A dog that is too cold a lot of the time will have problems maintaining condition, which is something to think about if you turn your winter heating off at night and your dog might get too cool.

Also, both dogs and people tend to be slightly more sedentary than normal during the colder, darker months of the year, which may mean you will need to slightly lower their food rations, or make an extra effort to walk them a little more to counteract this.