Health
You can no longer feel his ribs, the waist has gone, he pants after three flights of stairs. Fat creeps on and hides up close, but your hands find it in two minutes.
Caution. A belly that has grown over days rather than months, a fat dog panting noisily in the heat who does not settle, weight gain with listlessness and a thinning coat, or a swollen belly with unproductive retching: see your own vet the same day, before any diet.
Do not look for the answer in a Facebook group, on TikTok or on a forum. Look for someone trained for this: your dog's own veterinarian, the only person who can examine, investigate and treat them.
Use this page to know what to observe, what to note and what to ask at the appointment, not to treat at home. If you still have doubts after a consultation, ask another vet or a specialist (dermatologist, internist) for a second opinion, not a group. And if you do not have a regular vet yet, find one now, while your dog is healthy: how to choose a veterinary clinic.
Your Labrador is six, neutered, and weighed 38 kilos at his last booster. The vet said "he could lose a bit" and moved on. Or your Bichon has somehow turned rectangular and pants after three flights of stairs. Or you posted a photo online and somebody wrote "he's a bit chunky" underneath. Fat creeps onto a dog a few hundred grams a month, so anyone who lives with him does not see it happen, and it is the most common nutritional problem in pet dogs. Here you will find how to check with your hands, in two minutes, whether he is overweight and by how much, what to write down and what to come away with from your own vet. You will not find gram amounts: your vet works those out from your dog's target weight, and the internet diet for "a 30 kilo dog" was written for somebody else's dog.
Extra kilos are not an emergency. They went on over months and they come off over months. Some things that look like "he's put on weight" are something else, though, and those do not wait:
For everything else, book an appointment with your vet this week.
The scales on their own tell you little, because you do not know your dog's ideal weight; the figure in the breed standard is an average. What does tell you something is the body condition score. You do it with your hands and eyes, in two minutes, once a month.
The ribs. Put your palms flat on the sides of his chest, fingers pointing to the tail, and press gently, as if stroking him. In a dog at a good weight you feel each rib under a thin layer, much like the knuckles when you run your fingers over the back of your other hand. If you only feel them when you press, as if through the pad of your palm, he is overweight. If you cannot feel them at all, he is obese. Ribs you can see from across the room mean a thin dog.
The waist, from above. Stand over him and look down. Behind the ribs there should be a narrowing, a "waist", before the hips. Without one, his body is a rectangle or, worse, an oval. With a long coat you feel rather than look, because the coat hides it.
The belly, from the side. Crouch down and look at him side-on. The line of the belly should rise from the ribs towards the back legs. If it runs straight or sags, that is fat.
Tail base and back. On a fat dog, pads of fat build up at the base of the tail, over the hips and over the shoulders. You should feel the spine easily under your fingers without it sticking out.
The score. Vets use a scale from 1 to 9. 4 to 5 is ideal, 6 to 7 overweight, 8 to 9 obese. Each point above 5 means roughly 10% over ideal weight, so a dog scoring 7 is carrying about 20% more than he should. Write the score down monthly, next to his weight.
Photos. From above and side-on, standing, on the same floor, in the same light, once a month. A few hundred extra grams a month are invisible when you look at him every day. In two photos six months apart, they jump out at you.
A food diary for one week. Everything that goes into the dog, weighed on kitchen scales rather than measured with a cup: kibble, wet food, training treats, chews, table scraps, what the children give him, what the neighbour gives him, what he hoovers up off the pavement. Note who gave it, too. Nearly every home with a fat dog has at least two food sources that not everyone knows about.
Exercise. How long he walks each day, in minutes, and how: on the lead at a walk, or running free. How long he is left alone. Whether he pants after a small effort, stops during walks or refuses the stairs.
| Score | Ribs | From above | Side-on |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 3, thin | Visible from a distance, no fat cover | Very marked waist, hip bones showing | Belly tucked well up |
| 4 to 5, ideal | Easy to feel under a thin layer | Visible waist behind the ribs | Belly rises towards the back |
| 6 to 7, overweight | Only felt when you press | Waist barely there or missing | Belly straight or sagging slightly |
| 8 to 9, obese | Cannot be felt | Broad back, oval body, fat pads at the tail | Belly hangs, dog sways as he walks |
The score works the same for a Chihuahua and a Great Dane, which is why it is more useful than kilos.
For anyone who likes numbers: in the only study that followed two groups of Labradors fed differently over their whole lives, the dogs kept lean lived almost two years longer on average and got arthritis later. Nothing else you can do at home has that big an effect on how long your dog lives.
In the morning you weigh out the day's ration into a jar. Both meals and every treat you reward him with during the day come out of it. Praise, play and a good fuss have no calories, so be as generous with those as you like. At one meal at least, the kibble skips the bowl: hide it around the house, in stuffed toys or rolled up in a towel. Ten minutes of searching tires him more than ten minutes of walking, and a five-minute meal lasts half an hour. The morning walk is ten minutes longer than last week. In the evening, a search game indoors. Once a fortnight, the bathroom scales, same time of day, before a meal. At our training sessions the overweight dogs are the first to tire on the trail and the last to get their breath back, and their handlers notice the difference within the first months of a plan.
A lean dog lives longer, moves better and sees the vet less often, and all of it depends on whoever is in charge of the kitchen scales. If you do not have a regular vet to work out a target weight with you, our related services page helps you choose a practice.
What dog owners search for most often on the internet about this problem, with the short answer. The answers are a guide only: the decision belongs to your dog's own vet, after an examination.
With your hands, more than with the scales. Run your palms over his ribs: in a dog at a good weight you feel each one under a thin layer, like the knuckles on the back of your hand. If you only feel them by pressing, he is overweight; if you cannot feel them, he is obese. From above you should see a waist behind the ribs, and side-on the belly should rise towards the back legs.
Between 1 and 2% of his body weight: for a 30 kilo dog, 300 to 600 grams a week. Any faster and he loses muscle and runs short of nutrients, and the weight comes back. A dog 20% over his ideal needs three to four months, with re-weighs every two to four weeks at your own vet and small tweaks to the ration whenever the scales stall.
After neutering, energy needs drop by roughly a fifth and appetite goes up, so the same portion as before now puts weight on. The answer lies in the portion: ask your vet to recalculate the ration from his target weight, weigh the kibble, take treats out of the ration and lengthen the walks. Neutered dogs managed this way stay lean for life.
Whatever your own vet decides, in the amount the vet calculates from his target weight. For a dog with a lot to lose, that is usually a weight-loss diet, which cuts calories without cutting protein and vitamins; for one with a little to lose, sometimes just a smaller ration and raw vegetables instead of treats. Either way, everything is weighed, never scooped with a cup.
More than now, but built up gradually, because his joints and heart are already carrying extra weight. Start by adding ten minutes at a steady walk to his usual outings and add another ten minutes each week. Running, jumping and exercise in hot weather wait until his score comes down. Games where he searches for his food around the house tire him a lot without loading his joints.
The information on this page is educational and does not replace an examination. For full details and a diagnosis, consult your dog's own veterinarian.
They often come together: the same causes, plans that complement each other.
Up in two stages, refusing the stairs, bunny-hopping at a run. Joint pain shows in what the dog stops doing, long before he whimpers.
Chewing, barking, racing round the house at ten at night and still not tired. A dog like that tires through his head, and you see the change within days.
A paw on tiptoe after training, slow to get up in the morning, a leg held in the air. Three levels of urgency, and none of them is fixed with a pill from your cupboard.
He paces at night, stands with his nose in a corner, waits at the wrong side of the door, wees indoors. Some of it is age. Some of it can be treated.
We work with your dog's behaviour, not its health. For any sign described here, book an appointment with your own vet; the related services page explains how to choose a clinic.