Diet Pet Food – Is Your Dog Ready For a Special Diet Or Just Needs More Exercise?

I hate to say it but I think it’s time to put my beloved pooch on a low calorie food diet. My poor little (well big…) pug, Leonie, is starting to put on the pounds. While pugs are podgy in nature, she looks like she’s beginning to look like she’s had too many dog biscuits. While I love her chubby appearance and the way her tummy wobbles slightly when she trots next to me, I think it’s time I took her diet more seriously. However, when I began to consider what to do about Leonie’s diet, I realized I didn’t know anything about dogs’ calorie expenditure. 

Like most young women I have a strong understand of the amount of calories in the foods I eat. And when I don’t know, I’m known to flip the packet around and do some quick calculation of how many calories I’m about to consume. The great thing is, my mathematical skills have vastly improved over the years from this trick! As well as counting calories, I also have a good understanding of the number of calories I can burn from doing certain exercise. With calculators on the gym equipment it is so simple to find out how many calories my painstaking treadmill session has burnt (Most of the time not enough!).

Yet, when it comes to my pug Leonie, I have no idea how many calories she burns when she exercises. I do take her for a half an hour walk every night after work, however I wouldn’t have a clue if that were enough exercise for her. Unfortunately there isn’t a huge amount of veterinary exercise physiology research into dogs.

After completing my own research I found one study that suggests a dog that walks at a pace of 4 miles an hour, will burn 0.8 calories per pound per mile. This means that a one hour walk for a 20 pound dog only burns around 64 calories. I was pretty startled by this information as Leonie’s walks are pretty easy going for half and hour, meaning she would be lucky to burn 30 calories a day! Plus, I normally give her a treat after the work, which would totally cancel out the calories burnt on the walk. 

Further research revealed that veterinarians commonly believe in the 70/30 Percent Rule for pets. This means that 70 per cent of weight loss experienced by pets in a weight loss program was a result of calorie restriction and the remaining 30 per cent due to calorie loss during exercise. While this sounds like a good theory, there isn’t a lot of research that backs this theory, but it got me thinking about the portion sizes I was feeding my pug Leonie. 

Overall, while my research into a dogs diet was quite holed it pointed out diet as a big part of the problem. While I will continue to take Leonie on long walks for healthy exercise, I won’t rely on it to help her drop the pounds. Exercise is not at all a completely wasted effort and allows me a chance to have one on one time with my pampered pooch. However, I have decided to be a better owner when it comes to how much food I provide to Leonie.

By cutting back on her portion sizes and changing her diet to a low calorie dog good, I hope to help her get down to a healthier weight. With the help of Pookinuk I have found some online pet food that will help with her diet. If your dog is having their own battle with weight, check out the diet Food For Dog Online at http://pookinuk.com.au/.