As promised, today we stopped at the vet after obedience class for a weigh-in for Freya. I was quite relieved to learn that she had in fact lost weight during the six weeks since her annual check-up. Not quite so happy that it was just two pounds when she should have lost somewhere between 4-6 pounds, but at least she didn’t gain weight!
Seriously, this just underscores what I mentioned in Thursday’s post. In addition to switching to the low-fat formulation of her current food and monitoring calorie count of her regular meals, I really need to also be more careful about monitoring her treats.
I found quite a bit of helpful information at the Assocation for Pet Obesity Prevention website, including a list of calorie counts for many popular pet treats. Unfortunately, calorie counts for some of Freya’s favorite Wellness treats aren’t included, nor are they given on the Wellness website. I’ll try emailing them for the information, though.
I haven’t done well at increasing exercise, so that will be a greater priority as well. Masha left a good training suggestion in the last post’s comments: using a toy instead of treats as a motivator. I’m going to test it out in our next training session. I’ve had a few dogs who just got way too amped up with a toy as a reward, but it’s definitely worth a try.