Smart for Life Cookie Diet

My dog, Buddy, is a miniature-toy American Eskimo cross, but definitely falls within the height range of the miniatures at about 14 inches tall. His vet said he had to lose weight since he was too heavy at 10.7 kg (about 23.6 lbs) according to their scale, but we measured him up to be about 24-25 lbs on our home scale at around the same time. We measure him at home now (about a month or so later) and he is about 23 – 24 lbs on our scale still, even after cutting back on treats (instead of getting lots he now only gets one or two a day), increasing exercise, and putting him on a weight management kibble. He spends weekdays at my future-in-law’s running around with her dogs (described as Indy grand-prix racing) and weekends and evenings with us after work. I take him for at least 1 – 2 walks (and sometimes 3) ranging in length from 10 minutes to up to an hour (I usually try to make him go for at least 30 to 45 minutes of exercise total in a day, often an hour though). during the week, and on weekends we often go for at least 3-4 walks ranging in length from 10-15 minutes (usually 2 walks) and others (1 or 2 walks) that take a half hour or more, trying to strive for at least 45 minutes of pure walking exercise in a day. He is often very exhausted from this activity and will sleep in the evenings.

This is a lot more exercise than he got before, plus the kibble he is on now isn’t crappy and high fat. We significantly reduced the number of treats he gets, but still isn’t losing weight. At home, we refill his kibble about twice a week and his bowl fits about what his daily amount should be for the food. I just can’t control the free-feeding at the in-laws of cookies and kibble, but it is mainly the milk bones there that can pose a problem (he only eats a small amount of kibble, but if given opportunity will gorge on milk bones) so lately they are taken up when he is there. He does get a homemade supper every day (with occasional skipped days now) which is rice, ground beef, peas, and carrots which is made by the in-laws for their eskie who has had pancreatitis. He gets about 3 tbs of this at supper time heated up.

He does seem to be firming up a bit but his weight on the scale hasn’t changed very quickly.

How can I continue to help him lose weight. Apparently the vet told us to get him down to 16 lbs (is this a good weight for a 14 inch tall Eskie?) but he hasn’t been that since he was less than a year old and still growing, and now he is just over 2. He has the thick, thick double coat of an Eskie which can also make it a little hard to really see how big he is, and it makes it harder to find his ribs just because it is quite thick. If he is wet and his fur is stuck to his body he looks a lot skinnier than he does regularly as his coat is so thick and flowing. His parents were both 12 in tall and 20 lbs.

I really want him to be healthy. I worry about his heart (he had a murmur as a puppy but otherwise heart was fine according to ultrasound), and his knee (which he hurt once playing, nothing serious), and his hips.
He is on the Nutro Ultra weight management diet. While not a perfect food, it is better than a lot of the other foods he has gotten in his life (puppy chow-free, purina one-free). He didn’t like the Eagle Pack Holistic selects food when he was young, didn’t eat it. At least it was free too.

We figured we’d try the weight management food, which we bought at Petland. It seemed to help a little so far, and improved his coat (its even softer than ever!).

This vet that told me he had to lose weight was the jerk who owns the practice who I despise (for various reasons). I doubt he knows much about the breed. Might switch clinics to see the vet who started her own that seemed to know more about them.

Thank you for visiting our Cookie Diet website today. We hope you join the program and start losing weight.