Dog Obesity
Just like humans dogs can become obese. Maintaining your dogs weight is essential if you want him to live a long happy and healthy life. But why is dog obesity bad? Obesity in dogs acts just like it does in humans, it puts more pressure on organs such as the heart to pump blood around the body. This in turn leads to narrowing of arteries reducing the amount of blood flow and increasing the blood pressure.
A direct consequence of obesity in dogs is increased stress to joints, bones, and muscles in the legs. If too much stress is applied to these parts of the body them your dog can easily suffer fractures and strains. If you dog obesity is prolonged he may suffer Osteoarthritis, Hip dysplasia, and other degenerative joint diseases.
The big question is how to determine if your dog is overweight or not. The best way to test whether your dog is carrying extra weight is to run your hand along the length of his ribs. On a healthy dog you should feel the shallow indent under the skin. Ideally you should be able to count each rib via the indent; however the ribs should not be protruding out through the skin. If you are unable to feel his ribs it's a good idea to take your dog to the vet and get a professional opinion. It's probably a good idea to discuss your feeding patterns so you can identify what is causing him to put weight on. From there you can devise a feeding programme and an exercise regime to lose that extra weight.
If you can feel your dogs ribs then your dog is probably healthy, just get your vet to confirm this the next time you visit.
If you really want to keep an eye on your dogs weight you can use normal household scales. If your dog is comfortable doing this you can monitor his weight over time to see if he is putting on, losing, or is at a stable weight.