Help to Reduce your Dog’s Risk of Obesity There have been plenty of stories in the news about obesity in humans. We're all getting bigger; our kids are getting bigger. We've become less active, perhaps due to the huge array of entertainment in our homes these days, and we're eating larger portions of food.

However, our pets are also getting fatter and it's important as a responsible pet owner to do something about it if you believe your pet is gaining an unhealthy amount of weight. Being overweight, whether you're a human being or a dog, is not good for your health. While we want our pets to be fit and healthy, sometimes it's hard to resist giving our pet too many treats and human table scraps. We think we're being kind to our pets by feeding them some of our own favourite treats, but really we are doing them a lot of harm.

A complete dog food of a good quality is all your dog needs to be healthy. A good quality dog food will have been developed to contain the right level of nutrients to give your dog enough energy, the right level of vitamins for all his needs, and it won't make him fat. It's important not to feed your dog too many table scraps. They can really pile the pounds onto your pooch. The occasional bit of leftover meat can make a nice tasty treat for a dog, but many people take it too far. Many human foods are very bad for dogs. Calorie wise, giving a dog one human biscuit, is the equivalent of eating a whole packet yourself. Some foods are even poisonous to dogs! One of these is chocolate and so it's unfortunate that chocolate is one the main titbits that people give to their dogs. Because it is a treat for us, many of us like to share this with our canine best friend, but it's really very bad for them and you shouldn't do it. Dogs should only ever have chocolate treats that have been specially made for dogs.

If your dog is overweight, you really need to cut out the treats and the human food. Feed him on a good quality dog food and you'll know that he isn't getting too much fat in his diet or too many additives. Exercise is very important too and it's easy to neglect your daily walk in winter, especially if your dog doesn't seem too keen to go out in the cold, but you really should keep it up as it will go a long way towards getting that excess weight off and keeping it off. If you're really struggling to get your dog back in shape and feel that you're doing everything right, then do consult your vet as weight gain can sometimes be a symptom of an illness. Your vet will be able to deduce whether or not your dog has an underlying health problem that is causing the weight gain, and if not they will also be able to give you some advice on how to best help your dog to lose weight.