Is My Dog Overweight?

"Canine obesity in one of the fastest growing health problems seen in dogs today. As with people, obesity can lead to a variety of diseases, disorders and other complications in dogs.  In a 2008 study, the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention estimated that 44% of U.S. dogs were overweight or obese.  That's approximately 33 million dogs in the U.S. alone."                                               

                  -Jenna Stregowski,                                                          

                    http://dogs.about.com/od/caninediseases/p/obesity.htm

Pretty scary statistics right?  Whenever I share something like this, people always wonder if their dog is one of those 33 million.  Here's the chart that most vets will recommend you read through and look at:

  

As you can see, the ideal weight is 4 or 5.  But overall, I would recommend having your dog at a 4-especially if you are doing agility.  Remember, agility dogs are athletes and need to be in optimum physical condition to perform at their best.  

Varying posts over the next few weeks will address this issue of overweight canines.  If you have something specific you'd like to see discussed, post a comment.