Sam would eat until he burst , I`m sure Millie isn't a breakfast fan , so he regularly gets to pinch hers if we don't watch him and at tea time, he lurks , just in case she leaves a tiny morsel , the most greedy dog I ever owned
I've said yes,Dexter wouldn't stop eating ,even when he's poorly he is looking for food and if he isn't managed with a 'leave' he would try his luck for a snack outside every time....he doesn't steal in the house though and he could get into his food bag if he had the desire ....it's a zipped canvas bag that sits up high but would be reachable with a few swipes.....
I just read an article in our paper that said Labs propensity to be overweight may be genetic. That a large number of Labs have a gene variation called POMC which makes them hard wired to be food obsessed. It seems that there is a very strong correlation between Labs with this gene variation and being overweight. Not all Labs have the variation, and the only other breed that seems to have it are Flat-Coated Retrievers. Some of the research was done at the University of Cambridge, where they were looking at obesity in humans. This is a link to the Author's blog https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/karin-brulliard
Then why, oh why, are there so many fat dogs of all sorts of beads! If I'm out and hubby feeds Homer is dinner he will sit by his bowl when I come in as if he'd never ever been fed.
The once told me she had to treat a puppy who had eaten his whole bag of kibble in one go. The bag was more than his body weight. Poor puppy was quite poorly.
The article doesn't say this is the only reason that Labs or any breed gets fat, but it does help explain why so many Labs seem eternally hungry. Even though Cooper is a lanky dog now, I think she would end up overweight if we let her. Tilly not so much. My Malamute, never if he was fed kibble, of course lamb might have been another matter.
My first dog Diesel Lab/collie cross would just pick throughout the day, Baxter on the other hand would eat his own weight and more. Eyes definitely bigger than belly..
The research is what prompted this post in the first place - the lint to the other thread is in my introductory post. The thing that stuck out for me there, was that they say 23% of Labs have this "bad" gene, so I wanted to do a straw poll of forum Labs to see if it was a reflection of the percentage who would eat when full. It appears there's more to it than that defective gene - or that our forum dogs have a higher occurrence of this gene than the population.
Maybe its not bad but just us doing what bad monkies do. Doing what we do to get the results we want. its only bad for those that are allowed to get fat its our responsibilty to look after our dogs. I suspect its something to do with the wanting to have something in the mouth too. Orally fixated labs?
no mine are the same but they found a dead squirrel yesterday and I said leave guys you don't want it and they both left I nearly fainted but was very proud of them
