That is Vanilla down to a tea. Her bum hovers about 5mm with the back going crazy. Fully understand how Stanley behaves
I can't believe that your little pipsqueak has become so big! I'd gradually lower his allowance since he's not in a rush to lose the weight. It's so funny how some of these big dogs get so little kibble and yet still look so healthy. Little Xena is on 260g per day (what the bag recommends), plus some sardines in oil with dinner, plus a mackerel Kong. And a couple of goodnight bikkies It's taken me a lot of fiddling around to get to a serving that I think is right. She only gets treats on obedience night now - the rest of the week she works for her kibble allowance. Fortunately I don't have to worry about her licking the odd plate or rescuing the odd piece of dropped food - I can't imagine her ever needing weight to lose!
Well Obi has been told by the vet tonight that he needs to get under 28kg (which is what he weighs now). 27.5kg is his goal. Obi sympathises with you, Stanley.
So Stanley has been on his diet for 1 week. OH is adamant he does not need a diet. Tonight I looked at him and thought he does look quite ok, but I'm not sure if that's just because I've been looking at fat labradors all night. What do you guys think.. continue diet to get a bit more lean, or leave him as he is? Note: he doesn't have a very wide rib cage, and is quite small built so I'm not sure if his waist would ever be super defined. https://www.flickr.com/photos/156573736@N07/shares/Etc4L2
It's always hard to tell from photos but I think I'd personally like him a little slimmer still. I'd also like a bit more muscle on him, if you don't mind me saying. His back end looks a little weak in that picture, although that could also be down to how he's standing, with his feet tucked under him. There should be a good visible, strong slab of muscle on the back end.
How would I go about building up muscle please? He already gets 2 decent walks a day and now he swims we try and do that at least twice a week. Is there a certain type of exercise that is better?
He's pretty good but I agree that he could lose a little bit more. A bit more tuck up and a slightly slimmer look round his middle. Obi is in the same boat and a weekend with our toddler niece didn't help (a big enabler of access to doughnuts, biscuits, bread and prawn crackers...).
Good quality protein is the other critical ingredient for building muscle. There are a few protein molecules that are essential and without them no amount of exercise or food will build muscle. What's his diet at the moment? He's not a muscly dog but I actually don't think he's under muscled. Some Labradors do have big bulging muscles in the thigh/butt area but I don't think that's necessarily the norm (eg. mine have never had that despite both doing a lot of jumping in Flyball which requires hind end power). He's a pic of Obi from the weekend showing a modestly muscled but still adequate butt. No critiques of my butt please. Nevertheless it's always worth casting a critical eye over our dogs and their diets from time to time.
I need some training tips there from @snowbunny for me as well! The only time Brogan (or I) had big posterior muscles was when we were regularly (1-2x week) trail running. I can remember looking down at Brogan as we were going down a hill and thinking, "look at that, my dog has greyhound-like muscles on those hind legs!".
Thanks for your help At the moment he's on canagan kibble: https://www.canagan.co.uk/chicken.html He gets a kong a day - this is usually his food mixed with tuna or peanut butter. Very occasionally he'll get a tin of salmon with his tea - but if I'm cooking chicken, beef or lamb he always gets some of that. So probably once a week or so. His training treats are usually crab sticks or kibble - except if I'm doing something new or really need him to focus, then it's cheese or sausages. Then it's just the extra little treats he gets like cleaning the yogurt pot or finishing OH's ice cream
Slow walking and I mean really slow walking on a lead when the dog uses the whole leg and muscles helps build muscle. the dog needs to use the whole group of muscles evenly. I also did manipulation massage and stretching with Doug to keep good leg muscles in his back end. I did this under the supervision of a physio and a vet. I saw the physio regularly with Doug he had physio and hydro weekly when he was well enough. The physio also saw Rory as a puppy and recommend things to do to help Rory to develop good supportive muscles and avoid injury as he grew.he sees Rory periodically and I adjust his walking and exercise accordingly. Rory is a bit cow hocked and has a long back so I needed to take care.
Yup, in order to build muscle, you need lots of good protein. Canagan looks like a good food, having a quick glance at it. Hills are brilliant for butts - dogs and ours But, as I said, it's so hard to tell from a photo. Watch him when he moves and see if you can see the muscles moving. Also, remind me, is he neutered? That will have a effect on musculature.
Thanks @snowbunny we'll get up some hills. We could both definitely use it Yeah he was neutered when he'd just turned 1.
So I'm now stalking my dogs butt https://www.flickr.com/photos/156573736@N07/shares/5ucu28 There does seem to be some muscle on there. I think he's just got a lot of fur but he's definitely got a bit of definition
He's still a baby, too - don't freak about it, just keep in mind that more muscle is never a bad thing
You've now made me stalk monty's behind, my phone is full of blurry bottom pics which have proved very little....except he has a brown furry butt which i already knew
