By Marcella Durand for The Dog Daily

Getting old is no excuse to become a couch potato—and that goes for dogs, too! As your dog ages, regular exercise keeps its muscles toned, his joints protected, his body trim and his mind sharp. He may no longer be able to slaughter the Frisbee like he used, but an exercise routine tailored to his individual likes and needs will make his remaining years truly golden.

“The most important thing with older dogs is making a routine,” says Nann Dawn, shelter manager at the Oakland Adoption Center in Oakland, California and one of the founders of the shelter’s innovative Silver Muzzle Club, an adoption program for pets eight-years and older. “Make time for exercise every day. They can’t afford at their age to be weekend warriors.”

Whether your dog’s idea of fun is swimming, walking, or playing with other dogs, build up slowly. If it’s walking, start with a few blocks and gradually progress to a couple of miles a day.

Beware of overstraining your pooch. An older dog will want to please you and might end up playing beyond its limits. Monitor the situation closely and make sure your dog doesn’t become dehydrated, overheated or too tired.  “The key is not to push a dog,” says Chuck Keicer, DVM, at the Heartland Veterinary Hospital in Kentucky. “You don’t want to push an animal beyond a comfort zone.”

Steer clear of high-impact activities like jumping which can stress aging joints. Keicer recommends swimming as “absolutely the best” for older dogs because it is low-impact. Walking is a close second for the same reason.  Surprisingly, however, Keicer also likes agility training, which he says can be easily adjusted to suit a senior dog’s ability. “There are lots of ways an agility course can be modified for an older dog,” says Keicer. Lowering jumps is a good example. “It can still be a blast for them to participate.”

Obedience training is another option to get senior dogs moving. “Every adult dog who joins the Silver Muzzle Club goes through obedience work,” says Dawn. “We have yet to find one that doesn’t like a little round of treat training,” she says. And a lot of the senior dogs have gone on to do pet therapy. “Most dogs don’t make it to old age without being really good dogs.  Sometimes they’re really ready to work.”

Dawn also recommends at-home toys, such as Buster Cubes and Kongs filled with kibble, because they keep a senior dog entertained and exercise the jaw muscles. As for social activities, she prefers large dog parks where an older dog might avoid getting bullied or crowded by younger aggressive dogs.  “Older dogs can’t take those adolescent body slams,” she says. “Most of them can’t keep up with the youngsters.”

By knowing your older dog’s likes and limitations, the two of you can develop an exercise regimen that will keep both of you having fun for years to come.

By Dr Jeannie Thomason
(Part 1 in a two part series on dog obesity.)

Obesity is one of the common diseases of Older (Senior, Geriatric) dogs. Fortunately, it is not only preventable but with commitment on the part of the dog owner, it is reversible as well.

It’s often difficult for pet owners to recognize that their dogs are in fact overweight and not just well fed and happy. One reason we don’t often notice obesity in our pets is because of our perception of obesity in ourselves as humans. By human standards, an obese person is someone significantly over-weight, not just someone who has gone up one size in their pants. However, with our dogs, the term obese is used for pets with any excessive accumulation of fat in the stomach and the waist. An animal that is 15-20% overweight is considered obese. As in humans, an obese animal is not healthy and is highly vulnerable to many types of health problems The metabolism of an overweight pet can no longer support a healthy heart, joints (over 40% of older dogs have joint problems), liver, lungs or normal blood sugar. Obese dogs have less heat intolerance and are often poor candidates for surgery should it be needed.

Why Our Dogs Gain Weight

Puppies burn more calories than adults because they are using every last drop of nutrients to build their bodies. Spayed and neutered animals use less enegry/burn less calories as intact animals do since the heart does not have to pump blood to the reproductive organs anymore. Mature animals, neutered animals do not require as much food/calories so cutting back a bit on the daily meals alone can be of help in keeping off the extra weight.

As our animals grow older, we must make a concerted effort to make sure they are still getting ample exercise. So much the case today, many families have both adults working most of the day so our dogs are left home alone to lounge around and nap. In the wild, dogs have to work and exert energy to catch their food, thus keeping in balance the consumption and the burning of calories. However, our dogs don’t have to do much to get food. Therefore, they run the risk of consuming more calories than they’re burning, which just like in humans, leads to gradual weight gain.

Furthermore, dogs are genetically made to save fat for energy. When wolves’ feeding behavior has been studied, it has been found that that wolves don’t always eat daily in fact rarely do they eat daily. They don’t need to eat daily because their physiology is such that extra nutrients are converted to fat to be used later. Our dogs are descendants of wolves and/or other wild canids. What is happening with our pet dogs is that in short, we are feeding our pets too much food and they are getting very little to no real exercise to balance things out. Their bodies just keep storing more and more fat until obesity becomes a reality.

Feeding The Wrong Foods

The multi-billion dollar pet food industry has done harm to our dog’s health and made billions of dollars off uneducated pet owners who only want the very best for their dogs. *This is another article in its self so I’ll keep it brief and say here and now that processed, commercial pet food is killing our pets. It is not just the poor quality, cheap foods either because it really does not matter what quality ingredients you begin with, it all ends up the same way – dead, no nutritive value. Then, since there truly is no nutrition left in the end product, synthetic vitamins are sprayed on the to diets just prior to sealing the bags. These synthetic vitamins are not molecularly/nutritionally equal to the natural source vitamins found in raw food sources nor are they readily absorbed by the dog’s body.
* Please read my article: Kibble is kibble is still kibble for more information.

When our dogs are fed processed/over-cooked foods that their digestive systems were never designed to eat/digest in the first place is that the body is forced to raid its own dwindling supply of nutrient reserves and enzymes which in turn, causes the body to remain hungry for true, quality nutrients. This of course, leads to hunger pangs for the dog even though the stomach is full. The result is chronic hunger and begging for more food. This leads to chronic overeating and of course the excessive weight and the rampant obesity seen in our dogs today.

Stay tuned for Part 2: Health Risks Associated With Obesity

About Dr. Jeannie Thomason:
Dr. Jeannie Thomason, Veterinary naturopath, certified small animal nutritionist, is co-host of the popular online radio show, Animal Talk Naturally. Her articles have been featured in various publications such as Animal Wellness, Dog Fancy, Coast 2 Coast (national breed magazine for the Boston Terrier) and Natural Horse magazine. She is available for consultations on natural canine care & nutrition at her Website – The Whole Dog .

Copyright ©2009. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced in any form without the written consent of the Author. This article is for educational purposes only. The decision to use, or not to use, any information is the sole responsibility of the reader.

Living in Canada and dealing mainly with Canadian and U.S. dog owners I forget about all the great stuff the United Kingdom does for dogs. The PDSA is the UK’s leading veterinary charity, caring for more than 350,000 pet patients belonging to people in need. Recently they ran a program helping overweight pets to lose weight and in fact made a contest out of it. Participating in the contest, which consisted of a 100 day diet and fitness program devised by vets, was 5 obese dogs and one cat. Many of which were in their senior years.

The winner of this contest was a Labrador Retriever by the name of Keano (great name by the way) who began the contest at more than 100 pounds, which means that he was approximately 55% overweight. Losing 22 pounds earned him the skinny crown that he deserves.

Second place went to a 7-year-old German Shepherd by the name of Alfie who joined the program at over 125 pounds, approximately 55% overweight. Alfie missed the top spot by only a couple of pounds as he lost 20 pounds (19% of his body weight) and 6 inches off his waist by participating.

Tinks, the lone cat in the contest, fared exceptionally well, even at he young age of 13-years-old. Tinks was a shocking 96% overweight at 23 pounds, but left the program with a waistline that was 2 inches shorter and a body that was 2 pounds lighter.

It is hopeful that all the participants will continue to see the benefits that exercise and a healthy diet can bring, and if these results are possible within just 100 days, then think about what can happen over the next 6 months.

The bottom line is that no matter what age your pet is you can make a significant difference in their happiness and well-being by keeping them active and making sure they have a healthy diet. The benefits that controlling their weight can bring are absolutely endless, from preventing diabetes and heart problems, to keeping their spirits up and stimulating their minds.

Mackenzie (my pug) could be a poster child for weight-loss. By around 8 years-old he started gaining weight. He was getting older and has an enlarged heart. This meant that he would hyperventilate quite easy…it became a vicious cycle where I was too worried to walk him for fear that he was straining his heart, but by not walking him he was gaining weight which in and of itself put strain on his heart. Thanks to a wise vet we found the magic solution. We put him on a special diet food and I took him for walks early in the morning and at night when it was much cooler. The walks started very slowly, shorts walks that gradually grew in distance as Mackenzie became fitter and lighter.

Long story short – he went from being 31 pounds to 20 pounds and became a whole new dog. His energy shot up, his health dramatically improved and he has kept the weight off to this day, 5 years later.

I am a big believer in keeping your dog active and controlling their weight is one of the major benefits.

Do you have a dog with a great weight-loss story? If so we’d love to hear it.

Full story

Ann-Marie Fleming is the Founder of www.DogQuality.com, a site focused on products that help older dogs enjoy life.