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October 29, 2009

Sure, we’re still recovering from the heartbreak and training loss when Lilly’s best, best dog friend Katie, the borzoi, got rehomed. However, there appears to be some additional fallout from the loss of our fast-running pal … in the form of an additional of a few pounds. Now, I could blame the weight gain n a bunch of things, but not having Katie to chase a few times a week is affecting Lilly’s leanness, and that’s for darn sure.

Yep. My darling, tiny girl is a few pounds up. During the peak of her agility training as a young adult, Lilly hovered around 33-34 pounds, which is a tad thin. Typically, I keep her around 35-36 pounds. These days, she’s around 39 pounds.

That’s the same weight she was when we started agility training with Joy Bishop (who has been on the world team). And, as I mentioned long ago, Joy’s first words to me at our private assessment were not “Hello” or “Nice to meet you.” She looked at me and Lilly and simply said, “You need to take 3-4 pounds off your dog.”

I must have made a face because she dropped her sunglasses a smidge, glanced at me over the rims, and said, “This isn’t conformation.”

So, there you have it. At 39 pounds, Lilly would do great in the conformation (or show dog) ring. But, for agility, that’s a tad heavy.

Even though, we’re not competing or dealing with the rigors of daily (or weekly) agility runs, I prefer to keep my girlie-girl on the lean side. I attempt to do that same for myself, with less success.

Lilly has always eaten smaller-than-normal meals since so much of her daily calorie intake gets used up in training and calming exercises, but I’ve had to trim them back even more and be more conscious about the snacks I give her.

I didn’t realize how many calories Lilly burned in her regular play dates with Katie. Chasing that fast, fast girl, really put Lilly to the test, so beyond the loss of friendship, I’m sad at the effect it’s had on Lilly’s waistline.

There is also a good chance that some of this is our boys’ fault. Ever since we moved to dogs back into the basement, following all the hullabaloo down there, Ginko has been waking us up way early. Tom (the saint he is) gets up more often than not to feed and potty the dogs so that I can sleep. And, I’ve seen what meal portions he thinks are just right, and they are MUCH bigger than what I feed either dog.

So, for a while, I need to step up my Mealtime Mommy oversight and make a concerted effort at enough dog exercise. Make that ditto for me, and soon I’ll be able to report that both of us are back to our ideal bods.

About the Author Roxanne Hawn

Trained as a traditional journalist and based in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, USA, I'm a full-time freelance writer for magazines, websites, and private clients. My areas of specialty include everything in the lifestyles arena, including health and home, personal finance and other consumer interests, relationships and trends, people and business profiles ... and, of course, all things pet related.

I don't just love dogs. I need them in my life. Seriously.

  1. Ha – there MUST be some kind of guy thing, because like you and KB and Kerri, Mr. Geek tends to be a lot more generous when he feeds. which is why I almost always feed all the animals in the house.

    I think L has actually put on a pound or two since we’ve had the puppy, despite the fact that the two of them run around with each other so much. We haven’t been doing nearly as much trail running in the national forest as we used to, because I can’t take B anywhere that we are liable to run into loose dogs. I think B, on the other hand, is eating us out of house and home and is still a little underweight. We are still feeding her three times a day, and every time I think we’ve finally got a little bit of padding on her skinny little ribs, she’ll miss lunch one day and it all melts right back off again.

  2. Our vet actually told us to add weight to our dog, which is a new one for me – we tend to have dogs that could lose a few lbs. We’re feeding this one organic dog food and I’m thinking it has less fat maybe – I can’t explain it unless he just has a faster metabolism

  3. My husband tends to over feed our dogs too, as does the pet nanny. I’ve had to resort to pre-measuring when I know I won’t be doing the feeding.

    Not having problems posting, but having problems seeing the archived posts on my screen which are on a really dark blue background.

  4. I didn’t realize there were any kind of desired weight for agility but I suppose if you want to compete successfully there would be. I’ve noticed with Java that she often won’t eat her dog food during the day when I’m gone but waits until I get home to finally eat. Not sure why that is. I’m still trying to feed her twice a day because she seems awfully thin to me. I guess she’s on her own self-applied weight control program

  5. There seem to be some issues with posting comments on the blog today. So, my apologies if you haven’t been able to post or got an error message.

    I think it may be a bigger issue because even my blog software is being SUPER slow today and is refusing to SAVE posts, files, etc.

  6. I have the same concerns regarding my preschooler, now that winter’s coming: Less opportunity to run around will likely equal weight gain–for ME. Sigh.

  7. No doubt, sprinting around like that will burn a lot of calories! It’s funny, I have the same problem with the male human in my house who refuses to measure the dogs’ portions. He just ‘eyeballs’ it, which is usually over the top!

    The good news is that helping a dog lose weight is way easier than to control my own portions! They can’t open the refrigerator…

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