Why I Feel A Dog Should Not Be Overweight

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Give a Dog a Bone

I have a Dog Walking and Minding Business in Sydney Australia and see some very over weight dogs-The owners literally love their dogs to death!
The last most beautiful dog I looked after for the last week(To me fat or thin dogs breath my life) Any way back to my story-This dog and I will not say a breed -as it is the same for all.He is beautiful with people and children-Unfortunately he is dying at only 4 years old with over love-Hard to say over love !
The normal meal of poor super market biscuits and caned meat is really not this dogs problem as he only gets that once a day-This family has two young children around 10-12 years old and love their dog to bits! Now starts the problem-as the children eat their food on the couch every day with the dog watching every move-as soon as they leave their sandwich or what ever- the dog grabs it-not the fault of the dog! The kids think this is fun-The parents get cross and then kick the dog out side-Damage is already done-DOGS ARE ANIMALS-So now the dog realises humans eating can be food for them-they become Beggars at the table-the food also tastes better than biscuits alone-
Can you see the picture?
This great dog is now grosly overweight-I feel at this point I need to regress a little-After some more conversations with the owners I discover mostly it was the wife that took the dog for a walk as the husband was a very hard worker and often went overseas in his job requirements-The next mind blower was the fact that when this dog was young it got into some fights with other smaller dogs than himself-Those incidents marked that dog for life-it was never let off the lead again and never ever socalzed with another four legged animal-Plus the walks got less as the lady owner was scared of a confrontation with other dogs-Do you see the scenario?
This dog was doomed! Heavy statement but true.
Along comes me the dog walker.I was employed for 8 days to walk and feed this dog,you can not help but get close to a dog when you do this.I cut the food down some what but bear in mind I am employed to do what the owners require.I also let this dog sniff other dogs walking past-it was a little scarey at first,however this great dog would obey me.Right at this pont I should close the story with do not overfeed your dog,however there is a flip side to this story.For a dog walker and a person that just loves dogs,I now have to try and convince the owners what they should be doing to give this dog a chance of a full life--- Here is the nutshell-I have opened a pandora's box as I am being employed to look after this dog but not to reprimand the owners-hence I have lost that customer and that great dog as well-What would you have done?? Kept quiet? Show by example? Just said it was a job of work get on with life-The reasons I ask is this has happened a few times now-Is this that far removed from the way we bring our children up-we feel we know the best for them even tho they do not come with a book of rules to bring them up-But we hate being told that we might be doing the wrong thing with our own blood or our own dog-come on give me some feed back!!!

Added Comment

Great news-- the owners have been to a vet I recommended,and yes he is overweight,but what is more interesting is the fact this dog after blood tests showed it has a thyroid problem and a bowel problem from birth-Now the owners have something to work with-I got through to them-Wooofff
This great dog with the correct medication and diet will now have a better life-I am stoked!!!
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