Is your pup overweight?
All to often I see overweight puppies and adult dogs.
An overweight pup can be easily prone too all kinds of orthopaedic problems when young.
ACL tares, OCD (Osteo Chondritis Dissecans), hip dysplasia, auto-immune diseases and more.
Studies have shown that a lean pup/dog can live 20-25% longer than an overweight dog. For the Berner this is significant time.
The Berner is a robust dog, and often is not seen as overweight as the first thing from a stranger you hear is: "How much does your dog weigh"?
The popular answer is the more the better. This is simply not true.
A robust looking dog, does not have to be overweight.
Weight does not say much for our Berner. The average weight for a female is 70-110 lb. This is height and structure dependant.
The coat is abundant, and often a Berner looks thicker than it actually is because of its coat. Looks can be deceiving and should not be used to find the right body composition for the Berner.
So please, forget all notion of weight for your pup until it at minimum reaches 2 years of age. Instead go by body scoring. The body score will tell you everything. Body score is the only way to measure when young to tell you if your dog is a perfect weight or not. Fully grown weight is easy but not when the Berner is young.
Please do a body scoring on your pup/dog and see where your at. Don’t sugar coat, don't kid yourself.
The Berner loves to eat and mostly feel they are always hungry.
A pup under 2 years of age should be just under ideal on the body scoring scale. An adult dog should be at ideal 4-5 but preferably 4 this is on a 1-9 scale. On a 1-5 scale your pup should be 2.5 just under 3 which is ideal.
Reduction of meals is easy to do but first look at treats or some leaner meats.
I find with a young pup between 8 weeks and 2 years you are often adjusting the amount of food. The pup displays growth spurt and stand stills while growing, appearing to fill out then gets a growth spurt and suddenly seems very skinny again. Go with the flow score often and adjust accordingly!
Happy scoring!A lean dog will move better, live longer and get less cancer.
An overweight pup can be easily prone too all kinds of orthopaedic problems when young.
ACL tares, OCD (Osteo Chondritis Dissecans), hip dysplasia, auto-immune diseases and more.
Studies have shown that a lean pup/dog can live 20-25% longer than an overweight dog. For the Berner this is significant time.
The Berner is a robust dog, and often is not seen as overweight as the first thing from a stranger you hear is: "How much does your dog weigh"?
The popular answer is the more the better. This is simply not true.
A robust looking dog, does not have to be overweight.
Weight does not say much for our Berner. The average weight for a female is 70-110 lb. This is height and structure dependant.
The coat is abundant, and often a Berner looks thicker than it actually is because of its coat. Looks can be deceiving and should not be used to find the right body composition for the Berner.
So please, forget all notion of weight for your pup until it at minimum reaches 2 years of age. Instead go by body scoring. The body score will tell you everything. Body score is the only way to measure when young to tell you if your dog is a perfect weight or not. Fully grown weight is easy but not when the Berner is young.
Please do a body scoring on your pup/dog and see where your at. Don’t sugar coat, don't kid yourself.
The Berner loves to eat and mostly feel they are always hungry.
A pup under 2 years of age should be just under ideal on the body scoring scale. An adult dog should be at ideal 4-5 but preferably 4 this is on a 1-9 scale. On a 1-5 scale your pup should be 2.5 just under 3 which is ideal.
Reduction of meals is easy to do but first look at treats or some leaner meats.
I find with a young pup between 8 weeks and 2 years you are often adjusting the amount of food. The pup displays growth spurt and stand stills while growing, appearing to fill out then gets a growth spurt and suddenly seems very skinny again. Go with the flow score often and adjust accordingly!
Happy scoring!A lean dog will move better, live longer and get less cancer.