<p>I feed my dogs a grain free food, Acana. Their favorite snacks are bananas, apples (I peel them,) baby carrots, melons, berries (frozen blueberries are a hit,) and they eat most fruits and vegetables. My older dog would go with me to visit my parents and they keep their bananas on the end of a counter. When we drive up their driveway she starts to whine; as soon as the front door to the house is opened, she bolts to their kitchen and parks her butt staring at the corner of the counter. She does not move until she is fed her banana!! It really is funny to watch and silly as it isn’t like we don’t have bananas at our house; I guess the ones at grandma and grandpa’s taste better!!</p>
<p>That’s great, snowball. </p>
<p>When we would leave our otherwise well-behaved collie behind (the dog we had before our lab), he would get a banana off the counter, peel it somehow, eat the fruit and leave the whole banana peel by the window. He never did this while we were home. I thought we had the only banana-loving dog. My lab won’t touch them.</p>
<p>I have to peel a banana for myself in the laundry room if I don’t want to share!! She can here me peel the banana from 3 rooms away!! She also come running if she hears me get a package of cheese from the refrigerator! Oh, she also love to hear pill bottles because that means she might be getting one wrapped in cheese. Have you ever been stared down by a 60 lb. dog while you take your tylenol?</p>
<p>two of mine are prone to overweight. They get their small amount of dry food am and pm supplimented with green beans, sliced raw carrots, etc. They love carrots and the vet said they are great for teeth and digestion… They also eat apples, celery, radishes.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I was guilty of this. Our dog was chronically chubby, and I didn’t realize that it was my fault. The little scraps here and there, or drizzling a little gravy on his dry food, really added up. When my wife realized I was doing this and insisted that I stop, our dog finally got down to a normal weight.</p>
<p>UPDATE: Had to take my dog to the vet on another matter, and I quizzed the vet on weight issues. He thinks my dog should lose almost 15 pounds! As for why my dog isn’t losing already, he said it’s too early to look at a thyroid issue, but to just keep doing what we’re doing – cutting back more on the food and increasing the exercise – and to incorporate the green bean/apple/carrots others have suggested. cc’ers are so darn smart.</p>
<p>He also gave us a brochure with a picture of a dog named Chubby on it. 
Rude! I hid it from my dog.</p>
<p>My dog lost 15 pounds over 15 months by switching him to Eukanuba large breed diet food, cutting way back on people food and we stopped giving him Kongs stuffed with frozen peanut butter and dog treats, which he dearly loved. He looks good now and no longer has hip pain. He actually looked good before, and we had no idea he was that overweight. He’s very tall so he carries his weight well.</p>
<p>I think my cats are gradually losing weight. The trouble is one of the cats was at a perfectly fine weight before. I’m afraid Fatty McFatcat is scarfing down more than his share of the food. Argh!</p>
<p>At 18 months he could still be maturing and that’s why he gained a little weight - did his shoulders get broader/did he get a little taller, or is the gain mostly around his waist? Can you feel his ribs?</p>
<p>If it really is an issue of weight gain, the first question is, has the vet checked for a medical condition causing the weight gain, such as hypothyroidism. </p>
<p>Secondly to his diet. Those cheap foods are mostly fillers, they don’t really provide much/any nutrition to your dog and they eat a lot more of it because of that. I am a strong believer in good quality dog food. I found when I switched my dog to a good food, the budget for dog food actually decreased because a bag of her food lasts 2-3x longer.(YMMV) A great site for information on dog foods is [Dog</a> Food Analysis - Reviews of kibble](<a href=“http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/]Dog”>http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/). </p>
<p>To calculate how much man’s best friend should be eating, I like this calculator: [Metabolic</a> Energy Requirements For Dogs](<a href=“http://www.mycockerspaniel.com/mer.htm]Metabolic”>Metabolic Energy Requirements For Dogs)
And once you have a rough idea of the calories he needs and how many calories are in a cup of his food, head to [Dog</a> Food Calculator](<a href=“http://www.mycockerspaniel.com/feed.htm]Dog”>Dog Food Calculator) for the measurement of the food.</p>
<p>I think I saw someone else mention the green bean diet - Seems to be the most highly recommended doggy diet.</p>
<p>As far as exercise, depending on his breed and subsequently his activity needs, usually 2-3 brisk 20-minute walks/day is a good starting point.</p>
<p>What does your dog’s breed like to do? If a retriever, throw the ball into a lake or river and have them swim back. If a herder dog, see if there is a club that will teach it to work a flock. If you can work with what their instincts are, the dog will work harder and longer, plus it is a lot more fun watching your dog have a great time.</p>
<p>One of our dogs just loves to run. My daughter uses a gentle leader on the dog. D then hops on her bike and goes. She can put a couple of miles on that dog much more quickly than I can walking and the dog is thrilled to be going fast.</p>
<p>We had some relatives down to our lake cabin. They have a yellow lab that had never seen any water bigger than a stream. That dog got out of the car, spotted the lake, ran down to the end of the dock and jumped in and swam. The whole rest of the week was spent with the dog laying in the water, begging people to throw a stick out for it. You just can’t fight breed instinct.</p>
<p>UPDATE no. 2: Dog is loving the green beans, especially French-style. He eats them before he goes on to the kibble. The carrots are a no-go. Those of you who do carrots – Do you cut them up in small piece, or leave them baby carrot size, so they have something to chew on?</p>
<p>But let me tell, you this dog now seems hungry all the time. We haven’t stepped up the exercise yet, just cut back on the food. Whereas he used to wolf down breakfast and was so-so with dinner, now he attacks the bowl at both meals. We did start feeding him a little earlier in the evening, too, rather than right before bedtime.</p>
<p>“One of our dogs just loves to run. My daughter uses a gentle leader on the dog. D then hops on her bike and goes. She can put a couple of miles on that dog much more quickly than I can walking and the dog is thrilled to be going fast.”</p>
<p>Oh I totally wish I could do that with my Australian Shepherd, but I’m pretty sure I’d kill both of us.</p>
<p>I’ll second, or third, the thought that he may eat less of the better food - and find it more satisfying. My dog was driving me crazy begging for food all the time. I changed his food to a higher quality food with no wheat or corn - only brown rice and meat. He eats a lot less and stopped begging. The lesser quality food was just not giving him what he needed so he wanted to eat more and more of it. I don’t think you save money by feeding cheap food.</p>
<p>He eats a lot less and stopped begging</p>
<p>And when they digest it better- there is the plus of less to pick up!</p>
<p>Now, that’s something the boys noticed this weekend when they walked him – definitely more poop since green beans came into the picture.</p>
<p>Our golden retriever developed a thyroid problem, developed a weight problem, and ultimately had to be put on meds. </p>
<p>He has switched to a high protein low carb diet - basically no commercial dog food at all. Vet has him eating meat, fruits and veggies. Mostly gets chicken. For fruits and veggies he loves his bananas, carrots, green beans as mentioned above - but also berries, cottage cheese, and scrambled eggs!!! </p>
<p>Three meals a day - all of them very small - on the order of 1 cup of food at each meal - essentially he eats when we do. He was over 100 pounds but is now 75 pounds. Vet would like to see him about 5 pounds heavier.</p>
<p>Our late miniature poodle loved anything crunchy, especially carrots and apples. A single almond was his after-dinner treat. Since no one has mentioned a homemade dog food recipe, I’ll suggest the one we used, developed by Dr. Michael Fox (I’ll PM the link because I’m not sure if I’m allowed to post it).</p>
<p>Our dog didn’t have a weight problem, but he had other health issues, especially digestive (he was a rescue dog). We believe he was happier, healthier, slimmer, and lived longer because he ate healthy food. He was small and didn’t eat a whole lot, so cooking his food wasn’t a big deal. We made a double batch using ground turkey from Costco and froze it in three- to four-day portions. You just put all the ingredients in a dutch oven–no attention needed while cooking. We fed him less than the recommended amount with kibble on the side. He was a big chewer who loved his rawhide bones, as long as they were not coated with icky flavoring, so his teeth were okay considering how bad they were when we adopted him.</p>
<p>Got your PM, geezermom, but dh has put his foot down at the concept of making “special” food for the dog. But he likes the “garbage disposal” aspect of adding real food to the dog’s diet. We gave him some of a peach that was overripe the other day.</p>
<p>I forgot to mention that the “special” food is a whole lot less expensive!</p>
<p>And the recipe made it look pretty tasty! I did just buy some ground turkey on manager’s special (just $1.25/pound) that I was going to try to sneak into the family’s food with hamburger, but maybe I can use it on the dog instead. After all, I am dropping my first-born at college in two weeks and so need something else to baby. ;)</p>