I used to use the…Bless your heart! I’ve forgotten…I believe that most of us on this forum take care of our families humans and animals. I am flabbergasted by the rights some people think they have. I am not skinny…but I wear a 10 or an 8 or a 12 depending on designer. If you can’t fit between the tables in a restaurant…someone will grump and move…but they are no thrilled. “normal” people shouldn’t have to move. And…let’s not get started on hair.
One day I will share my chem-o diet story.
I have a breed that should “show rib” and I get both comments from the not knowledgeable who tell us we need to feed more. People these days just love to insert themselves into situations that they may know nothing about. But yes we use a measuring cup…
There is an acknowledged genetic problem with some dogs that causes poor appetite regulation. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/06/world/what-in-the-world/dog-labrador-retriever-obesity.html?_r=0
I know a lot of “dog people” (since I hang around at dog agility events, dog fitness is a popular topic, even before people fitness) who call labrador retrievers “flabradors”. The differences between a lab that is fit and a fat lab can be thirty or forty pounds.
Weight alone is a very poor indicator of canine fitness. Both of my standard poodles weigh the same: 58 pounds. My 11-year-old girl (24.5 inches at the shoulder) is two or three pounds heavy and feels “soft” when you run your hand over her ribs. Her vet and I are comfortable with her weight, however, because she has some early stage kidney disease and the extra weight gives her a reservoir should she need it later if the kidney disease gets worse. (She’s been at the same early stage since she was four.) My six-year-old boy (26" at the shoulder) is lean and solid muscle. His vet has said that he could gain a pound or two to put some fat over the ribs, but he eats all he wants and simply doesn’t gain weight. The two dogs get the same amount of meat, vegetables, and fish oil; the fatter dog gets far less carbohydrate.
I know many very fit Cavaliers who compete in agility. Their weights vary from 15 pounds to 22 pounds.
One of the hardest things for the people who teach beginning agility is to have “the conversation,” as we all call it, about the dog’s weight with the owner. After a few weeks of taking classes, most owners notice that their dogs are significantly slower and clumsier than the dogs they see in more advanced classes, and they ask what they can do to help their dogs get faster. There’s one answer that comes up again and again and again: “your dog should lose a few pounds.” “But how do I do that?” “You need to take more walks, add more vegetables to his diet, stop feeding cheap treats, and ignore him when he begs for food.” Some people never come back to class after that discussion.
I saw a big Lab this weekend at my agility event. His person has him jumping a very low height relative to his shoulder height. (My 26" dog jumps 24"; this Lab was 23" at the shoulder and jumping 16".) Even so, the dog grunts as he lands after every single jump. It makes me so sad.
@bevhills - didn’t this happen to your cav in Neiman Marcus a few mos ago?
“I have a breed that should “show rib” and I get both comments from the not knowledgeable who tell us we need to feed more.”
Lol, I hear this all the time. I don’t argue and I don’t care
Yes…and no…I was puppy sitting my extended family’s’s cav. (She made us fall in love with cavs.) Neiman’s is the penultimate place for judgements. And…what do people talk about? Weight…I’m aware, but this wasn’t mine. This one is mine The other one…was and is a sausage. I could smile then…she wasn’t mine.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20332718/#Comment_20332718 this wasn’t your doggie?
Our Cav was a spayed male with a larger frame (or so we convinced ourselves). The old guy got up to 32 pounds, thanks to H’s one-for-me, one-for-you snack distribution. The vet would gently chide my H when he’d take the dog in. Eventually he got down to about 24 pounds and he outlived breed predictions. He was never going to be a supermodel but he gave us almost 14 years of unconditional love.
I love “bless your heart” and “isn’t that interesting?” as the ultimate Southern putdowns. (My Southern mother uses both.) But my favorite is “poor you!” said in a very earnest, sympathetic tone. It can be sincerely meant, such as when someone tells you about their bad day, but it can also deliver a blistering, “well aren’t you pathetic” message.
My wife used to get very offended when people told her our dog was fat (it happened more than once or twice). She would usually reply that it was her fluffy coat that makes her look fat - you should see her when she is soaking wet, followed up with our vet says her weight is fine, which was true. In my wife’s eyes, our dog was “perfect” 
Why don’t you feed your dog healthy food and maybe you won’t have to worry about him being called fat
My sister had a bag of diet dog food put anonymously on her porch. Her pug is obese.
Other than that, I’ve never had someone say something about my dogs. She looks big because all you see is bulk and fur but it’s all muscle. (We just took her to the vet and they confirmed that). I really don’t know what I would do if I did.
It sadly had become such a judgemental world. And we wonder why anxiety disorders are on the rise, among people anyhow.
For folks who have trouble rationing thier pets’ food, autofeeders are very helpful. My cats all have their “feeding gods” that they are worshiping. An autofeeder will not succumb to their demanding meowing.
I am impressed many of your dogs eat vegetables like green beans! My last dog once “ate around” a plate of stuffed green pepper appetizers and my new dog turns her nose at peanut butter! (I did once have a cat that liked asparagus, though.)
@LBowie : my dogs are not huge fans of vegetables, although one of them does like a cold carrot now and then to gnaw on. In general, I puree the vegetables with an egg or two and some chicken liver and mix with an equal volume of boiling water. After it cools, I have a nice rich “dog soup” which they adore.
My pups eat any veggie plus apples and oranges.
We haven’t found a food substance that our golden won’t eat. Even candy. She snatches everything out of the air like its raw meat.
Very sad, but our service pups get ice cubes as treats. They are so deprived, they think it’s party time when they hear the freezer open. Lol.
Honestly, I know a number of people whose dogs are obviously overweight, who claim that their vet says they are fine. I think that they hear “Buddy is fine but he could lose a few pounds” and take away everything except the part after the “but.” The real Buddy is a big lab who has needed to lose 10+ lbs for several years. He was recently sick–and is now better, thankfully–but in the process he lost weight. He looks SO much better, and his devoted person told me he was able to be off his arthritis meds. Now she admits the vet says he should lose a few more pounds.