Last time we talked about obesity in our pets, some of the problems it causes, and the basic principles for correcting the problem.  Today I want to explore some strategies for dealing with the most common excuses for failure that come up when trying to get an overweight pet to lose weight.

           The first step is to make a plan.  A plain old starvation diet will certainly get the weight to come off, but along with the nutritional deficiencies that plan creates, the general misery for your pet will make it impossible for all but the most hard-hearted person to pursue.  Pet food companies have invested gazillions of dollars in designing programs that work and diets that help, so avail yourself of those resources through your vet.  If your plan includes which type of food you are going to use and why, the amount of food you are going to feed, the exercise routine you will use, and expected rate of progress, you will be well prepared to follow through to success.

          Even when you have a plan you can run into some formidable obstacles.  One of the most common is that the pet has so much joint pain that they can’t move around much, so they gain weight due to inactivity, which makes them even more painful, which leads to more inactivity and on and on in a vicious cycle.  Losing the weight is the single most important factor in reducing that orthopedic pain, and getting a dog moving is essential to achieving that goal.  Make sure your dog has aggressive pain medication and do not be fearful that using them in a prescribed manner is somehow going to injure your dog. What really injures your dog is unnecessary crushing daily pain.  Start with controlled exercise, and make it a daily routine.  Pay attention to your dog, and if one day’s activity has him wiped out for the entirety of the next day then you need to dial it down a notch, but don’t stop entirely.  You will make progress slowly and steadily, but you have to keep at it rain or shine.

          Exercising cats is a trickier proposition than it is for dogs.  Taking your cat for a drag on the leash probably results in more exercise for you than for the cat, and your neighbors tend to call the humane society on you.  If you have a cat that likes to chase laser pointers (that are carefully not shone in the eye), or leap after feathers on strings, then by all means play that way every single day.  If your cat looks at you like you have lost your mind when you start waving the string and feather around you may have to approach the weight loss more from the diet side of things.

          Some cats are accepting of new diets, but sometimes depriving a cat of the type and volume of food that she considers to be appropriate can result in a pretty persistently unhappy cat.  You can see the little cat brain thinking “I’m making it perfectly clear what I want, and they STILL haven’t done it.  I guess the staff is so dull that I will have to insist even LOUDER.”  As with most things with cats you often do best if you can arrange a situation that makes the cat happy rather than trying to force the cat to accept something that makes them unhappy.  Some cats lose weight on Atkins-like diets that tend to be more palatable and satisfying.  Talk to your veterinarian about diet alternatives. 

          The last, most common excuse I hear is that we can’t get the dog to lose weight because my husband/wife/children/parents continually feed the dog treats, snacks, and food from the table.  It is often harder to break the human addiction to the absolute adoration you can buy from the pet by being the one that sneaks it the goodies than it is to get the pet on a good diet and exercise routine.  I recommend that you find a low calorie alternative to Snausages and pizza crusts and allow the treat sneakers to sneak those treats  instead.  Most dogs readily eat chopped up baby carrots, and the best part is they don’t know its diet food.  Other options are little pieces of rice cake or other fruits and vegetables. (Some dogs could have a serious reaction to grapes and raisins, so don‘t use those.)  For those treat sneakers that have to dish from the side of the table, give them a pile of acceptable snacks to give instead of food from their plate.  After all, dogs need treats in their lives too, so if we can continue the love and attention without adding whole extra meals worth of calories then everybody wins.