At the advice from my vet, Cooper has been on a diet since January. She advised that I give him a cup of dry food a day instead of the 1 1/3 cups I was normally giving him. I was just following the feeding guideline on the side of the dog food bag for Cooper's weight range. From what the vet said, the dog food companies tend to overestimate the correct amount so the consumer runs out of food faster. Those assholes...no wonder so many dogs and cats are getting more and more obese.
I suppose that wouldn't really matter if you had an active dog and active lifestyle. From my musings past, I didn't walk Cooper at all in suburbia and only took him to the park when the weather was nice. Cooper being the ever lazy dog he is wouldn't run around as much as Pickle nor really, run at all. Although we had a mild winter in Colorado, I just couldn't bring myself to walk the dogs through the nasty muddy fields and walking both Cooper and Pickle by myself was really the most frustrating thing I could do because of Pickle's circling and nervousness.
Anyway, now that Cooper and I are back downtown with ample sidewalks, he and I have been going for at least a 45 minute walk everyday. The weekends, twice a day. I still only give him a cup of dog food and he hasn't had treats in I don't know how long. I know it's only been about 2 weeks since moving downtown and it might be too soon to tell, but I think Cooper's losing weight. He doesn't walk very fast but at least he's moving more. He's shedding and is poofier than normal so I'm hoping that once he blows his coat I can see the weight loss if there is any. My scale broke so I have no idea if he is losing weight or not.
I was in denial about Cooper's weight for awhile I guess. He never looked "fat" so how was I supposed to know? I couldn't compare him to Pickle because Pickle's a twig but come to find out, Pickle's the exact weight a male shiba is supposed to be. I saw Jackson and he looked like Pickle's body type and mass and only then did I gasp and realize that Choo Choo is a little porker. He weighed 27 pounds when we last took him to the vet. He needs to lose at least 5. I noticed that his collar was tight on him too and I blamed that on his super thick coat. Ah, denial...maybe I shouldn't be a parent because if I can't even find the flaws in my own dog, how am I going to find flaws in a kid? In my eyes Cooper's perfect and I know he's not. He's probably the worst dog ever and it's my fault of spoiling that little fucker. If I could start over from the beginning, he would end up the same. It's not that I'm a bad dog owner, I just let him get away with stuff and I'm not consistent.
Anyway, Cooper enjoys his walks although he likes to walk at the leisurely pace of an old man with a cane or walker. I'm constantly tugging on his leash to make him walk faster especially when we're crossing the street. Plus he has to stop and make friends with everyone who walks by us whether or not they're obviously a crazy person. It's frightening and I try to make him ignore them but he won't, he knows he's cute and wants everyone to know that.
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