Battling the Bulge


By Julia Szabo

I never thought this would happen to me and boy, is my face red: my beloved 3-year-old dog Angus has put on so much weight - he now weighs 20 pounds more than he did on the day I met him at the animal shelter - that he's starting to resemble one of the polar bears in that new Nicole Kidman movie.

Statistics show that one in every four pets are obese, putting them at risk for diabetes and heart disease (the very same risks carried by overweight people). What's more, because Angus is a large, muscular dog, his excess tonnage also puts him at risk for a cruciate ligament rupture.

If you think this can't happen to you, think again. I'm one of the more health-conscious people I know, and I'm as vigilant about what goes into my dogs' food bowls as I am about the way those bowls look (they must be easy on the eyes, hence my choice of porcelain bowl; the bowl's manufacturer donates all her proceeds from sales to dog rescue). Crunchy, high-carb dog biscuits are off the menu in my animal house, which serves only chewy venison.

Martha Garvey can relate. The blogger extraordinaire wrote the definitive book on the subject of coping with canine obesity: My Fat Dog tells how Martha slenderized her formerly "bodacious" mutt Faith, an animal shelter alumna who porked out after surgery required her to be on a restricted-activity regimen. (Incidentally, that's what happened to Angus, whose relentless persistence in worrying a benign tumor on his toe resulted in vet-ordered exercise restriction plus an E-collar the size of a satellite dish.)  

So, how to go about safely trimming down this whale dog? My vet suggested immediately scaling back his kibble and making up the difference with generous helpings of vegetables. Today, Angus' veggie portion consisted of Cascadian Farms frozen organic peas-and-carrots plus fresh organic spinach leaves, blanched in the water used to boil up the chilled veggies. I'm very lucky that Angus happily eats his vegetation, instead of diligently picking out the kibble bits like certain other dogs I know.  

For between-meal snacks, Angus gets bites of romaine lettuce; he also adores organic wheat grass from the farmer's market. Surprised? Don't be. He is named for a species of cow, after all. 
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