I’m somewhat surprised that this story is getting so much attention. Michael Fumento has an article in American Spectator, presumably inspired by Pfizer’s announcement of the first-ever weight-control drug for dogs, on the obesity problem in America’s dogs which, coincidentally, parallels our own obesity problem. His equation is quite simple: we’re fat, our dogs are fat.
My dogs are in tip-top working condition. I rigidly control the quality and quantity of what they eat, matching their diets to their needs as best I can, supplementing when I must. I walk my dogs three to five miles a day.
I also control my own diet rigidly both for quality and quantity, matching my diet to my needs as best as I can, supplementing when I must. I’m still overweight.
Many, many dogs are overweight because they’re being fed too much, they’re being fed the wrong things, and they don’t get enough exercise. The same is true of their people. Another problem is that those same people don’t know what their dogs should look like. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen obese Rotties and Dobies and I believe that, if their owners knew what their dogs should look like, they’d make some of the necessary adjustments. Of course, a big part of the problem is that big working dogs need to work. That’s what they’re bred to do.
That’s why I believe that more people should get dogs who are bred for the environments in which they’ll live rather than the big working, herding, and hunting dogs that are so popular.
However, I’ll also tell you what any dog breeder will tell you:Â breeding (genetics) is crucial.
