How to get my Boxer to lose weight?

Question

I have a Female Boxer who is spayed and 8 yrs old,she is overweight and I can't seem to get the ratio of feed correct. She didn't like the food the Vet recommended and now the Vet has given up her practice to go back to school and I have to find another Vet,but want to get the dog's weight down. Any suggestions? She only goes into a 1/3 acre fenced(wooden) in backyard,I can't take her for walks due to the Pitt Bulls and stray dogs that are running around the neighborhood and nobody will do anything about making them pen them up or remove them from our area. We live in a very small town and the Police won't do anything with the dogs,everybody has complained and the problem is still here. Thanks for all answers that are helpful and the ones who are being ugly I will ignore you or report you for your postings.

My boxer weighs about 60 lbs and should weigh about 42 lbs. I feed her a cup of dry food with a about a TBL of wet food twice a day,is this still too much> sorry I forgot to put that part in and she is a smaller size Boxer not really tall

Answer 1

The main thing that you need to do to help your dog lose weight is usually to feed less food. Most owners feed their pets way to much food, and usually pet food companies tell owners on the back of bags what to feed, usually their recommendations are incorrect. You didn't say how much your boxer weighed or how much you were feeding her but a 70 pound dog should get no more then 3 to 4 cups of food a day. You also need to feed her for the weight you want her to be not the weight that she is.
Also if she eats alot of treats that will lead to obesity. One milk bone is like eating one candy bar......many owners give their dogs 3 or 4 bones a day which is much to much. Carrots and plain rice cakes are a good and low fat/calorie treats to feed dogs and usually they love them. Exercise is also very important, though I can see why that would be hard for your.

*also if you cut back her food and she still seems hungry add frozen or (low sodium) canned green beans to her food. Most dogs LOVE them and they are great low calorie fillers!!

Good Luck

Answer 2

If she doesn't like the vet recommend diets, I don't blame her. Taken a look at some of those? Bland.

I have corgis who are 24 hr hoovers. They can gain weight just looking at stuff. I have lots of practice in keeping everyone slim and trim.

First off-no rawhides, pig ears or those types of treats. If you do greenies, limit those to one a week. Use carrots(not too many), apples, bananas. No grapes or raisins-toxic.
Second-look into a premium diet with a low fat /protein level. Several out there, just gotta go shopping.
Third-we use what is called the green bean or pumpkin diet. Substitue 1/3 of her ration of kibble with frozen green beans or pumpkin. It's all fiber, will help fill her up and you won't feel gulity about limiting her ration. She may not like it at first, but keep thinking-it's in her best interest and don't give in. Missing a meal or two won't hurt her and she will eat when she is hungry.
Make sure when you are limiting her ration, you give her a pet tab or some sort of canine vitamin supplement.

Also I hope you are not feeding her based on the bag recommendations. Most commerical diets have recommended feeding on them, that, well, help sell more food because you feed more then you should.

If you can, find a training center and go to a class once a week. Even if it's just for fun, try agility. Exercise is exercise, regardless of how you get it. Throw a ball, do the stairs at home, there are many ways to get her up and moving.

Good Luck!

Answer 3

Ever hear the saying a good big fighter will beat a good smaller fighter? Most boxers suck them selves down to the absolutely lowest weight that they can get to for the weigh in as long as they are in jeopardy of collapsing (some have) or possibly killing themselves. In world championship or title fights the weigh in is usually held between 36-24 hours before when the secluded is to take place. This gives some people a huge advantage as in boxing like pretty much every other sport on earth there will always be people that know how to take advantage of the system. I know of some fighters that were so dehydrated and bode dry that after they made weight in the 36 hours before the fight they gained 28 pounds mostly waster weight-'they had a sports doctor have him go to sleep with an I.V. apparently he partially hydrated nearly 20 pounds alone just while sleeping. I personally would gain 13-15 pounds between the weigh in and my fights especially toward the end of my professional career. Seriously u-tube fights like Arturo Gatti vs. Joey Gamache. Julio Chavez Jr. just fought on H.B.O. in a very competitive fight where he weighed in right on the middleweight limit-160lbs and H.B.O. weighed him in the day of his fight at 180lbs he looked very much bigger than his opponent and won a razor thin decision that I think was partially due to the fact he had a full 15 pounds on his opponent (he gained only 5 pounds)

Answer 4

If you can afford a treadmill, dogs are very good at walking on treadmills and enjoy it very much!

Also, no matter what food you are feeding her, make sure you measure it EVERY DAY! It is really easy to over feed your dog. Whatever food you are feeding (although I recommend timberwolf b/c it is very healthy, however expensive and hard to find in the US), read the recommended serving size on the package and cut it down a little bit. Whatever you decide on (I would guess 1 and 1/4 cup twice a day would probably be good) leave measuring cups in the food bag so that you remember to always measure it, and if she continues to not loose weight, this just means she is getting enough activity to burn up all the calories, just cut down her food intake even more.

If your dog doesn't like the food the Vet recommended, try soaking the food in warm water for 10 minutes before you feed it to the dog. This makes it easier to digest, and it makes the food smell and taste more appetizing to the dogs.

Answer 5

Try feeding a weight management dog food (or a lite formula) and giving them about 1/2 of what the bag says to give her for her ideal weight (probably 45-65 pounds). Also give her about 1/2 of can of green beans every day. This way she will be getting a reduction in calories, but the green beans add bulk to the meal plus extra vitamins, minerals, and fiber. The green beans also help getting the dog to eat the lite food.

I did this will my dog for about a month and now she is down to her ideal weight, but she is much smaller than a boxer. It may take about 2-3 months for her to get back down to her ideal weight. When you get her to her ideal, I would keep her on the lite dog food to help prevent her from becoming overweight again. Just FYI Senior food tends to have a lot of calories in it (like puppy food), so if you want her on senior get a senior lite formula. I hope that this helps.

Answer 6

Go to http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com to learn about dog food ingridients. Find a formula for seniors and, or in a less active formula. It would be best to find the two in one because senoir food nomally has less calories and things like glucosamine and L-caritine that are good for bone and muscle maintenance.

Currently I feed my 10yr old male boxer a cup and a half of Chicken Soup for the pet lover's soul. It runs about $30 for 35lbs. Costco makes good food for the price and have a low calorie formula. Feed her less calories than what she uses a day soo that she will lose weight.

Answer 7

Even with limited exercise you can get a dog into good trim with the right nutrition.

The principle here is: Feed less and better quality. Dogs themselves usually overfeed, and become obese, only when they lack certain nutrients. So they eat more and more of what there is, in the hope that they get the nutrients they are lacking. It is often quality proteins deficiency that causes dogs to overeat.

My advice to you would depend on how much you care about your dog. But, if you fed your dog solely with fresh food, like lean lamb daily in the morning and quality fish, like trout, salmon, skate wings, sea bass, and some organic chicken, alternating in the evenings, (about 500 grams raw meat per day), and gave it another 300 grams of quality starches inbetween, like softly boiled brown basmati organic rice, boiled organic oats, and organic rye bread, you would give the dog the best you can give and guaranteed, it would be in perfect trim. (It would be advisable to add multivitamins and oils, like Cod liver Oil in small quantities, about twice a week.)

If this sounds like too much of a bother, or too expensive, then at least cut out any "treats", definitely no kitchen scraps, and reduce biscuits, and add at least some fresh meat, like lamb every now and then. Also try adding good quality broad spectrum multivits, once a week, this will reduce the likelihood of gaining weight due to deficiencies.

Pork is entirely unsuitable for dogs, never feed pork.

Answer 8

Since you can't walk your dog in your neighborhood then trying going to a park or another neighborhood. A dog needs to work for its food. I don't know how you feed your dog, but if you are the person that pours a whole bunch of food into the food bowl for the dog to eat all day then that isn't good. But, if you feed your dog 2x a day (like meals) that is good. Try pouring a 1 1/2 cup of dog food into bowl, once in morning and once in afternoon. Oh and if you have a tread mill you can try walking your dog on that.

Answer 9

My boyfriend's boxer gains weight and he's a senior dog. What we do is we walk him on leash walks daily and then we regulate the amount of dog food we give him. Try to give him a little less then what we normally give him, we also make sure that he doesn't eat any "extra food." In time we see a different in his weight. Good Luck.

Answer 10

My dog was also overweight. I think the best thing to do is try walking her with a very short leash and short walks. She will enjoy it more than anything. Try also playing with her more inside. Making her hyper is good too so she can run around inside. I would try putting her on Science Diet. Read the back for the right amount for your puppy's age! It does take time though. I hope this helped!