Jessie, our food obsessed Golden Retriever, had a bit of a shocker over Christmas. On a walk she trod on a bit of glass and it sliced open her paw. Really sliced it open, there was blood everywhere.
She needed to have stitches, which required an anaesthetic and was off games for 6 weeks. That is 6 whole weeks of no walks which, for an active pup (in her mind that is, she is in fact 7 1/2) was torture and purgatory. There was abject misery for the humans as well, with a £500 bill to pay.
Now, it has been said before that Jess is a greedy dog. She has no off switch when it comes to food and she is not, at all, selective in what she eats. She will, and frequently does, eat anything. Be it fox poo, bin detritus, bread for the ducks, other peoples picnics, she will just help herself whenever possible. Keeping her trim has been a long and hard battle (although it does have to be said it is a lot easier to put a dog on a diet than it is to put a human onto one, I guess their inability to open the fridge door and help themselves to a glass of wine must be a factor).
With 6 weeks of inactivity coming up we were worried that she would start to put on weight again, so we cut her rations. She lost some weight so we put her rations back up again. Unexpectedly she still lost weight. Overall she lost 3 kg in 6 weeks (being about 10% of her body weight). We were confused, she was eating as much as we ever gave her, but doing a lot less exercise.
Time passed, her foot healed and she is once again out and about. After about 3 weeks of normal walking we noticed that her weight is back up to normal levels. A light bulb went on. We have always known that she scavenges a lot of food, but we had never quite realised just how much.
So, here's to our Jess. The only creature for whom trying to lose weight consists of doing less exercise.
Thank you for sharing. Fox poo breakfast was what I needed to hear about first thing on this lovely sunny Sunday morning. Glad the invalid is making a good recovery.
ReplyDeleteOwen - fox poo, that is nothing. She'll eat ANYTHING (and trust me, human poo is far far worse...) Enjoy your day ;-)
ReplyDeleteFox poo must in fact taste yummy. When I had a springer spaniel she was always delighted to find the stuff. In fact she preferred that even to the endless uneaten Mars Bars and Cadbury's Flakes she used to find in the park. Not that I am tempted to try it, but if it's better than a Flake, well....
ReplyDeletePoor old dog! Glad to hear she's better. Seems like snacking between meals is bad news for all of us.....
ReplyDeleteShe certainly does scavenge a lot of food
ReplyDeleteDogs, like children, area always unpredictable aren't they. As Jess is no doubt scavenging now she's out and about again, maybe there's no need to feed her? ; )
ReplyDeleteBefore I buy any products in weight loss, I always check out www.fastwaytogetslim.com. My personal favorite is Ultimate Weight Loss Revealed because what it really says happens, really does work! I have never looked back on my purchase. It really is a fast way to get slim!
ReplyDelete@fiona - all dogs love it. It smells particularly bad...
ReplyDelete@nvg - not sure I'd describe it as snacking. Full on banquet gorging more like!
Jen - quite unbelievable how much
Emily O - in the event of world catastrophe, I'm sticking with Jess as she'd find any food there was...
@fastwaytogetslim - or you could just eat fox poo which I'm sure would also do the trick.
The good thing about dogs and them eating ANYTHING at all is that I rarely need to sweep the kitchen floor after I've prepared a meal because the dog 'hoovers' everything up that's fallen. I do appreciate that!
ReplyDelete;D