Are you secretly shortening your dog’s life? Here's the troubling truth about pet obesity

All pet parents love to spoil their four-legged babies, often surprising them with delicious treats and extra portions of their favorite meals. While it's difficult for the owners to resist their cute, innocent faces, an unbalanced diet and too much junk food can negatively affect their health. Just like us, dogs too need a nutritious diet to stay fit and active. Giving them too many treats can lead to extreme weight gain, thus causing severe health problems. A recent report by HuffPost suggested that obesity can be one of the major reasons that significantly cuts down your pets' life spans.

Michael Stone, an associate clinical professor, explained how most pet owners remain oblivious to their canines' weight gain. He said, "Most owners do not recognize their dog is overweight. Changes occur slowly, and weight gain isn’t readily apparent." If you too are someone who isn't aware if your dogs are overweight, then you must follow the World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) Body Condition Score chart to assess your pets' size. "Five is perfect, and four is probably even better because you’re nice and lean," said Joe Wakshlag, the section chief of nutrition at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University in New York.

If your beloved dog doesn't fit in the perfect chart number, you must immediately work towards ways of losing your pet's weight. But what is the right way to reduce their weight? If you too are worried, then don't worry; you have landed on the right page. The report further shared some insightful strategies for helping your dog shed extra weight without compromising on their nutrition and overall physical and mental health. Well, the amount of food that your dog truly needs depends on a variety of factors, including their breed, age, and, of course, activity level. Now it goes without saying that feeding them more than that could be how you are unconsciously helping the dogs put on immense weight. Furthermore, the outlet urged that all pet food companies should come up with proper guidelines for every dog.

"If they’re at the point where they’re obese, or we’ve tried cutting back their food and it’s just not working, then we do have things like veterinary weight loss diets that can be really helpful to get these pets to lose weight," Katie Krebs, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, shared. Next, try cutting down on treats. Yes, that's hard, especially when your dogs have been in the best of their forms all day long, and you want to rightfully reward them. However, vets say it's kind of problematic if you give your dogs treats a little too often. Besides, just like humans, dogs also need to live an active life where they exercise every single day to stay healthy and happy.

You can always visit your faithful vet to know how much exercise your dog needs. Although putting them on a regular exercise routine won't guarantee weight loss, it sure helps them to stay fit. "While weight loss may appear straightforward—consuming fewer calories and burning more calories resulting in weight loss—it’s not always simple. Have your dog examined by a veterinarian before beginning a weight loss program," Stone revealed.