I supplement Callie's low-cal dog food with frozen peas. She loves it!

My JR was nothing but muscle and bone. He loved to run. Do you have a fenced area for her to run in? A place to play frizbee or throw her a ball or stick to fetch? There is low cal food to feed her. She may turn her nose up at first but she will eventually eat it. But frankly, I think getting more exercise is better than restricting her food.

Cut her food by 1/4 and add a veggie like green beans or carrots. Puffed wheat or rice is also a good filler if your dog is a bulk eater. Limit dog biscuits to one or two per day. Try raw carrots and apple slices for treats.

If you are using canned food switch to a good kibble. If your dog doesn't eat kibble then add a tiny bit of low sodium canned broth on top or the aforementioned veggies.

Never leave food out. Give the dog fifteen minutes to eat and take away what's left. Next meal give a little less until you know exactly how much your dog will eat.

A dog should come to his/her meals like they are starving. If they are picky then they are overfed.

Dividing the daily ration into two meals is healthy for them. My own prefer to eat just at night. In the morning they just want a biscuit.

Suggested amounts on on dog food labels are insane. I have a Lab and a Rot who both weigh in at around 80 lbs. depending on the season. They each get two cups of Premium Kibble and either a half can of veggies or a couple of tables spoons of wet dog food at dinner. They get around three or four Milkbones a day. The Rottie mostly stashes hers or just carries them around. The Lab gobbles them. They also get healthy snacks off my plate when I am home for breakfast/lunch...a baby carrot, a slice of apple a bite of cottage cheese, things like that.

Funny story. Last winter the Rottie put on some weight. In the Spring I cut back on her food as above. This year I took her in for a rabies vaccine. When they weighed her the vet tech asked if I didn't want to have her examined. She thought the dog might be ill because she lost 9 pounds since her check-up the year before. I laughed and told her it was purely intentional.

shes getting excersise as I have 2 jack russells the younger one will be 1 yr old Friday.I was told by vet to feed dry but occasionally wet because she has trouble pooping.We have 40 acres here to run,when weather warms up we can go for walks right now just trying to get out from being buried .Only they are calling for another storm Thursday.so looks like that will have to wait ahile.

When my lab needed to lose 10 lbs, I switched over to reduced fat dog bones, limiting those to 2-3 per day and gave him steamed baby carrots as treat (he hated raw). His dry food was Eukanuba, so I also switched that to reduced fat.

If she has trouble pooping, she needs more fiber (according to my vet). I added a soupspoon of NO SALT ADDED canned peas in morning and eve feeding. High fiber and low sodium. Cured the problem right away.

I once had an overweight cat. I gave her half a can of cat food, mixed with canned green beans and tomato juice. She lost weigh on this "recipe". Went from 14 pounds of chub to ten pounds of sleek.

Our vet has our family's dogs on a diet of cooked chicken, green beans, celery, and carrots. They can have other vegetables if they like them. They can have all the green beans and less chicken to help them from gaining weight. Yes, cut way back on the doggy treats. The exercise is good too.

Sue

I also fed my (small) dog a heaping spoonful of canned or frozen veggies with her reduced helping of dog food. Loved it! We also started playing 'fetch' in a long hallway every evening. I threw her toys until SHE wanted to stop!

The only time she got a doggie treat was after the usual 'procedures' such as a bath, ear cleaning, toe-nail trim, or such. You know....the procedures! She was happy with a baby carrot as a treat, but usually got a little biscuit.

Jake gets 1/2 of a milk bone as a treat after each meal. A couple of years ago someone told me that dogs don't care how big the treat is, they just like a treat.

You can always buy the calorie reduced dog food at the vets but that gets expensive. It is balanced though for good nutrition. Veggies are great for dogs but no onions.

How many 'treats' are you giving this dog? How much 'people food'? Those are the two areas where owners sometimes over-indulge their animals. At least that's what I've seen in MY house over 40 years! LOL

Our 17 lb. Westie is trim. He has an irritable stomach and is fed small amounts, more often. He gets one or two 'treats' a day and has 1/4 cup low-residue kibble three times a day (w/omega oil once a day). He's walked once a day and has the run of a big, fenced back yard in nice weather.

I loved reading all your dog diets! I had no idea that vegetables were so well received. That's cute as anything.

I've tried giving my cats cut up carrots or peas, but they just walk away.

I sure learned a lot, Wildchild. Never thought of a dog coming to the bowl like it was their first meal in a long time.

Good advice here! Wildchild's post really laid it out:-) I would add use fresh or frozen vegetables, not canned, because they don't need too much sodium.

I think it really depends on the quality of your food and how much you're feeding, and, of course, exercise. JRT's are pretty darn active, lol!

I'm attaching a great site for dog food reviews, because I know a lot of people still aren't familiar with what goes into some of them. Dogs don't need grains and fillers.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dog Food Analysis

one note of caution with carrots and white or cream colored coats-too many and the coat color may change to red/orange due to the carotene.

For fiber, add sweet potatoes to the diet. Just nuke for 4 to 5 minutes, wrap ina towel and they are done.

Celery, carots, brocolli, any type of bean or lentil, cauliflower are good for them. Low fat or no fat cottage cheese or yougart can be added too. Fish is low in fat and calories to and good for them.

Check your dry food label. Wheat and corn pack the pounds on, so look for a wheat free dry.

And like people, they need exercise. Wild dogs are always on the move for meat. No dog has ever attacked a wheat feild for food, so go for lean meats.

People food is not bad for dogs, but dog food followed by people food is.

When our boxer needed to lose weight, the vet had us reduce the dry kibble and add canned green beans. It worked and they gobble them up!! THey eat twice a day, we add a fish oil capsule to the breakfast and the green beans for dinner. When our daughter kept them and we forgot to tell her about the gr beans, the dogs just sat and looked at the bowls, then at her, like "something is missing here". haha

We have had two jack russell, the female dog burnt it off as she was so active constantly.

Our male we have always struggled with his weight, he just kept going up and and up and up and one winter it was very stressful times and he gained too much weight. And its not good for him at all because of he has a pin in his left rear leg. I was determined to get the weight off him.

I heard that the dry food is very high in calories. So, I give him very little, he gets a really small and I mean small one meal a day. He gets treats, one biscuit when we go out for a walk daily and one at night, they are the biscuits good for their teeth. And when we go walking, he gets treats, small ones.

He gets walked every day except when its really pouring out too hard.

He is very much on the lazy side too, lays either on his couch or my recliner chair and at night my bed. Sleeps lots.

The weight when I cut down on the dry food and his size of his one meal a day started coming off him and he was so more active and happier. Better too on his short legs and his pin in his leg. He went from 11.9 kilo to 10.00 and up a tiny bit.

He also eats one small scoop of canned dog food, small striip of chicken, and ground hamburger or beef, tiny one piece. And his glucosamine pill.

You have to be really strict as you will find cutting down, way down to small meal and small bit of dry food per day that your dog will be starving. MIne went crazy and drove me crazy as at meal times for myself he would cry and whine and stare at me and watch me and beg for food.

You have to really tell yourself that its for the best, I want my dog to lose the weight plus live longer life and healthier one.