The Key to a Healthy and Happy Dog The Unconventional Dog Trainer

Hey there, dog lover! Welcome to this episode of the Unconventional Dog Trainer. We hope you enjoy our battle tested, relationship based solutions for helping your unconventional dog shine, with your host, Luzelle Cockburn. Let's dive in.



How to tell if your dog is the correct weight and why is it even important? Right, I have a very easy way to tell if your dog's the correct weight but let's start with why is it even important. If you're here, you're, you probably feel like I do that our dogs don't live long enough as it is. And I would love for my dogs to live as long as possible and not just live a long life, but be as pain free as possible too.



Because I don't know about you, but I can be pretty grumpy and miserable if I'm in pain and our dogs do too. And many, uh, dogs. Behavior problems and grumpiness is actually due to pain. So if we can reduce the pain, then we're gonna have a happier, longer life with our dogs. And that is the ultimate one win, in my book anyway.



So, how do you tell if your dog is the correct weight? Right, there is a simple, easy way to tell and all you need is a hand. Right, so if your dog's rib area feels like the palm of your hand, then they're overweight. If your dog's rib area feels like your knuckles, then they're underweight. You see how the knuckles, um, there's quite a gap between the bones and the skin and it's, it's quite distinctive.



You definitely don't want that because that means your dog is too skinny. And they are actually starving. Now, when you look at the palm of your hand, you actually have to dig down to feel the bones in the palm of your hand. Um, and, um, as soon as you have to, uh, push through the skin to, to feel the bone, then your dog has got extra weight that they don't need to which can result in a shorter life down the track.



The ideal weight. For your dog to be is to feel like the back of your hand where you can easily feel the bones but it is not distinctive like the knuckles and you don't have to take down like if it was the palm of your hand so if you you should just run your finger along lightly and feel the rib bones Um, through the skin.



And so I never look at a dog's coat because many of our coated breeds like Huskies and Pomeranians, they, you, you won't know if they're over or underweight just by looking at them because they've got that thick coat. So always feel the dog's rib area to determine if your dog is the correct weight or not.



Now, there is something else, some other research that's come out that you may need to take note of and But remember every dog is different and every dog needs something different. However, that is never being overweight What um, you may want to consider is feeding your dog once a day. Dogs who are fed once a day has been shown to live longer than dogs that are fed twice or more a day.



Obviously puppies need to be fed. Um, the younger they are, the more meals they need. Five meals and then reduce to four, then reduce to three and then reduce to two. And eventually by the time they're a year old, you can reduce it to one meal a day. Um, that is ideal for dogs, um, because for us too, uh, fasting is a very effective way to, um, keep us healthy.



Another thing is to make sure that we don't overfeed our dogs or ourselves. To keep us healthy and happy for longer. Anyway, I hope you got something out of this short episode today and it helps you live a long, happy life with your amazing dog. Happy training. 



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