Daily exercise is one half of my personal dog health formula (nutrition being the other half). We exercise every single day without exception because we don’t believe in making excuses.
We also want to avoid becoming part of an alarming statistic at all cost: According to the APOP (Association for Pet Obesity Prevention), 52.7% of American Dogs are overweight, which translates into the fact that more than half of all American Dogs are going to have a shorter life span than they could have.
On average, obesity shaves off 2 years from a dog’s life expectancy, can cause diabetes & kidney disease, osteoarthritis (degenerative joint disease), high blood pressure, as well as certain types of cancer.
Side note: It’s easy to tell if a dog is overweight. Run your hands down his sides – you need to be able to feel his ribs (not see them; that would be the opposite problem) and see a distinct waistline when looking at the dog from above. If you can’t feel the ribs and the dog has a saggy stomach, he is overweight.
Now without further ado, please enjoy a selection of our best fitness posts from 2015:
How do you ensure your pup stays fit? As always, we’d love to hear from you in our comment section!
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A year of K9 fitness in review on K9sOverCoffee! #FitDogs https://t.co/vUBcDPOw5O pic.twitter.com/jWG2v6rqM5
— K9s Over Coffee (@K9sOverCoffee) January 16, 2016
We’re joining the FitDog Friday Blog Hop brought to you by SlimDoggy and their co-hosts To Dog with Love and My GBGV Life. Join the Hop or just enjoy the links below – lots of fun fitness tips and advice!
13 comments
We don’t do anything as exciting to stay fit. Daily walks, lot of play, snowshoeing in the winter and swimming in the summer.
Your exercises sound pretty exciting to me – especially the snowshoeing and swimming! I would LOVE to try snowshoeing (& skijoring, too – read about it on @disqus_OtP5qzvoUS:disqus ) with the pups. That must be so much fun!!
Thanks, Earl – and we have fun with it!
What a great way to highlight your wonderful posts on fitness and keeping our pups in shape!
One thing I discovered about feeling the ribs, I like to feel them by lightly running my hands down Haley’s sides. If I have to press in more to feel them, I know she’s gained a few pounds. Right now, they’re not as easy to feel as normal and the scale confirms that she is 2 pounds over her ideal weight. You wouldn’t think just 2 pounds would make that much difference but it really does. Now that she’s feeling better and back to her exercise routine, she should be able to lose those couple of pounds quickly.
Thanks for highlighting the importance of exercise for our pups!
Thank you, Elaine!
Yes, it’s amazing how much of an impact a pound or two can have. I experienced what you described with Haley on Buzz – at first, he was looking a little too thin while I was figuring out the new raw diet, then I upped his intake, which caused him to be a little too big (probably by about 1 or 2 pounds as well, I didn’t weigh him on a scale, just felt his sides), and now I figured out how much he needs 🙂
I’m glad that Haley is moving around better with the Adequan – have fun exercising together!
We are right there with you 365 days a week minimum of two walks or runs a day. Today it is -17 so the walk will be only about 20 mins, but we are out there. No excuses. Humans love excuses, but there is no excuse for not staying fit. Humans owe it to their dogs!
That’s what I love about you!! Chapeau to you for braving the frigid cold – that makes warming up inside (with a steaming cup of coffee maybe?! That’s what I would do, and sit by the fireplace!) a fun reward.
My mom is weird. She has ice water, doesn’t like warm drinks, not even cocoa! We have the fireplace on in the evenings, which is awesome.
BOL, well, staying hydrated is important, both in the heat & the cold – sounds like your mom has that covered 😉 I’m a water fan, too (I don’t do Sodas at all), but I HAVE to have my daily cups of coffee!
So many good posts. Running is part of our morning routine, you know. It’s like brushing our teeth. And even when it is so cold outside having a run makes me feel so much better!! Hope you are having a nice day!!
Thanks, Julie – it’s been a productive Sunday! I hope yours is going well also.
I love that you take Miss Cocoa running, regardless of the cold! Actually that might be something to suggest for those dog owners who keep making excuses about going outside in the cold. Running will keep both humans & K9s warm 😉
That is a fine selection of posts. Brown dawgs miss swimming over the winter, but it won’t be long until they are back at it.
Thank you, Brown dawgs 🙂 Yes, Spring must be around the corner somewhere!! Swimming is such wonderful exercise.