Maybe it was the extra peanut butter at dinner time or perhaps it was the weekly — or occasionally twice a week — treat of whipped cream that did it.
Or could it have been those little banana-peanut butter treats that looked so small yet probably packed more calories than their minuscule size would lead you to believe. Looks certainly can be deceiving.
What isn’t deceiving, however, is the digital display on the scale.
Well, if I’m honest, I thought it was at first. So I turned it off and tried a second time.
When the three numbers that I saw the first time re-emerged a second time, I knew what I was seeing on the scale must be correct.
Thankfully, I was at the doctor’s office because the numbers looking back at me made it clear it was time to consult a professional.
A few minutes later, that dreadful word emerged from the doctor’s mouth following his examination that took a bit longer than normal due to the playful patient having to lick the doctor a few times as they played on the floor.
“Your dog is overweight,” he told us.
We knew it was coming.
Our almost 3-year-old Golden Retriever Santiago has always been a big dog. He’s longer, taller and more muscular than most Golden Retrievers. He’s so strong that if I’m lying on the floor he can put his nose under me and roll me over.
He was the biggest in the litter and probably the bully who pushed his siblings out of the way at meal time so that he could be the first to eat while also enjoying more than his fair share of food. A few of his siblings are also big but he passed them at 95 pounds when they stopped growing.
We decided to have our vet do some blood work when he neared 100 pounds to make sure he didn’t have hypothyroidism, a condition that causes dogs to gain weight yet is treatable with medicine. Thankfully, he didn’t have the disease.
He packed on some more pounds following that blood work and is now an overweight pooch who is on a diet.
Those peanut butter-banana treats we used to train him to go Number 2 outside and reward him after doing his business are gone. Instead, he earns a delicious single baby carrot.
The frequent trips to coffee shops or fast-food restaurants to get a pup cup — a small cup of whipped cream — are now much more infrequent.
The peanut butter Kong that Santiago used to receive while we ate dinner at night has been replaced with a much smaller version that we now freeze before giving it to him.
We have gradually cut back on his food after talking with our vet. We hope that all of these changes will see some weight loss when we check back in with our vet in April.
What hasn’t changed, however, is our exercise routine. We still walk between 2 and 2.5 miles a day even on these frigid Indiana mornings that Santiago loves. Perhaps we can up that distance to between 3 to 4 miles once it starts to warm up again.
If you have any other tips on ways to help a canine shed pounds as easily as he sheds fur, I’d love to hear from you.
In the meantime, Santiago will keep working on his New Year’s Resolution to drop some weight before the first day of summer.
jdpeeper2@hotmail.com
