It is a battle most humans have faced – the battle of the bulge.  But what do we do when our 4-legged kids begin to put on a few pounds?    The Beagle Brigade’s Annie has fought this battle since she was 6 months old.   Momma has become a bit of a pro at finding ways to help Annie lose weight and keep it off.

The first step was finding the right food.  Many of the commercial foods on the market offer a “diet” variety, but the quality of the food isn’t always so great.  Come to find out a lot of the higher quality kibbles actually have less calories and are better for us.

After finding the right food, the next step is determining the right portion. You have to be certain not to cut it back too much or too fast.  Momma said that is the hard part because you want to see the weight loss right away and you think it will happen quicker if you feed them less, but that doesn’t work.  It takes time.  You have to just cut it back a little bit each day.

One thing you have to really be careful about is treats.  Treats can be loaded with calories.   Momma reads the calorie content of all the treats we get.   There are a lot healthy ones that have just a few calories each.   Sometimes they are small, but since they are low in calories we can have two or three and still maintain our figures.

Momma also found out that there are a lot of yummy fruits and veggies we can have that are low in calories.  Green beans, carrots, squash, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, snap/snow peas are just a few of our favorite veggies.  We get ours steamed in a big veggie medley, which we love, love, love.   Just like everything you give your pet, you should always do your research first.  For example, grapes are bad for doggies, but pineapple is okay.  Another big favorite amongst us beagles is pumpkin.  One tablespoon of canned pumpkin is only about 5 calories.  We say YUM!

Of course, there is another part of any good diet plan and that is exercise.  Walking is generally the first thing everyone recommends, but that isn’t always an option.  We love to run and chase each other, so we get a lot of exercise, but Annie doesn’t always like to play with us.  Momma had to look for other ways to help her exercise.  She found something called a buster cube.  You put the food inside of it and we have to push it around to get the food back out.   It drops a few pieces of kibble out at a time.  Another easy option is throwing a ball for us to fetch or playing tug of war with a rope toy.   Even just a few minutes of play each day will help burn those calories.

Finding the right balance isn’t always easy and not all things work the same for everyone, so it is best to find what works for you and then stick to it.  It will keep your puppy dog healthy and extend his/her life.

(Please note that you should always consult your veterinarian before starting your pet on any diet or exercise regimen.)

Although the title might make you think about your pup’s heritage, that is not what this post is about.   This post is about the things naughty little puppies love to do – dig and chew.

See last weekend us beagles were taking a Saturday afternoon nap with momma when the phone rang.  It was daddy asking momma to come over right away.   Our sister, Bella, loves to dig holes in the yard and she loves to chew on roots and wood chunks.   Bella is an itty bitty 7 pound chi-weenie, but she is as stubborn as they come.  She doesn’t listen when momma and daddy tell her not to chew on things that aren’t made for puppies.   It seems Saturday afternoon was no different.  Little Miss Bella was digging holes in the yard and found some fresh tree roots to gnaw on.  That is where the problem came in.  A piece of the roots she was chewing on got stuck on her teeth across the back of her mouth.  Thankfully daddy noticed right away, but the chunk was stuck real good and Bella has a tiny little mouth and well, daddy has big hands.  He tried several times, but couldn’t get the root piece off her teeth.   He was afraid he was going to hurt her or break her teeth.   Bella was very fortunate that didn’t happen and after a few more attempts, daddy was finally able to get the roots off her teeth safely.

We were real worried about Bella and are so happy she is okay.   Momma said us beagles are just as naughty as Bella.   She said she is always taking bits of plastic and junk away from us.   We love to play and get into things.  We don’t know about the bad things that could happen if we swallowed something we shouldn’t.  We are glad momma thinks about these things for us.

We want to make sure that nothing happens to any other little doggies, so we are writing this post to remind all pet parents to watch their 4-legged kids closely.

Happy and safe playing!