The Dog Calorie Calculator can recommend your dog’s daily calorie intake, which is a great starting point. Honing in on your dog’s ideal daily caloric intake will take a bit of trial and error.

According to board-certified veterinary nutritionists, treats should only make up 10% of a dog’s total daily calories.

• For example, if a dog needs 1000 kcal per day to maintain a healthy weight, 900 kcal should come from balanced food, and 100 kcal could come from treats.

With nutrition, larger patterns matter most, so don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to strictly follow these guidelines every single day.

Use a portion of your dog’s daily meals to help avoid excess calories.

• For example, if your dog needs to eat 2 cups of food per day, save ½ cup in a container for training throughout the day.

Your dog’s food should have an “AAFCO statement” on their label, near the ingredient list & guaranteed analysis.

• AAFCO statement = a nutritionally complete & balanced dog food recipe.

• Anything that doesn’t meet the AAFCO nutritional requirements is considered a ‘treat’ & intended for supplemental feeding only.

Learning to evaluate a dog’s Body Condition Score (BCS) is the most objective way to monitor your pet’s weight.

• A BCS is a rating of 1-9. A score of 4-5 is ideal for most dogs.

• You want to be able to feel your dog’s ribs along their sides easily, but you shouldn’t be able to count them from across the room.

At some point in the pet industry, you’ve probably heard about pet obesity being an ‘epidemic.’ Many vets advise that keeping your dog lean is the ‘easiest’ way to prevent and reduce pain.

While excess weight is a proven concern, this is almost never an ‘easy change’ to make, and much of the coarse rhetoric about pet weight reflects our larger society’s fatphobia.

Given the widespread misinformation out there, ethical pet weight management deserves more thoughtful, informed consideration than simply restricting calories.

If you need to reduce the number of calories your dog eats, make small adjustments over time. Consider the following questions and ask for help when needed.

• Where are the excess calories coming from?

• Why are those calories being fed?

• Are unmet needs (unrelated to food) being ineffectively met with food?

• Does the dog have appropriate pain management to access a variety of species-typical behaviors? Is their weight actually limiting their ability to engage in those behaviors?

Addressing the above can also be unaffordable and inaccessible to many families, which is not an individual’s fault and reflects larger systemic issues. Please let me know if you need any help with this, so I can help you get creative without breaking the bank!