eating habits/amounts

Question
QUESTION: How much food should you feed a 7 year old female labrador?

ANSWER: Hi, Shawn,

A lot depends on how active the dog is and what she weighs now.  Are you trying to maintain her weight, lose weight, or put weight on?  Does she just lay around all day while the people are away at work?  Does she go for a walk once a day? Does somebody jog with her?  Does she get strenuous exercise several times a week (dog park, hunting & retrieving, etc.)?

Without having information like that, I will say that the guidelines on the bags of dog food are generally higher than what most dogs need.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi. She does go for a 2 mile walk every two days, other than that, she pretty much just lays around all day. She currently weights about 110 lbs. I would like to get her weight down to a healthy amount.  Thanks, Shawn

Answer
What I can tell you is what I would do if she were my dog, and that would be, I would feed her twice a day (not leaving food out all day in her bowl).  I would give her 1 & 1/2 c of dry food at each meal and if she wolfs it down and appears still hungry, start adding 1/2 c of frozen green beans to each meal.  Then after a few months, I would cut the food back to 1 c dry at each meal and 1 c frozen green beans.  The green beans add fullness and fiber without adding calories.

You will need to monitor her weight and adjust the dry food accordingly; if she looks like she's getting too thin, give her more food and less green beans; if she's not losing any weight, cut back on the food and add more green beans.