Lab wt.

Question
QUESTION: I have an English boxhead black lab that weigh about 120lbs
but he is lean & shiny. will he get any bigger? he is 2yrs old. the vet dosen"t seemed conserned about his wt. He is very well behaved & happy. Should i put him on diet. His mom & dad are huge too. Do labs get this big?

ANSWER: There are very few Labs that should weight 120 pounds.  At 2 years old, he should be done growing.  If the vet agrees he is lean and in good shape, just an exceptionally large Lab, leave well enough alone.  You might look at http://www.longliveyourdog.com/twoplus/RateYourDog.aspx  You do want to keep him lean, letting his weight fall wherever it does.  I only weigh my dogs to determine the correct heartworm dose.

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QUESTION: Labman can you recommend a diet for Sarge.

Answer
Much of what you read about dog food is marketing hype or those that bought into the story repeating it.  I have checked the claims and can't find any proof of any of it.  Most of those pushing the premium brands don't even seem to understand how real information is determined.  It is like Aristotle and Galileo. Aristotle though about it, and declared heavier objects fall faster then light ones. For most of the next 2000 years, educated people knew that. Then at the dawn of modern science, Galileo lugged the large and small balls up the the tower of Pisa, and dropped them off. They hadn't read Aristotle, and both hit the ground at the same time. I am afraid the dog world is full of thinkers. Most of my answers are based on my own results trying what I have been taught by the best there is.

I would feed a dry kibble and nothing else.  Chances are, whatever you are feeding may be as good as anything.  I have seen very good results from the service dogs schools feeding common brands including Iams, Pro Plan, Science Diet, etc.  They rate quite low on the sites that judge food by the ingredients in it.  I have heard many cases where somebody switched a dog doing fine on a common brand to one with ''better ingredients'' and had trouble and switched back.  As long as your dog is doing fine on what you are feeding, leave well enough alone.