Buddy

Question
Buddy is my first English-type lab. I am a 66 year old widow, good with dogs and training but I've met my match. Buddy is 7 months, huge, bred by the Amish in PA. He is brilliant and joyous--learns SO fast and is way ahead of many dogs concerning responses to requests to--come, go 200 feet and bring me the paper, get one of two designated items, catch, sit, roll over, etc. yet he refuses to walk without pulling. I have tried the pinch collar, the choke, etc. used correctly. I run him off leash a lot in an 80 acre space and he gets lots of exercise playing in the yard with another dog, but I want to walk miles on leash, without him at my side in the heel position all the time. I just don't want pulling!!! He is too much for me, too strong. He pulls and pulls my arm aches at night. The other problem is fat. The vet just spayed him (major surgery since the undescended testicle was in his abdomen between two muscles)and said he was too fat.  I have Science Diet plus another protein food and tried Eukanuba. Any suggestions as to the amount or best  brand--he is a big dog but is also too heavy--about 55 pounds now.

Answer
Hello and thank you for your questions,

Firsly i strongly reccomend the 'Gentle leaded head collar' no other brand worsk as well and I can persoanly say I wouldnt dream of waling my 3 year old spayed 75 pound lab(Haylie) without this! She is very unruley walking with a collar/choker chain and the worst we tryed wat the body harness at 11/12 months I was reccomended a gentle leader head collar via my vets and went and boguht one shortly thereafter it was 39.99 candaian but after we'd used it twice I relized It wasnt going back and that I would never attempt to use another device to walk a large dog again. I can safely reccomend Authoirty Lite from petsmart stores...this is the only store that carries it as its made for there store, it is high quaility yet not crazy expensive and I can also persoanly say my Labrador retreiver just lost 5 pounds on the food over the course of 4/7 weeks and now is where she should be. I can also reccomend thou I've never used this paticular type of food Purina one large breed weight managment it sounds like it could do the trick for overweight dogs. I also use Blue buffalo the fish and potatoe type for my two terriers and can say its a very high quaility food and apperantly flavorful...it can be bought in several different types and yuo should be able to find a lite formula in it. Nutro makes several lite formulas and one made for large breeds that are overweight also I bealive. I can also say dont give any treats during his weight loss period they really only delay the results, a small low fat(3.0 or 4.0 or less!) treat a day wouldnt hurt but avoid giving him more then 3 a day. No table scraps and limit anything like bision or ham bones as those add to the calorie count as well. Best of luck with buddy and trust me the gentle leader collar works wonders.