Feeding/exercise blind dog

Question
Hi!
I am seeking some advise for my doggy. I am going to start off with telling you a little bit about her.
Bridie is a mini foxie X tenterfield terrier.
She is 9 human years old this July, she is desexed and sadly has SARDS (sudden acquired retina degeneration syndrome).
She has been blind for around 5 years now and copes extremely well with it. She is still happy, gets excited for walks, chases birds in the backyard and will jump onto a body board in the pool when we tap it. So she does trust me a lot to jump into a pool blind! She also trails me all through the house.

So this brings me to my problem, as she is blind she obviously doesn't run around as much as she used to and is now getting overweight. I am wondering what are some good tips to get her back in shape without putting too much stress on her little legs. I am also looking for any dietary tips, at the moment she gets dog biscuits, tin food mixed with rice or veg or she gets some kind of meat we have cooked especially. I like to give her a bit of variety in her menu.
Any tips would be very much appreciated and even a great brand of dog food or something I can cook to give her would be great! I really want to prolong her life as much as I can and reduce the risk of arthritis and anyothernweiggt related problems!!!
Thank you

Answer
Although you can give a dog a complete and balanced diet preparing it yourself, it is difficult to do and almost impossible to verify it.  I would feed her mostly a dry commercial dog food.  I am not sure what is available in Australia.  In America we have no end of brands and all are about the same when it comes to nutrition.  Pedigree seems to be available almost everywhere and is as good as anything.  I would be surprised if reliable brands of kibble such as Iams or Pro Plan aren't available in Australia too.  I know there has been some problems with the Australian government insisting on irradiating imported brands short on preservatives.  Dogs see things differently than people.  They don't mind the same old thing all the time.  Mostly feeding a dry kibble makes it easy to control how much you are feeding.  

You are doing the right thing wanting to keep her weight down.  It is hard to maintain good body condition with small dogs.  Your dog definitely should be narrower at the waist than the hips and chest. You should be able to easily feel the ribs, but not see them. Each dog is different. Standard recommendations are a good place to start, but each dog must have its food and exercise adjusted to its individual needs. Here is a link to a good illustrated guide, http://www.longliveyourdog.com/twoplus/RateYourDog.aspx

If she is very much over weight, you may want to avoid very much high impact exercise such as running and jumping.  Swimming is excellent along with walks.  As she nears ideal, you can play fetch and other more active games.