My dog is very overweight!

Question
I have a Golden Retriever/Collie mix.  We got her from the SPCA and when they found her, she was 18lbs starving with a litter of pups. Now she weighs 60lbs!  We only feed her 1 cup in the morning and 1 cup in the evening.  We do not giver her many treats but I think people in the neighborhood give her treats. Even so, it can't be enough that would make her this overweight.  I had her on weight management food but that did not help her lose any weight. She is not a real active dog and she is probably about 6 years old. What can we do to help her lose weight? I wnat to keep her around for a long time!

Answer
Hi, Amy. If your dog is a Golden/Collie mix, 60 pounds sounds like an appropriate weight for her to be. However, there's no way of truly knowing what breed she is if you adopted her from the shelter. Do you have any pictures of her from the side and above that you could e-mail to me (blueridgerescue at gmail.com)? That way I could actually see how overweight she actually is.

You say that you think the neighborhood gives her treats; I hope this doesn't mean that you allow her to roam and do not keep her contained on your own property. If she roams, you have no way of knowing WHAT people are feeding her or doing to her, and you will have a very difficult time getting the excess weight off if other people are feeding her, too.

What food are you feeding her now? 2 cups a day is just fine for a 60 pound dog, IF 60 pounds is her ideal weight. What you want to be doing is feeding her the amount of food per day that is recommended for a dog that weighs what she SHOULD weigh. However, again, without seeing some pictures of her (with people or something in the picture with her to compare her size to), it's hard to say what her ideal weight should be.

If you can, send me some pictures and I'll get back to you as quickly as I can!

Kristen