WEIGHT

 Our Beagle "Isabella" came to us very overweight and pretty much out of shape. Living with the previous family for those 2 years and not getting the proper exercise, if any at all, nor having a proper diet, made her as pudgy as pudgy can be, and now it’s up to us to get her back in shape where she needs to be. It’s been 8 months now she’s been with us and we have her on a good regiment of walks throughout the day… on average we walk 2 times a day lasting anywhere from 30 to 40 minutes each walk and still that’s not enough, but being the winter has set in, there is only so much we can do. Come the warmer months, we will increase her exercise and activity two fold because as we all know a Beagle without exercise is a fat, bored Beagle and we can’t have that. When we first got Isabella, she weighed in at 38 pounds and here it is 8 months later and our target weight for her is no less than 28 pounds that’s why it’s a must to have her activity be increased and her diet regulated. I’ve become somewhat of an expert these past 14 years researching dog’s behavior, diet and training. Being overweight, as with humans can be detrimental to ones health and can shorten the life span so it’s imperative to get your dog and mine down to a weight for its size and breed. Normally being the length she is, she should weigh approximately 25-28 pounds, so we have our work cut out, that’s for sure.

FOOD

Feeding your dog a good, balanced diet is also key to a healthy pet and of course not over feeding is extremely important and I can’t emphasize that enough. Also, feeding your dog those cheap supermarket brand dog foods is not a wise idea and I know that first hand, having to spend many nights up and awake with my first dog, when he was a puppy, suffering with gas and stomach aches. It didn’t take long before I realized where the problem was coming from. I didn’t have to take my dog to the Veterinarian for answers, just watching my pets reactions was enough for me to pin point where the problem was coming from. At the time I was feeding him a cheap brand dog food, thinking I was saving a buck buying the cheaper brand but was I wrong, the stuff was actually killing him if you ask me. Immediately the next day I went out to the pet store to look for a better brand of food… it was a little overwhelming because there was so much to choose from, I didn’t want to go with the higher priced food just for the sake of argument, so I knew I had my work cut out for me to research and find the best solution. Well it didn’t take me too long… I did call the Vet and ask them what they recommend, as well as doing some research of my own and also asking around what other people’s thoughts were. I ended up going with the more expensive brand, after all you can’t put a price tag on a healthy pet. I weaned him on to the new food slowly, incorporating little amounts of the food to the other food I was feeding him to avoid any stomach upset. It is very important to wean your dog slowly when introducing a new food otherwise it can do damage to their innards making them even more sick. Each day I increased the amount of the preferred brand and in a week’s time he was eating just the healthy brand. Let me say though, after that my dog never had another stomach ache issue again and therefore lived a happy, longer life. There are other high quality brand dog foods that are on the market that come highly recommended as well, but I just found my choice to be the perfect choice. So it’s very important that you pick the right type of food for your type of dog re: age, special requirements/health. The preferred amount of food to feed your dog depends on the average weight your particular breed’s daily requirement is for size, age, health. I feed my Beagle 2 cups of dry food a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, giving only a very limited amount of treats/biscuits/peanut butter in between and absolutely no table scraps.