Training a service dog means using a lot of treats! If we’re not careful, this can lead to overfeeding and weight gain.
If your service dog in training is overweight, there are multiple health and behavior consequences:
- Overweight dogs are at greater risk for health issues later in life. Overweight during puppyhood puts a dog at even greater risk for future health problems.
- Overfeeding and weight gain can affect your dog’s stamina
- Training may be slow because your dog is not hungry and therefore less food-motivated. This makes it harder for your service-dog-in-training (SDiT) to reach their full potential.
How to avoid overfeeding your dog
Base how much you feed your dog on the appropriate feeding instructions on your dog’s food, combined with your dog’s energy/exercise level and body condition.
Assess your dog’s body condition every few days. Refer to this Body Condition Chart for more information.
- Can you clearly see your dog’s waist from above and the side?
- When you pet her, can you feel her ribs (through a thin layer of fat)?
If you cannot feel the ribs (at all or without a lot of palpating) or the waist is starting to disappear, reduce your dog’s food intake to support her long-term health.
The Body Condition Scale is a scale of 1 to 9, where 1 is emaciated and 9 is morbidly obese. The ideal healthy weight is 4 or 5. For a lean breed of dog, aim for a 4 and for a thicker breed, aim for a 5.
- Use your dog’s regular meals for training. If your dog eats kibble for its meals, and is motivated by kibble, at the start of each day, measure out their daily kibble. Use handfuls of that daily ration for training around the house or in low distraction situations. Any kibble that your dog doesn’t earn through training, put in a feeder toy so they can earn it through enrichment.
- Pay attention when using high-value treats for training. In some situations, you want to use high-value treats, instead of kibble:
- If your dog is not motivated by kibble
- If you are training in a distracting environment
- If you’re training something new, modifying your dog’s emotions (e.g., making a positive association with someone your dog finds worrisome or unpleasant), or that requires high value food (such as coming when called)
In this case, subtract the same amount of food from your dog’s daily kibble as you are using for treats. For example if your dog normally eats 3 cups of kibble a day and you use one and a half cups of cheese and hotdogs for training that day, your dog should only be getting one and a half cups of kibble for their meals that day.
