Roley Poley Pets
15/12/11
Approximately 50% of dogs and cats in the UK are overweight, but 76% of owners believe their pet is of a healthy weight, according to research by the pet food company Hills. The reason for this disparity is that humans are very good at judging the weight of fellow humans, but not as good when it comes our four legged companions. In horses, weight is most easily seen on the crest, the line of tissue to which the mane attaches. Dogs develop a barrel like appearance, whereas soft, dropping pot-bellies are observed in cats. Why not have a go at scoring your pet using the body condition score links below?
Animal Translation 
15/12/11 at 3:59 pm
Interesting! I just returned home from the Seeing Eye in Morristown, NJ with my fourth Seeing eye dog. The Seeing Eye vet gave one of the lectures while we were there. She told us all that our dogs were at the perfect weight right now and warned us to be prepared for casual observers to tell us that our dogs our too thin once we get home. “They think because you can’t see, you can’t tell how thin they are,” she said with a laugh. “But reality is, they have a skewed vision for what a healthy weight is for a dog.”
15/12/11 at 4:20 pm
Too true. It’s almost as if overweight pets are becoming the norm, with healthy weights being a minority. The dog in your picture looks perfect!