The Weigh In

So I have a dog scale that I inherited when I worked at the vet.

They were getting a new one so I jumped at the chance to take the old one off their hands.

I was so excited to get this scale home and I swore I would use it all the time.

Well about 2 years later I’m finally putting it to use.

That’s right.

I brushed the dust off it and my husband fixed the part that was broken and calibrated it.

My motivation was Leroy.

I need to keep a closer watch on his weight because I don’t want to be blindsided when we go to the vet for his next recheck AND we need to make sure he is going in up in the weight department.

But Sherman was my motivation also because people keep telling me that he looks fat and I keep telling them that he just has a very full coat right now and that he is NOT fat.

Which then makes me go and feel all over his body to make sure I’m not kidding myself.

It’s just hair. Once I make it past all his fluff I can feel his ribs and I don’t have to dig.

He still has a manly curve.

And then I go over to Leroy, who looks anorexic, who I can feel every single one of his ribs because he has no coat or fat and I wonder where the hell is all the food going that I am feeding him.

Where is it going?

It’s obviously not going to his thighs or butt.

So Sunday it was the day to find out just exactly where my dogs stood in the weight department. Do I have an obese dog and a severely underweight weight dog? If so, what am I going to do about it?

My hands were sweaty and this weigh in was going to make or break my Sunday.

Sherman was up first.

Sherman’s ideal weight is between 135-140 pounds. At his prime, back in his dog showing days, he weighed consistently in at 135 pounds.

His last weight, about 6 months ago was 139, but a year before that it was 145 due to all his restricted activity with his knee.

Sunday his weight was 141.

I’m good with that.

The rest of my family was guessing 150 and I was hoping for 140.

I can work with 141.

I can get that down to 138.

Awesome.

One down. One to go.

Deep breath.

Leroy’s up.

Leroy weighed in at 121.

Leroy’s ideal weight is between 145-150. He was consistently 145 pounds in his prime, which was last year.

He weighed in at 117 about 2 1/2 weeks ago at the vets, which was a devastating weight.

So I’ll take a weight gain of 4 pounds and I’ll hope for another few pounds to be added on in the upcoming weeks.

Slow and steady is the way we proceed with him.

Good deal.

All in all I was pretty happy with their weigh ins.

I’ll continue to monitor Leroy’s weight about every 2 weeks from here on out and I’ll probably weigh Sherman about once every other month.

There is a chance that our scale might not be the same as the vet’s scale but I’ll check on that the next time Leroy goes in for a recheck.

So how about you? How often do you check your dog’s weight?

p.s. Sorry there’s no picture of the dog’s on the scale. The way it’s set up there is not way for me to get a good picture because it’s a big scale in a small room with a pool table and a very big dog cage.

p.p.s. For those who are wondering, the average size of an adult male Newf is normally about 130-150 pounds.