How has your pet benefited from your healthy changes?
ploomka
Posts: 308 Member
My pug gets a really good walk every morning now. I actually needed to increase his food a slight bit because of all his extra exercise. Check out these then and now pics (May 2019 and today):
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Replies
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Awww!! He looks slimmer and I'm sure is healthier. Cute fur baby!
I know my boyfriend's dog has benefited from his 90 lbs. loss... They go running all the time, they actually ran 26 miles this weekend!
I'm not sure how much my cats have benefited, I guess they like all the home cooking I do, they are always gathered around wanting scraps haha.5 -
peachvine29 wrote: »Awww!! He looks slimmer and I'm sure is healthier. Cute fur baby!
I know my boyfriend's dog has benefited from his 90 lbs. loss... They go running all the time, they actually ran 26 miles this weekend!
I'm not sure how much my cats have benefited, I guess they like all the home cooking I do, they are always gathered around wanting scraps haha.
Haha, yeah, I spend more time in the kitchen, and that's where my cat's food bowl is. I think she thinks she's going to get fed if I go into the kitchen, so I think I might be making her a bit fatter.3 -
I’m much more active now. I’m wearing the poor pups right out! 😂
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I've never given any of my dogs table scraps as all but the current two have been slightly overweight. One was hypothyroid and definitely couldn't eat more than his proper food.
Now that I'm increasing my fruit and veg intake by deliberate snacking, I feel okay about giving the dogs a snap pea or a baby carrot here and there. So they now get to share my snacks.3 -
peachvine29 wrote: »Awww!! He looks slimmer and I'm sure is healthier. Cute fur baby!
I will tell him you said so!
He certainly seems to be happier and healthier. He was attacked by another dog last summer and is now totally blind. So we just put him on a stricter diet since he was pretty much laying around all the time. But I trained him to walk with me (listen to my steps, follow leash direction), and now he walks more than a mile every day!
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One of my cats would likely not be alive today if not for my healthier lifestyle. September of last year, I decided I wanted to finally get serious about getting healthier. So on a whim, I googled a Krav Maga (an Israeli Martial Art that I have always been interested in), and went for a free lesson. I felt like I was going to die, but I decided I wasn't going to give up. It took me a week to recover from the class but I decided to sign a year contract. Where I live, it's common to pay things between people by depositing in the others bank account, so once I signed, I decided to go from my office to the bank up the street to make the deposit.
As I started walking, a little kitten, not more than 2 months old, darted out onto the sidewalk from a place where he had been hiding, stood directly in front of me, and started yelling at me. Almost to say "take me home". Now my wife and I live in a small apartment and already had a cat, and I had been loathe to get a second one. But as I went to the bank I couldn't shake the feeling that this was a cat that needed my help. So after I paid my gym dues, I walked back to the office, and went to talk to my wife (we work together). We got a bag to take him in, went to the drug store to get some cat food, and scooped him up and took him with us.
He was in pretty rough shape. He was scared, hungry, dirty, and disheveled. I'm pretty sure he was alone and seperated from his family. I don't think he would have made it. But now he lives pampered in our apartment, eating all the food his heart desires, having a ton of places to rest, and a buddy to play and fight with.
I think he's been good for our older cat as well. On the surface, they don't really get along. It's been more than a year and they spend most of the day yelling and fighting with each other. But I think it's good for both of them. They seem to enjoy it most of the time, and my older cat has gotten in a lot better shape and lost some much needed weight. He's a grump and mostly likes to be left alone, but I think he was lonely before we got him a brother.
The young one is the black and white one. Without me deciding to get healthier, he likely would not be with us and who know how he would have turned out. Even though he likes to constantly air his grievances to me, I think he ended up pretty lucky.
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My dog has not benefited much. I knew that he needed to be more active than I could handle initially so I trained him on activities that give him a lot of exercise that do not require that I be active alongside him. Now that I am walking him substantially more he is being forced into strict leash training which he is still resisting (very stubborn) so he probably prefers me fatter.
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@NovusDies I just adopted a 5 year old husky shepherd hound mix who was never leash trained. I’ve got her on a Gentle Leader (halti) and it’s really helped. Perhaps you should consider it for your pup. 😉2
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Well, my chipmunks have benefitted from my salad habit (Cru enjoys munching above her weight class and stole some ham from my salad the other night, despite the fact that I provided her with all the lettuce and tomato a chipmunk could want.) and repeatedly from my food scale, which I use to make up their squirrel blocks, since they're not commercially available in the formulation they need to stay healthy. I've also used my food scale to weigh them so that I can dose their meds. >_<
My dogs *could* benefit more from my walking habit, but my newer boy is TERRIFIED OF EVERYTHING and will only go out if I bring my older girl, and she pulls no matter what. Normally, I'd just get on my kick scooter and let her pull me until she was pooped, but Washy doesn't take steering commands and bolts in random directions if the wind blows a leaf too close to him. So... We're still working on that. Right now we go on short little 1/2 mile jaunts with the two dogs leashed to each other, so that he can sense her chill and utter lack of concern for people in hats and wind in empty shopping bags.
Oh, and Washy has claimed my yoga mat for his bed, and I had to order another one. So... I guess he's getting a *little* benefit... Just... Not what anyone meant by that, including me.
[edited to add photos]5 -
@NovusDies I just adopted a 5 year old husky shepherd hound mix who was never leash trained. I’ve got her on a Gentle Leader (halti) and it’s really helped. Perhaps you should consider it for your pup. 😉
I have one I just haven't done much more than introduce him to it yet. It is kind of a tricky situation with him because he has anxiety and he shuts down if the training method alarms him in any way. He is improving on the leash without it but it is hardly to my standards yet which I admit are quite high. The GL may still come into play if he doesn't turn another corner soon on improvement.3 -
My cats don't give a toss. Typical.6
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@ElizabethKalmbach
My dog's anxiety has decreased as his trained accomplishments have increased. He has more confidence now. It is still a problem but at one time he was terrified of everything including changes in the house or yard. Early in his time with us his harness got wet in the rain and I hung it from the doorknob to air dry overnight. He pitched a fit when he saw it hanging there. He was scared to go near the door because it was different. A storm blew a tree over in the yard. He pitched a fit when he saw it and once he finally got used to it he pitched a fit when we walked out and it was suddenly gone even though he barked incessantly while watching it be removed from a window.4 -
@NovusDies Yep. Been there. I have a soft spot for rescues with weird problems like "terror of leaves."
Washy has gotten MUCH less terrified of my husband in the last year, which is great, because I'm about to go out of town for 3 days, and I don't want him to be afraid for that long. I'm amazed he's not gotten fat from all the food bribes my husband has given him, trying to make friends.
Wash does OK outside now as long as I don't go during rush hour, and when he panics, I have to grab him and wrap him up in a tight hug before he can work himself into a full anxiety attack. So I have to be REALLY attentive - no extra equipment, no ear buds, just me and the dogs, with an eagle eye on his ears and sight line for things that might wig him out. When we go past worrisome things I have to talk him through it and keep his ears back toward me, listening for his commands and reassurance. If I lose his attention, I have to get ready to pounce.
When he's leashed to my girl, he usually checks HER for signs of concern, and if she's not interested, he's usually OK. If she's INTERESTED, I have to pay attention because she might try to CATCH a squirrel, and he might be horrified by the same squirrel. My 3 oz, paraplegic chipmunk terrorizes him (a 50 lb hound mix) and can easily corner him inside his crate. AND THEN SHE CAN COME RIGHT THROUGH THE BARS. She's an awful bully.
Slow and steady, just like strength building. He's getting a little better all the time.3 -
Thanks so much to all who shared!! So fascinating to read about everyone’s different experiences with their pets! I’m awfully lucky with my pets, who are all so easy. Even tho my pug is blind, he’s so chill.1
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Your pug is so adorable! So sorry to hear about his attack.
We rescued our sweet, loyal and lovable terrier well after I lost weight, but he helps me to increase my NEAT by adding in a bit of activity in during my sedentary work day with his short walks and playing with him.
Also I LOVE our long family after dinner walks when the weather cooperates.
And of course he loves his belly rubs too:
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@NovusDies your dog reminds me of my cat, Pooka. We bought a bird feeder to hang outside the window by his cat tree. Have you ever seen the cat cucumber videos? Pooka reacted similarly - like the bird feeder was some invading predator come to attack him.
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Cahgetsfit wrote: »My cats don't give a toss. Typical.
Yep. In fact, I'm sure they resent the fact I don't have a fat stomach to knead anymore. Cats are not about the fitness life.3 -
😆 too funny!1
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