Diet advice

She won't lose weight without both diet and exercise. I'm not a fan of putting a dog on a diet with just kibble. Kibble is concentrated calories and takes time to send a full message to the brain. I know research in cats has shown that to lose weight they need a moist diet, no kibble. Can you switch her to a diet of low cal moist food, whether it be home prepared (say mince and vegies) or low cal tinned food. That way she has nothing to compare. A really critical thing in losing weight though is absolutely no treats at all - they're empty calories. You may just have to wait for a walk or completely lock Shay in another room if you want to give him treats.

Instead of a tread mill just play with her more. Like humans, she probably has a habit of wanting to eat because she's bored, so fill in her time with something else. Remember you aren't just reducing her calories, you are changing her routine, it's like people giving up smoking, she needs time to adjust.
 
Thank you for the brainstorming.

I've never used wet food with my dogs. I could research options available in the low calorie category and see how it does. Maybe it would improve her satisfaction feeling and her attitude.

Treats have been cut off since we finished training for winter except a couple times a week there are dental chews and/or meat bones. Our training treats were 1 cal per piece but we finished in Oct. for winter except we really aren't having much of a winter this year.

Walking is out. I live an hour's drive from a safe place to walk. I live in low mountains and there are lots of dangers to walking a dog. My street is very very steep and I can't even walk up it due to my torn knee.

Sadly, she is not a player. No toy, ball, nothing. I have tried and tried and she won't play with anything. In fact, she gets mad if anyone else plays. It's really sad how non-playing she is. Occasionally she will get to romping with Shay but otherwise, she's pretty much hard to get moving. That complicates things greatly. No fetch or chasing a ball or rolling a puzzle ball.

She loses weight really well on controlled feedings, she just gets so darned mad about it that we give up because she takes it out on Shay so badly. She needs to feel full in a low-cal way.
 
One thing I'm doing a lot with honey is making a cream of vegetable soup with cauliflower, broccoli, carrots and a small potato. I cook those with low sodium chicken broth, throw in a cup of yogurt and blend it all up smooth than throw in a cup of peas and a little cheese. It's super low calorie and tasty! We both eat it, although I spice mine up a bit. I give her a scoop of that with each meal and in between when I want to give her a treat while cutting some kibble. It really helped while she was crazy on the steroids. Plus, it seems since it's "people food" it has a higher reward value. It could be a good way to bring in some moistness to her diet.
 
That sounds really delicious! Yes, she came to me expecting people food. Goes nuts for tortillas, rice, beans, enchiladas ... that is when I discovered she knew all her commands in Spanish! We are now a bilingual sheltie!

I am making a list of low calorie tummy fillers. The key is to keep her feeling full but without high calories to do it. The weight falls right off if we can tolerate her.

I would like to get some weight off and then enroll her in some beginner sports and get back to obedience May through summer. It would be good for her (and me!). She liked going to class. I think above all it made her feel special.
 
Have you had her thyroid checked? My Kali did not lose weight on a very reduced calorie diet ( weighed our precisely daily), but soon as we added the thyroid med it came off and her willingness to play and execise returned. Before the meds all she wanted to do was lounge around.
 
We use green beans as a filler to keep tummies full. Started with frozen ones. Yes, right out of the freezer into the dish. Then when they had so many teeth pulled (they're all seniors), we went to french cut canned. They love it.
 
Will Melli play with you--no toys? Like does she get excited if you run from room to room? That's how we had to start with Bentley in getting him to learn how to drive for agility. He wanted to chase us, so we used that.
 
She will waddle around after me a bit. I need to get "Daddy" to take her out and run around. Often you can run around and jump around and she will just lay down and watch you. Distance recalls in class were hilarious. All the young dogs ran all-out to their owners. Melli turned and just waddled my direction sort of casually. Maybe once we lose a bit more.

The weight does come right off but then she gets so angry about it. In August she was just shy of 40 pounds. I got her down to 34 and then she got really aggressive. I started feeding a bit more and she bounced up to 37. I started working again and she was down ready to break below 36 and she got angry. Took a day's break and now we are at it again. She's responded to the food changes. Her blood panel was fine in August. I will have it checked in a couple months again when I do the HW exam.

Like I was just telling the hubby, a few moments ago, she is getting MORE bites per meal than my shepherd but 1/2 is vege and 1/2 is food. She is getting between 1/3 and 2/3 cup of each per meal. She doesn't run out of the bathroom frantically and violently. Let's see if this holds up! As long as her tummy is quite full she is a happy little fatty.

What I really really really want to try is treibball and my school teaches it but has no upcoming classes. Not sure if I can get her to push a ball though. Thinking I will do intro to dog sports and while they try out flyball we will find our own spot to do treibball since she has no desire to fetch a ball (or run with one). I need to try a big bouncy ball first and see if I can entice her to push it or not.
 
Fletcher likes carrots, so sliced cooked carrots goes in the bottom of his bowl before the kibble is added. He actually picks out the carrots first!
 
Back to this thread again! Melli's gone angry again. I'm going to give this one more shot . . . in analysis of common dog food brand kcal/cup, I found our TOTW is 350 kcal/cup. Shay gets about 1-1/2 cups a day, a bit more as sometimes the scoop is more heaping than others. This maintains him at a slim 52 pounds with enough waste to clear the anal glands but not poop-galore. Melody is only happy (and nice) when she receives 1-1/2 cups of kibble. I cut it and she becomes a demon -- even if I add plenty of veges.

I found that Avoderm and Advanced Pet Food both have a "lite" that provide 298 kcal/cup. Thus, the same amount of volume in the tummy would be about 80 calories a day less -- probably closer to 100 because I can give just a bit less than that on her. Instead of heaping, I can go to the bottom of the lip successfully.

Any thoughts of Avoderm or Advanced Pet Food? I used Avoderm on one of mine years ago but it wasn't available where I nomally shopped. That would be prior to Amazon and my best friend in the brown truck. Never tried Advanced Pet Food brand.

Thoughts? I can always add veges to that if the little piggly wiggly feels not full enogh on that food. Reminder: if she gets that volume of kibble, she's fat, happy, and very pleasant.
 
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