How Weight Loss Will Help Your Dogs Arthritis

Weight control is an important factor which can have immediate impact on the relief of your dogs arthritis.

Reducing your dog's weight helps in two ways:

• It reduces the impact on the joints, and the muscles that support these joints. When you reduce the impact on these joints, you give them the opportunity to heal.
• It will reduce the inflammation. Fat is now known to impact many types of chronic inflammation including arthritis it is not just benign now considered pro-inflammatory.

Dogs are impacted by the same weight issues that humans are. The difference is, it is up to us what we feed our dogs.so is is up to us to look after their diet.

There are three areas you need to focus on:

• Diet
• Exercise
• Weight loss related behaviours and attitudes

Diet

Your aim is to feed high nutritional value food without adding a lot of fat-based and high calorie fillers.

Here are some dog diet tips that work especially well for dogs suffering from dog arthritis.

• Feed small amounts several times per day, rather than two large feeding per day.
• Choose food that is high in protein and fibre. This helps your dog feel fuller after each meal and supplies much of his daily nutritional needs.
• Check the calorie and fat levels in the food. Choose feed with lower fat,but try to keep protein levels high to preserve muscle mass.

Dog Arthritis Exercise Tips

Dogs like us, tend to get less exercise as they grow older. Unfortunately, older dogs are also more likely to getting dog arthritis. That's why it is so important for you to make sure dog get all the exercise they need.

Here are some tips!

• Walk your dog on the lead at least twice per day. Stairs, hills and treadmills can be very effective.
• If your dog gets along well with other dogs, take him to the park and let him run on his own.
• Take your dog swimming as hydrotherapy is fantastic for fitness.
• Play catch or other games such as jumping through hoops for a great cardio workout!

Weight Loss Related Behaviours And Attitudes

These tips are more for you than for your dog!

• Dogs tend to eat more when you're around them, so try to leave him meals when you are not at home.
• Dogs eat more when they are stressed, so keep his stress levels down by giving him exercise and playing with him.
• Dogs look forward to eating. It's a big part of their day. They are not going to reduce the amount they eat all by themselves. It's up to you.