[blake27]

Hi, I have an american stafforshire terrier/pointer mix. I was wondering on what can i do to decrease body fat, and gain agility, strength, and muscle. Not looking to make her the meanist dog to attack someone or another dog, but to the point i can feel that the dog isnt depressed and never lazy.

Age: 4-5 years
Sex: female
Wieght: about 90+
exercise: barley

[cascabel]

Will she fetch or catch a frisbee? One of the ways I exercise my dog is by playing fetch/tug and now that she is in good shape I will even have her fetch the ball up a hill. It's great for building her muscles and she has a blast.

You could also enroll her in an agility class if there is one locally. It's great exercise and great fun for both you and the dog. Usually most people who get into it become addicts because it's so much fun.

If you want to try agility you can do a search for clubs and training facilities near you at the following site:

http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fu...n=clubs.search

Other activites to look into may be flyball, disc dog, and I'm sure there are others I can't think of right now!

[OC_Spirit]

Well the first step would be to increase her daily walks and decrease the amount of food she is being fed. If you feed kibble, follow the weight chart on the bag for the targeted weight you want her to be at, not the weight that she currently is. So if she is 60Lbs and you want her to be 45Lbs then you would feed what the weight chart says for a 45Lbs dog NOT a 60Lbs dog.

Other activities to get into besides the ones already mentionned are, weightpull, backpacking (although this should only be done after she loses the weight), hiking, swimming, flirt pole work, spring pole work, scootering/sledding/ski-joring. The trick is to find what your dog enjoys doing and build off of that!

[Mina's Dad]

My roommate has two American Staffordshire terriers. They love pulling things. She has a cart that we put weight in (only about 30-60 lbs, but they can pull a lot more) and they pull that around when going for a walk. You have to be sure that when you go for a walk they don't get into the habit of pulling you around though.

Here is a page that shows some examples. It's a lot more than I would do, but it's something that you can look into.
http://hometown.aol.com/howardsworking/page1.html

Hope this helps

[blake27]

is there anyway that i can test her just to see how much she can do before tireing out so i know her limits?

[Inga]

Any exercise routine you start you should build up slowly. Just like you would if it were you starting a new work out routine and you were out of shape. Walking is a great place to start. Obedience is another exercise. It works the dogs mind as well as body and really will help the dog to get past the dull lazy thing. Give her mind a work out.

[Ginny01OT]

Definitely an exercise program but also look at the amount of protein and carbs in the food you are feeding. Carbs are definitely needed for muscles (look up Krebs cycle) but you don't want to over carb the dog--so, like a body builder, you would need to carefully weigh/analyze/figure out the proteins and carbs (and sugars/salt) in the dogs diet to be sure it is optimum. If unsure, I would consult your vet and/or pet nutritionalist for this info.

[I-miss-my-dog]

I think I myself might just start following the advice given here, as I am getting a bit on the tubby side

[Darkmoon]

This summer I went on vacation and put my dog in a kennel for a week. He came back to us gaining 10lbs (sheesh and here I was worried about them underfeeding him). I everyday took him for a mile walk (two 1/2 mile walks a day) with a ton of play time in between. He lost it in no time.

Now I use a treadmill since its getting so cold out that he hates going out. He has build up so much mussel and stamina from his 2 1/2 mile walks on it that he looks and acts fantastic. If you’re like me and you spend most of your day walking, a treadmill might be something to look into. My pup learned it in less then 5 mins and loves to run on it. Just make sure to start him off slow. If he’s not use to any exercise you could hurt him if you make him so to fast or to long.

[Anela]

I agree with a slow approach in increasing exercise, plus approval from your vet. That plus a very strict low calorie diet

Last January I lost my Shepard/Lab, she was 14. She had HD, a heart murmur, funculosis that almost killed her(severe body infection that took meds twice a day for 2 years), a food allergy that almost killed her, and who knows what else. All of this after she was hit by a bus just before I rescued her. She never had surgery for anything.

I started to exercise her daily, sometimes twice, when I got her at nine months, she loved to chase tennis balls and fetch sticks. All of this in addition to two daily walks totaling at least 60 minutes.

As she aged, she gradually slowed down and eventually didn't want to fetch. She did always look forward to her twice daily walks, no matter how cold or hot it got. In fact, her last day she wanted to go for a brief walk.

I have always attributed her long life to superior hypo allergic food and exercise, my vet agrees.

Anela