[Alpha]

This first is a free stacked pic of Hades: (Spicy any tips on conditioning this lean buthead would be greatly appreciated!) LOL!



Head shot of Roxy, with flopped ear and all!:



Hades and Roxy getting ready to "attack" Dad!:

[Spicy1_VV]

Nice pictures. I haven't seen any of your dogs in, hmmm forever it seems.

First I'd probably cut his food. No offense but he actually looks a little fat and if you are feeding him more then his body can use he will start to of course pack that weight on. How much does he weigh and how much do you normally feed? Also is he neutered? That can be a big factor in a dogs muscle tone. If they are neutered even if they don't gain weight or have a slowed metabolism they might have soft muscle instead of nice tone.

As far as conditioning what type of conditioning are you looking for? For what purpose? What drives does he have? What does he enjoy? What is normal exercise? Or what you normally do with him. There are so many different ways to work your dog. Walkings, running, playing, treadmill, springpole, flirtpole, swimming, on and on.

I thought I would add here that a lot is diet and genetics. Like my female who was very toned that is just natural tone without any work. Also eating a healthy diet. If they have the genes they will be very fit. If not you have to work for it but might not ever have an real impressive dog. Diet also has to do with it. If they get a good balanced nutrition it will help them look their best. You can probably get him into pretty good shape.

[LMH]

Your dogs are so cute. They are very shiny.

[Alpha]

Spicy - Don't be soft now! LMFAO!!

I had it out with my vet a few weeks ago, to which she informed me dogs don't have muscle on their sides.. So all that thick, firm muscle I was argueing it was, is apparently fat! ROFL!

Yes, he is neutered, by law, I live in Ontario, Canada, where we have the "pitbull" ban.

He gets fed, once a day, around 1.5 cups. I was feeding a variety of grain free foods, but I've switched back to Eagle Pack for now until we go back to raw, which I'm sure will help.

As for genetics, his dam was a *(&#$(&@) err, nasty little thing, while his sire was big, but pretty muscular considering he was malnourished and never got any excercise.

This is the most recent picture I have of him, we ended up taking the dog and re-homing him with my bf's mother. He's about 5 here and probably seriously overfed and loved! LOL. He's around 24-25" tall.



Hades loves to play frisbee and loves to swim. I'm starting to think your statement about working hard and never seeing results is what it's come down too, unless it's just because kibble isn't cutting it for him despite being "high quality".

He swam at least 4 days a week for at least 2 hours each time last summer, and while I saw some improvement, it was very little. Then as your saying, he wasn't being fed raw at that time, so maybe that's what needs to be done.

What do you feed your dogs? Kibble? Raw? Another type of homemade diet?

Thank you LMH! Roxy had just had her weekly bath before these pics, so that might be why she's so shiny! LOL

[Spicy1_VV]

Originally Posted by Alpha

Spicy - Don't be soft now! LMFAO!!

I had it out with my vet a few weeks ago, to which she informed me dogs don't have muscle on their sides.. So all that thick, firm muscle I was argueing it was, is apparently fat! ROFL!

Yes, he is neutered, by law, I live in Ontario, Canada, where we have the "pitbull" ban.

He gets fed, once a day, around 1.5 cups. I was feeding a variety of grain free foods, but I've switched back to Eagle Pack for now until we go back to raw, which I'm sure will help.

As for genetics, his dam was a *(&#$(&@) err, nasty little thing, while his sire was big, but pretty muscular considering he was malnourished and never got any excercise.

This is the most recent picture I have of him, we ended up taking the dog and re-homing him with my bf's mother. He's about 5 here and probably seriously overfed and loved! LOL. He's around 24-25" tall.

Hades loves to play frisbee and loves to swim. I'm starting to think your statement about working hard and never seeing results is what it's come down too, unless it's just because kibble isn't cutting it for him despite being "high quality".

He swam at least 4 days a week for at least 2 hours each time last summer, and while I saw some improvement, it was very little. Then as your saying, he wasn't being fed raw at that time, so maybe that's what needs to be done.

What do you feed your dogs? Kibble? Raw? Another type of homemade diet?

Thank you LMH! Roxy had just had her weekly bath before these pics, so that might be why she's so shiny! LOL

Yeah Nediva has the fat layer over her ribs. I've upped her fat intake a bit to keep some on her. That is why you will see more rib on conditioned dogs, because they have a low % of body fat. Many lay people think the dog is skinny or starved, they are actually healthy and properly nourished but don't have a lot of body fat.

Eagle Pack is supposed to be pretty good. Of course it depends on whats what as far as percentage. But it should work well for him.

So was his dam a pit or? That is too bad about his sire. (not cared for) I can see where he gets the straight back end from. Actually he looks a lot like his sire only a different color.

That just might be it, some dogs will never achieve the conditioned look. Even if exercised and fed well it depends on their genetics and him being neutered can have a big effect on it too. Some dogs can look pretty decent naturally but if neutered change a lot. They loose the muscle mass and I guess in some cases the ability to rebuild it even with exercise. I've seen some that never tone (ones in tact too) even with a lot of work. You will see some definition with the work but not anything close to peak and the muscle is rather soft.

She's fed raw, but I don't know how much that helps on her tone. I see a difference in the coat quality vs kibble, but she looked pretty good/close (IMO) on kibble. This is what she looked like on kibble.