Keeping Your Dog A Healthy Weight During Winter

With the short winter days now upon us, and the comfort food a plenty for warming our souls, it’s all too easy to forget about how our habits during winter can affect our pets health?

Winter can be one of those challenging times where our own routines can be disrupted…….as a consequence of this, the routines of our pets also get disrupted.

These include:

• Daily exercise
• Exercise types
• Eating habits
• Sleeping habits
• Drinking habits
• And the list can go on……..

I suppose the main ones to really consider though is their daily exercise and the eating habits!

For instance, the days are shorter, and darker in the mornings, and as such we prefer to snuggle up rather than get out and take our puppies for some exercise….which, I might add, they never miss during the summer months……

So we miss one day….then two…then weeks go by……and their exercise amounts get totally out of whack…….so what happens? Well, like us, they too are likely to put on a few extra kilos……

Then there is the diet……we tend to eat more comfort food over the cooler months……and are warming to our souls……when we see our puppies looking up to us, we automatically think they are cold and also need their souls warmed up by our comfort food…….so they tend to eat more, because we tend to eat more……..plus the food we give them are more likely to be the types that will tend to put excess weight on…….and I’m not talking about humans now…….

So with these two thoughts now in your head…..how are you treating your furry family member?

Are you keeping the exercise up to them as you would do in summer?

Are you sticking to their normal eating habits, timings, and food types??? Or are you trying to warm their souls overly to help yours????

Here are a couple of tips to help:

• Keep the exercise up. Even if it is shorter intervals but more regularly.
• Don’t radically change the exercise type. For example….. if they are used to long meandering walks; don’t all of a sudden take them for a short extreme hit out just to get them panting like they do after a long walk…….
• Reduce the amount of food if you are not exercising as much.
• Pet Treats designed specifically for pets are fine but remember not to over treat with your own comfort food….
• Keep the water up to your pets….just because it is cold, doesn’t mean they don’t get as thirsty…… Plus it is advisable to ensure there is plenty of water available at feeding times.
• Weigh your pet before winter and then midway through to ensure you keep a check on their weight….

I know these sound simple, but sometimes the simple things are the best……and they are also the ones we are so easily able to forget.

Remember, it’s not just weight which we need to care about when we think about pets’ health…..it’s also their individual well-being to care about.

We need to ensure they are getting the right exercise, the right dietary inputs and the right living conditions….These are so important to their general well-being……as such, it’s really important to be consistent in their lives, and to be persistent, and to show them we care; even if it takes a bit of effort.

They will respond in kind……

Have a great winter and thanks for your support.

If you have any ideas you think we could work on to create or would like to consider some pet treats for your furry family members, please contact us. The team and Huds and Toke are more than happy to help.

All the best.

The Team @

Huds and Toke

e: enquiries@hudsandtoke.com.au

p: 07 54792517