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Just like with humans, one half of the key to pets losing weight is for them to receive more exercise. Did you know that many veterinary centers and other groups across the country actually offer pet fitness programs? If you’re not sure how to help your pets lose weight, if everything you’re doing just doesn’t seem to work, or maybe you just don’t have the extra time to spend to help your pet shed those pounds, check to see if you have any such programs in your area.
Public pet fitness programs have the added benefit of being extra social time for your animal. They’ll include things like games and obstacles set up for your pet. This also incorporates mental exercise for your pets. Dogs especially were bred to work, and many pet canines now can become bored during their lives of luxury.
If you don’t have any pet fitness programs in your area, or if paying extra to exercise your pet when you can do it yourself isn’t for you, now I’ll list some tips for activities for your pet. Dogs are easy: take them out on walks, runs, play fetch. But there are other things you can do too. For example: take a greasy piece of meat and drag it in a looping track across your yard, then hide the meat. Let your dog loose outside, and watch it run and sniff around for the treat, following the trail you left.
Hillspet.com (a website by the people behind high nutrition pet foods like Science Diet) has some other activities you can play with a dog that specifically needs to lose weight:
– Take your dog up and down the stairs on its leash
– Go swimming with your dog
– Do a “resistance walk” on different kinds of surfaces: sand, leaves, snow, etc.
– Play a “fetch race.” Toss your dog’s toy or stick, but race to see who can get to it first
With a little creativity you can come up with a variety of ways to get healthy exercise both for you and your dog. The elephant in the room, however, is what to do about cats. Given that most are not receptive to being taken on leashed walks, it’s much harder to come up with ways to exercise an overweight kitty.
Thankfully hillspet.com has a list of exercise suggestions for cats as well:
– Use laser pointers or flashlights to create a beam of light after which your cat will scamper
– Place a box or paper bag on its side. Scratch the outside so that your cat investigates the noise from the inside. Cats will frequently “box” the inside of the bag in an effort to get to the sound.
– Find a different difficult location each day to hide your cat’s food. Place it on top of high furniture, in tight corners, in the middle of under-the-bed-clutter obstacle courses, so your cat will have to go on a hunt for its dinner.
– Twirl a teaser toy so that your cat will have to run in circles to chase it
Sometimes cats wise up to these tricks; whenever I try to scratch the outside of a box Cole just walks around and stares at my ministrations with a “do you think I’m stupid?” look on his face. With a little effort, however, we can find some games to keep our cats active and in shape.
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*(This image by Clicksy is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
