[nagdu] lots and lots of very overweight dogs.

[Valerie Gibson]

Hello,

First allow me to say that i believe your post was a bit ill worded and came across as somewhat rude.  The person(s) that you spoke of are probably on this list, and many people get touchy when you criticize them or their dogs like that.

That being said, I understand where you're coming from, though I may have worded it a bit more gently.  To me, your post is just screaming offensive, which might put people's guards up.

I have a question for you though.

Did you talk to the owners of the dogs in question privately?  You want the NAGDU to say something at next convention, but what about us on an individual basis?

The truth is obesity is a very sad and common problem among dogs, and not just the guide dogs.  One would think that guide dogs should suffer from it less because they are supposed to be more active than the average pet.

Therefore I believe the more relivent question is, how often are people working their dogs or giving their dogs adequate exersize, which would cut down on obesity?

Another thing, you don't "know" how much an individual dog should weigh.  There is a breed average, but some dogs fall above or below that.  My akita is rather large for his breed, so to say he's overweight would be highly offensive to me.

If you're going by the method of looking at the ribs of the dog to determine obesity, that's at least better.

I know i'm stating something that everyone on here should know, and maybe i'm the only one who had hackles raised after reading this, but unless you talked with these owners of overweight dogs personally, privately and with care and concern, I see no point in going on a public list to point the finger at people who have overweight dogs.  We all may not know of whom you speak, but perhaps the people with dogs remember you, and they might be wondering if you've just insulted them.

If I appear more defensive than is warranted, my apologies. I'm running on hardly any sleep in the past two weeks. Perhaps I misinterpreted your message.

I do understand your annoyance with overweight dogs and guide dogs who hardly work at all. I mean, what's the point of a guide dog if the dog is not being used and is gaining more weight than is healthy?  At the end of the day, a dog is a dog, and if you are, for some reason unable to work your dog, I'm sure you can gt a family member/friend/serivce to walk your dog for at least 20 minutes out of the day.  But I'd say that for any dog, not  just for guide dogs.  

Personally I don't think NAGDU should go out of it's way to step in for something that is basic dog ownership because as I've said, this is not a guide dog thing; it's a dog thing.

I'm done rambling for now.


> On Jul 11, 2015, at 10:52 AM, Vivianna via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> hi all,
> well, i just got back from the national convention.  i have to say that there were lots of extremely overweight dogs there.  don’t people know that this is the worst thing that you can do to your dog?  
> i am sure no school takes away dogs due to their weight or, they would have had to bring busloads of crates to take away all of those poor dogs.
> if your dog should weigh 70 pounds, for example, but, he weighs 92 pounds and feels like a bowl of jelly, he certainly is not a healthy dog and, most likely he is not being worked very much either.
> i saw a woman feeding her dog potato chips during general session.
> maybe NAGDU should have someone speak about the dangers of being fat next year?  not sure it will do any good, but, i would go listen.
> kevin wurly from WE fitness also said that, the blindness community has the highest percentage of overweight people of any group of people, 90 percent of blind folks are overweight.
> very interesting.
> regarding the ownership of your dog.  i, frankly, don’t think any school will take a dog because it’s overweight.
> i actually called animal control on my neighbors and, they told me that they could not do anything unless the dog has no food, water and shelter.
> in this particular case, the dog had none of the above but, they still did nothing and, the neighbors still have the dog.
> unfortunately, if someone really wants to abuse their dog, they will be able to do it. all we can do is try and educate folks and hope they are nice responsible people.
> 
> Vivianna
> 
> 
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