I guess our pets have now all of a sudden in the last 5 years have lost self-control/personal responsibility or are exercising less?
or could it be the massive amounts of corn/wheat in their diet?
thoughts?
I guess our pets have now all of a sudden in the last 5 years have lost self-control/personal responsibility or are exercising less?
I think it’s between the lack of exercise and the treats/table food that many people give their cats and dogs are the main contributors…
[quote]imhungry wrote:
I think it’s between the lack of exercise and the treats/table food that many people give their cats and dogs are the main contributors…[/quote]
Yup, plus people are eating more and are giving the dogs all of their extra scraps to go along with their regular food.
I would think a fat, lazy owner is more likely to have a fat dog. Well unless they have a huge backyard where the dogs can go wild.
People also give treats to their pets liberally, thinking it’s a gesture of love.
My first thought is that you’d have to show some significant change in the corn/wheat content of wholesale canine pet food products since 2007 before thinking about jumping to that conclusion.
Otherwise, the simplest answer is overfed, under-exercised people raising overfed, under-exercised dogs.
How large was the sample? How did they conduct this survey?
[quote]imhungry wrote:
I think it’s between the lack of exercise and the treats/table food that many people give their cats and dogs are the main contributors…[/quote]
While, I’m sure that does play a role, can that really explain such a rapid increase?
[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
People also give treats to their pets liberally, thinking it’s a gesture of love.[/quote]
Again though, based on this logic, people are doing this more now than in 2007?
I’m taking a Gary Taubes approach to this btw 
[quote]strungoutboy21 wrote:
[quote]imhungry wrote:
I think it’s between the lack of exercise and the treats/table food that many people give their cats and dogs are the main contributors…[/quote]
Yup, plus people are eating more and are giving the dogs all of their extra scraps to go along with their regular food.
I would think a fat, lazy owner is more likely to have a fat dog. Well unless they have a huge backyard where the dogs can go wild.[/quote]
so which is it, humans are eating more or they’re giving more away, can it be both?
btw- our dog does not get enough exercise, though I am better with this one than our last. She hardly ever got out to go for walks let alone running.
our current one gets walked maybe 2x week for 15-mins, and I do throw the ball for 10-mins or so 2-3x week. Not exactly a lot of activity, yet his weight is good.
Now, granted, even if I were to feed him a quality kibble he probably would overeat, probably can’t say for sure.
a natural diet, probably wouldn’t occur.
[quote]anonym wrote:
My first thought is that you’d have to show some significant change in the corn/wheat content of wholesale canine pet food products since 2007 before thinking about jumping to that conclusion.
Otherwise, the simplest answer is overfed, under-exercised people raising overfed, under-exercised dogs.
How large was the sample? How did they conduct this survey?[/quote]
yeah, I will give you that first part
here is the site
I would also like to see stats for before wheat/corn were dominant in their diet, though I’m not sure when that was or what rates were prior to it.
Page 3 Page not found
“In 2011, Banfield Pet Hospital cared for more than
2 million dogs and nearly 430,000 cats. Banfield?s
veterinarians and paraprofessionals use PetWare®,
Banfield?s proprietary data/electronic medical
records system, to collect data from every pet cared
for in Banfield hospitals. Information is downloaded
daily to the medical database at Banfield?s main
campus in Portland, Ore. Data are then analyzed by
Banfield?s internal research team, Banfield Applied
Research & Knowledge (BARK). BARK?s research
findings are disseminated to Banfield veterinarians,
the veterinary profession and pet owners through
various avenues including continuing education
training, peer-reviewed publications, the Banfield
Journal (a medical publication), and now, the annual
State of Pet Health Report.
Banfield?s commitment to providing high quality”
[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
yeah, I will give you that first part
here is the site
The cat one is even crazier. Up 90% since 2007.
It looks like these stats were obtained from Banfield Pet Hospitals nationwide… seems like the sample size oughta be fairly large in that case.
Don’t people usually restrict the food for their pups to specific portions at specific times, though? I thought dogs were prone to overeating if given too much food.
← cat owner here
[quote]anonym wrote:
[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
yeah, I will give you that first part
here is the site
The cat one is even crazier. Up 90% since 2007.
It looks like these stats were obtained from Banfield Pet Hospitals nationwide… seems like the sample size oughta be fairly large in that case.
Don’t people usually restrict the food for their pups to specific portions at specific times, though? I thought dogs were prone to overeating if given too much food.
← cat owner here[/quote]
Yeah, check my post above yours, based upon about 2million
It’s actually a little known fact that canines evolved due to their ancestors role as corn farmers. In fact there have been documented cases of wolves tending to corn fields as much as 10k years before man took to farming. This is actually the origin of the ‘Three Wolf Moon’ as dogs have been using the moon phases to plan their crops for eons.
[quote]anonym wrote:
[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
yeah, I will give you that first part
here is the site
The cat one is even crazier. Up 90% since 2007.
It looks like these stats were obtained from Banfield Pet Hospitals nationwide… seems like the sample size oughta be fairly large in that case.
Don’t people usually restrict the food for their pups to specific portions at specific times, though? I thought dogs were prone to overeating if given too much food.
← cat owner here[/quote]
For the most part probably so. Our female wouldn’t. I could put more in her bowl but she wouldn’t always eat it all.
Our current Dane, he will mash whatever I give him. In face, when we first got him, I fed him when I woke up,then like 1.5 hrs later my wife didn’t realize I did. I was gone, she fed him, luckily she got home first, cause it was a mess LOL
[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
"In 2011, Banfield Pet Hospital cared for more than2 million dogs and nearly 430,000 cats.[/quote]
Yeah, their methods seem about as good as one could expect.
[quote]debraD wrote:
It’s actually a little known fact that canines evolved due to their ancestors role as corn farmers. In fact there have been documented cases of wolves tending to corn fields as much as 10k years before man took to farming. This is actually the origin of the ‘Three Wolf Moon’ as dogs have been using the moon phases to plan their crops for eons.[/quote]
what lol? Are you serious?
I documentary I just watched the other day (granted it was a human based one), speculated at least that some calmer wolves probably hung around humans to get scraps, and over time a bond was formed, and thus they hunted together. Long before agriculture.
as far as tending tot he corn, are you saying they ate the corn? Most experts will say dogs are carnivores, and there isn’t actually a need for much if any veggies (that is debated though).
[quote]debraD wrote:
It’s actually a little known fact that canines evolved due to their ancestors role as corn farmers. In fact there have been documented cases of wolves tending to corn fields as much as 10k years before man took to farming. This is actually the origin of the ‘Three Wolf Moon’ as dogs have been using the moon phases to plan their crops for eons.[/quote]
I can’t tell if you’re serious, but if you are…
There was no “corn” before man used selective breeding to increase the yield of maize.
Further “documented evidence” of the activity of wolves before man had a standardized written language is just hilariously absurd.
[quote]debraD wrote:
It’s actually a little known fact that canines evolved due to their ancestors role as corn farmers. In fact there have been documented cases of wolves tending to corn fields as much as 10k years before man took to farming. This is actually the origin of the ‘Three Wolf Moon’ as dogs have been using the moon phases to plan their crops for eons.[/quote]
The first time over I skimmed this (which is what I do for all avatar-less posts) and actually thought there was some legit trivia in there.
TooHuman’s reply automatically makes this a successful troll job, but if this totally awesome shirt is what you were referring to, then I’ll give this a 9/10.
I don’t know why you asked for thoughts if you already had the answer in mind.
Here’s a good abstract:
Abstract
Animal (dog) factors that contribute to obesity are classified into three broad categories: genetic pre-disposition, reproductive management and dietary/exercise (human) management. This paper examined the latter?dietary/exercise (human) management. A quantitative analysis of questionnaire responses from dog owners and veterinarians was used to determine the routine care and obesity management strategies for dogs. A total of 550 questionnaires were distributed to dog owners in Victoria, Australia. Owners were asked to score the body condition of their animal by comparison with photographic images of animals with condition score ranging from 2 to 5. The management routines of 219 dog owners were received, including data on 302 dogs. There were 168 households with normal weight animals (BCS 2 and 3) and 51 with obese animals (BCS 4 and 5). The mean number of people per household (normally involved with caring for the animal(s)) with normal weight dogs was significantly lower than that of households with dogs categorised as overweight or obese (Kruskal?Wallis, Chi; χ2 = 6.28; 2.2 (s = 0.79) vs. 2.5 (s = 1.66); d.f. = 2, P < 0.05).
Dog owners identified a preference for main meal feeding of ?twice a day? (60%), followed by ?once daily? (33%), ?greater than or equal to three times daily? (2%), and ?always feed available? (5%). There was a significant difference (Chi; χ2 = 6.30; d.f. = 1; P < 0.05) in the frequency of main meal feeding between households. Normal weight animals had food divided into two portions, whereas obese animals or animals from mixed households were more often fed their meal in either one or three-plus portions. Almost all owners fed treats (99%) in the daily feed. Households with normal weight dogs gave treats significantly less frequently than households with obese or mixed weight dogs (Chi; χ2 = 31.81; d.f. = 6; P < 0.001). The frequency of exercise differed between households (Chi; χ2 = 9.9; d.f. = 1; P < 0.01), with normal weight dogs being exercised daily compared to weekly for overweight or mixed weight dogs. Owners who indicated that their dog was confined to a yard as its exercise regime rather than walked were also significantly more likely to be an obese or mixed weight household (Chi; χ2 = 18.4; d.f. = 1; P < 0.001). In conclusion, there is clear evidence that obesity in dogs is affected by the interrelationships between food management, exercise and social factors.
From:
Dog obesity: Owner attitudes and behaviour
I.M. Bland, , A. Guthrie-Jones, R.D. Taylor, J. Hill
School of Agriculture and Food Systems, Faculty of Land and Food Resources, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia
I would also argue that your chart didn’t go far enough back and you’re trying to make a correlation between canine obesity and grain but you’ve not provided evidence that grain intake has increased.
james