When does "lean" become "too thin"? - Page 1

When does a dog go from "lean and healthy" to "too thin"?

Our boy is just over 9 months now, and we feel he may be a bit TOO lean...

He's raw (prey-model) fed, healthy and happy.

- Eleni

At that age, I think he's fine. He's too young to have put on a lot of the muscle that makes lean dogs NOT look ''too thin." If he was 3 or 4 and looked that way, then maybe you could try to put 5 extra lbs. on him, but for 9 mos, I think he's just fine. There is absolutely NO benefit to carrying ANY extra weight, and I have never been able to get a good answer out of someone when I ask "too thin for what???" after they comment my dog(s) is/are too thin. ;-)  If they really are bugging me, I just tell them you can never be too rich or too thin. Usually, I've noticed that fat people tell me my dogs are too thin. LOL.

I agree with the above poster, I think your dog looks to be an ideal weight, and very handsome too by the way.  Sometimes you can tell a dog needs to put on a little weight if you start to see the hip bones sharply jutting out, if the good layer of flesh covering over them starts to disappear. 

WOW!

He's very handsome!, he probably moves around constantly like my boy Theo that's also very lean, he looks healthy to me.
He is still young, so he will get muscle after he reaches 2 years old, and then when he is 4 years old, he will get as big as he is going to get.

I hear it all the time from the people that I visit and Theo is the therapy dog, he's so skinny, ohhhh, is he hungry?

I just tell them that he is non-stop moving and running around the yard all day, keeps him fit & lean!
He's 4 years old in this picture, he may look big but always weighs in at about 73 pounds!

The good thing about Theo is that I can feed him all I want and he never puts on the pounds, where as his half sister,(they have different sires, gains weight at the drop of a hat, she's got a wide body, real stocky looking, so I can't over-feed her, I think it has to do with the bloodlines too.    Sam's sire is wide bodied, she's always around 78 pounds though, and Theo's sire is lean.
These two dogs have the same mom but different dads!

Have fun with your boy, he looks like he fetches pretty good, probably non-stop!

                 Paula

That squeaky toy trumps anything else we may offer him to play with! If we try to "trade" this for another toy, rope, tug, whatever he would rather try to take BOTH in his mouth than give up this one.  It's been quite a challenge getting him to "trade up" for another toy.

I specifically posted the second pic because it was the "worst" example I could find of his weight.  It's the fist pic we have taken where some ribs are visible, and this is what prompted the question.  We've been very happy with him up to now, until seeing the pic above on the computer. 

Here's another of him on the run -



And his pedigree -

www.pedigreedatabase.com/gsd/pedigree/610941.html

 

To me, too lean is when the pelvic bones stick up out of their backs. Can't stand that! Your dog looks like a totally normal adolescent to me! 

Lovely looking dog, lovely weight for his age...

I often wondered about this too on Anubis.  He is thin, just a hair more thin than the dog in your picture, seeing more ribs than I want......then again he eats a lot, but is very active and just now turned 11 months of age.   He's going with me to town today, I wonder how many too thin comments I get about him.  Or how many what is he mixed with questions I will get. UGH that drives me up the wall.

Elinih, if dewormed, with shinny/good-coat texture but still appear lean, then ur dog's in perfect/healthy. In about 24 months, ur dog'll start to add weight. By d way, are u seeing blood veins,heart or d intestines getting all these worries? If tired, have him shipped to yenagoa, bayelsa state, nigeria n get a sea-lion ok!

Elinih, if dewormed, with shinny/good-coat texture but still appear lean, then ur dog's in perfect/healthy. In about 24 months, ur dog'll start to add weight. By d way, are u seeing blood veins,heart or d intestines getting all these worries? If tired, have him shipped to yenagoa, bayelsa state, nigeria n get a sea-lion ok!