Hey guys Chris here new member but I was hoping I could get some of the community feedback on this one. I have a 4 year old Golden sam, who is quite the heffer! He is right between 95 and 105 lbs! My wife and I have been messing with his diet over the last few years and cant seem to get his weight down. Unfortunately I do a lot of travel and my wife works until 5 everyday so taking him on long walks is very tough at times. I am actually working on getting him into a local dog camp so he can get some more exercise this week. We were crammed in a small apartment for the last couple of years which I think is the main reason he is so heavy! The good news is we just moved into a new house and are working on getting our big guy a fence so he can run around the yard!

So I guess my question to the community is what particular food do you all recommend for a diet and how much? We have tried numerous brands starting with jack moving to blue wilderness salmon and now the latest science diet lite. We have been feeding him roughly two cups twice daily, is this too much? I was thinking about going with vets choice 1 cup twice daily with a half a cup of green beans to keep the tubby guy happy, any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!!!

Less kibble and more green beans works for my dogs. They get 1-1/2 cups of Eukanuba with 1/2 can green beans a day. They get lots of green peppers and apples. Then there are salmon skins a few times a week too plus daily salmon oil. 4 cups a day is way too much. If you feed him less he will be happier and healthier. I know that Eukanuba may not be the best food by some people's consideration, but my dogs have done well on it for years.

Good luck and enjoy your new home!

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thanks! Will add this too the list for sure. PS funny you replied I am actually working in anchorage now myself, quite the extreme weather over here!!!

Before cutting the amount, take a look at the amount of calories you're feeding. I didn't want to dip below 2 cups per day for my girl so I went first to a prescription diet and have then transferred over to Annamaet Lean. You also need to take in account the frame/height of your golden which may call for more weight. Now if he has the tiny head big body syndrome which I'm guessing by your post above--you may need to adjust the diet & yes, green beans as mentioned above are filling.

You may also want to consider having a full thyroid panel run (not an in-house lab) through either Michigan State or Dr Dodds at Hemopet--hypothyroidism is quite prevalent in goldens.

thanks! Yeah he definitly has a solid frame with a smaller head I just uploaded some pictures into my photo album profile. The science diet he is on now though is only 295 Calories Per Cup so he is taking in roughly 1200 calories a day.

I agree with Stacey, Bentley gets green beans, carrots, any veggies with his meals. I've been steaming them. They make him feel fuller.
Just so you know though, it's great Sam will have a fenced yard but I can tell you from experience that the dogs will not exercise themselves just because they're outside. You will find him laying down out there with brief periods of walking around.
Taking him for walks is really the only exercise he will get. It will be hard since you both work so much but I adopted an obese GR and I fenced the yard thinking it would help with weight loss, nope.
Good luck. I'd love to see pics. We're kind of addicted to pics here

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thanks bent - yeah i figured that much which is why our tubby little friend is going to camp bow wow soon!

I love Camp Bow Wow!!! Several of my past dogs went there and Ky used to go until I got Bentley for her. Have fun, maybe Sam will become camper of the week!

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I didn't catch you were feeding 2 cups per meal--I'd definitely cut that back. I'll have to dig through some threads, but someone had posted a formula to calculate how many calories you need to feed to have a certain weight. I used the Royal Canin Satiety food with my girl--vet was very pleased with her progress--she went from 80lbs (way too big for her frame) down to 60 in about 8 months.