Growing pains

Yesterday we went to Petsmart to pick up dog food. While we were there, we weighed both of the boys. Boden's in great shape and growing like a weed; just shy of 6-months-old, he has surpassed 80 lbs. I was a little nervous to weigh Thatcher, but knew it must be done. He weighed in at 126 lbs, about 10 lbs more than he was at his last vet visit in August. The vet had emphasized clearly several times - do not let Thatcher gain any more weight. His build is more on the slender size for a Newfie, and at 116 lbs, the vet was starting to feel a little bit of fat over his ribs. So in a nutshell, we've totally failed as parents the last few months. Thatcher took the opportunity of having a new brother as a means to eat double the amount of food he was supposed to. And we utterly failed in preventing this. Large breed dogs are prone to a plethora of diseases as they age, particularly bone and joint problems. So obesity is a major concern and we're kicking it into gear. We started Thatch on a large breed weight management dog food a couple of weeks ago, and we're trying to sneak in some extra exercise whenever possible. Time to slim our chunky boy back down.