Can you believe this? Scary! Here’s Hercules, an English Mastiff. He’s captured the title of “Largest Dog in the World.” Hercules weighs 282 pounds. His neck is bigger around than most people’s waist–38 inches! The Boston Herald reports that his paws are “the size of softballs.” English Mastiffs normally weigh about 200 lbs. Hercules “just grew” reports
his owner, John Flynn of Peabody, Massachusetts.
from: Dogs in the NewsHere’s another picture of the big guy. I’m sure experts would agree that Hercules could drop a few. I’m writing a book about overweight dogs so I fully understand what a challenge this can be. Kelly is about 10 lbs overweight, and even cutting back on her food and making sure she gets more exercise, the weight is coming off slow.
There is actually a BBC television program called Help! My Dog’s as Fat as Me! Also in England, two brothers were found guilty of allowing their dog to become obese. Their Labrador grew to about 154 lbs. Fortunately, as a result of the guilty verdict, the owners took action and Rusty has begun to lose weight and get healthy.
According to Snopes, the picture of the man walking a giant dog next to a horse often seen circulating on the web, bears no connection to the real Hercules, above.
A big dog is a big dog, but that’s a FAT dog, as in scary fat. Makes me sad.
Since many of my dog friends do agility, I don’t see many fat dogs. In fact, agility dogs are often so lean that “normal” weight dogs look fat to me.
At one of our early agility private lessons with a new coach, the first thing she said was “That dog needs to lose 3-5 pounds.” Not hello. Not nice to meet you. Just … your dog needs to lose weight.
I was surprised at the time because I thought Lilly looked pretty good at 39 pounds, but she looks amazing at 33-35 pounds.
The training was right. With all the jumping and running and climbing she does, even an extra pound or 2 is a big deal.
I know, I thought the same thing. It seems like a small amount, but 3 lbs is about 10% of her body weight. It’s like a 150 lb person losing 15 lbs. Kelly is about the same size but was a bit heavier, and she’s looking much better now that she’s lost some weight. Agility is great–not only is it good exercise, but I’m sure it keeps the dog’s mind active and alert. I feel bad for dogs that don’t get to see or do anything new. Happy jumping!