I am owned by a 5 and a half month old working golden, as we live in a semi rural area, he has plenty of excercise daily. Is eating well and until the other day I thought that I was doing ok.
Went to the vet for him to be chipped and she told me that he was too fat.! He weighs 24k and grows daily.!!
Any thoughts anyone, ? I have asked friends, and they say that as he is still a pup, and has a shine on his coat, and bright eyes, you can feel his ribs through his coat, and that he is ok.
Vet said that as his head was slightly smaller than his body his skeleton was getting too heavy.
He is going to be a big lad, as his dad was,and I am expecting that, but has anyone any advice please.
Also he was on hill's large breed puppy, as I have now taken him off that at he was a bit hyper and at 30% protein was told that was too much. He is now on a junior food of 24% protein, and he seems ok , and not as hyper, on that.Any suggestions from the experts gratefuly received.

Hi,

Is your dog from a working strain rather than show strain?
At 5 months still be very careful on the amount of exercise 15-20 mins
outsde the garden is more than enough exercise at this stage.
I have Goldens Ive always had them on hills science till 12 months,and
in my opinion is one the best complete foods.The feeding guides is just
that a guide.However if your dog is happier are the food you've changed
to then thats probably fine.
In Goldens they grow from the feet up and the head is the last part of the body to finish,so I personally would not worry too much about his head just yet he not finished growing.
I had my Golden at the vets he took one look at his feet and said hes going to be a massive dog I said I certainly hope not, the line he comes
fom are all within the breed standard in terms of height he is 31/2 months
hes got some growing to do to fiill his frame making his feet look big.
Vets don't always know the height of different breeds and also they vary so much.
As for his weight I think others may be able to advise better.My pup
currently weighs 15.7 kg at 31/2 months Ipersonally prefer to see a pup pleasntly rounded but not fat.Again bone density varies between dogs
as does their frames.

I'm sure others will be along to advise,

Regards Briony

Thanks Briony for your advice, he is from working strain, and did just wonder if i was doing the right thing. Walks are usually 20-30 mins walks and we dont do any jumping up etc.
This is my first golden, have always had Labs in the past (lost my old Lab just before xmas) so any advice from Goldie experts is very much appreciated.

All lines seem to grow on at differing rates. Also the fact that he is from working lines is only a very rough guide to build because they all come from the same place originally. A friend has a good working Golden from one of the top working Golden Kennels and his wife shows her Goldens. Marking the ancestors of both dogs in "Breedmate" and you don’t go back that far before the two lines coincide. The same in my Labradors. By 8 generations some dogs start to appear on both and by 30 generations every dog is on both sides at least once!

Personally I get off of puppy food as soon as possible and go straight onto adult. My aim is to keep the weight off of them and let them develop slowly. As Briony said, not to much walking and certainly no jumping yet. This of course means that the food conversion into energy is not being used so it is being converted into fat instead. I find the feeding instructions on most foods wildly excessive, even in the winter during the working season!

Do you intend to work him?

Best wishes, John

Thanks John, good advice as usual,

Hi John,

Totally agree with you.Amber is my show golden 41/2yrs and Gundo is my 31/2 month show pup,however he has
both working and show lines in him and his breeder has line bred dual purpose Goldens for showing and working.
Amber has been asked by the local estate to join them at the start of the shooting season and Gundo when
hes 18 months old.However its lovely to be able to show and also see the dogs in the field demonstrating brains
as well as beauty.

Briony

Thats wonderful Briony! There are some lovely working Goldens around. To get the best out of them you have to be rather easier on them than with most Labs or they switch off but with sympathetic handling they can go right to the top.

Dogs using their brain are never bored and are always wanting to be with you because you are their source of enjoyment!

Best wishes, John

Hi John,

I have a 13 week old Golden. He's currently on Royal Canin Maxi Junior, and as far as I can tell, he seems to be doing fine. He now weighs about 13.8kg, gaining about 1kg a week.
When you say that you get your pups off puppy food as soon as possible, what are you waiting for before you make the change? Do you wait until a certain age, weight or something else? Would you change your pup onto the Royal Canin adult food at 13 weeks?

Thanks,

Sarah

Hi Sarah, basically size and teeth. Obviously the puppy teeth are not up to the same kind of food that the adult teeth can manage and similarly a small puppy needs manageable sized food. (At least until he has teeth able to handle this size of food.

Here, to save me typing is a part of an email I sent to a friend earlier this evening. I hope the person I sent it to doesn’t mind but I think it goes to explain my thinking:-

<< Food is something no one will ever agree over. I go back to the time when it was the exception rather than the rule to feed a “Dog Food”. Table scrapes were the norm and even when dog food did become almost universal there was no puppy food. Dog food was just that, dog food! In the show ring a puppy looked like a puppy and even in junior the dog was still very obviously not adult! It was around the time of my first Lab, Mandy, that complete foods arrived. ***** was the ground breaker! It was imported from America as a high protein food for racing greyhounds but was soon jumped on by the show community. A puppy could grow up over night and enter the show ring at 6 months old looking almost grown up. It did unfortunately suffer the effects of being the first of its kind. Until then people had been use to feeding food with a high water content and were totally unprepared for a “dry” food. So much trouble was caused by the food absorbing the moisture from the within the dog’s stomach that it got withdrawn from the shelves and was many years before it returned. In the mean time the “Home Grown” food companies got in on the act and the day of the complete had arrived. I fought against it right up to Anna but have now finally come into the 20th century (now everyone else has moved into the 21st!) although I still prefer “Meat and biccy” for puppies. >>

I have hidden the food manufactures name for the obvious reason!

Best wishes, John

Thanks for your reply, John. I will stick with his current food for now, and see how he's getting along in a month or two.

Sarah