# Do you Monitor Your Hav's Weight?



## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

Do you monitor your Hav's weight? With all the snacking that we love to give our Hav's and those precious eyes staring back at you...how can you resist? 

So, here is another poll. This is a poll for Hav's who are at least a year old and who have become stable in their weight.


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## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

I do monitor Dexter's weight every 3-5 days. I want to make sure we do not over do the snacks and treats especially when Dexter is not eating the provided main meal. 

I monitor my weight, which I really do not care at this point....but, as soon as my weight is done....Dexter is standing right beside me waiting to be picked up so he can be weighed too.


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## TheVintageVamp (Oct 14, 2009)

I have always weighed my dogs monthly, right before dosing with their Interceptor and Advantix. I was shocked to discover that Murray has gained 2.5 lbs since we got him 6 weeks ago. Guess I need to either walk him more or cut back on the treats....


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## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

TheVintageVamp said:


> I have always weighed my dogs monthly, right before dosing with their Interceptor and Advantix. I was shocked to discover that Murray has gained 2.5 lbs since we got him 6 weeks ago. Guess I need to either walk him more or cut back on the treats....


How old is Murray? Pups under a year are suppose to gain weight. I wanted Dexter to gain weight when he was younger because he felt so fragile.


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## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

Here are Dexter's weights. 

11 weeks: 4 lbs
15 weeks: 6 lbs. 2oz
17 weeks: 6 lbs. 8oz
25 weeks: 8 lbs. 10oz. (6 months)
30 weeks: 10 lbs. (7 months) 
9 months: 11.2 lbs
12 months: 12 lbs.

Breeder said Dexter would be 12 pounds when grown.


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## MopTop Havanese (Sep 25, 2006)

Nope- I don't monitor their weight. My adults eat 2x a day- I place a big full bowl of kibble on the floor and when all of them have eaten (they take turns in pecking order!) I pick up the bowl.
My puppies eat 3x a day, same thing, put a big bowl down and let them eat what they want, pick it up when they are done.
I don't have any picky eaters- they all eat their fill at each meal. Havabrat is a little on the chunky side, but I don't worry about it. Daisy and Stella are great weights too. Emmy is a bit chubby too, but she is a great eater when she is nursing her babies and takes a while to get the weight off.
I don't feed my dogs any snacks/treats. They do get chewbones on a regular basis.
It seems to me that the more people freak about how much their Hav is eating and if they are overweight or underweight is when they end up with a picky eater.


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## hedygs (May 23, 2007)

I don't but that last time I was at the vet she said Gitter was 1/2 a lb too heavy (1/2 a pound...I should be so lucky)! I know it is from the treats he gets when he goes potty but I am still struggling with that portion of his training.


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## ama0722 (Nov 28, 2006)

I think several times a week is a bit too much as their weight fluctuates but I try to weigh them one a month or so. Also, I don't think all havs should weight the same. There are so many that are built differently. Dora should never weight what Dash does and vice versa.

I do agree with Katie as I gave into that underweight picky eater mentality and when I finally stopped being neurotic so did my dog-imagine that! (BTW, this took me 2 underweight dogs to learn!) 

On the other hand, Dora is about a 3/4th pound overweight compared to when she was 2 years old but maybe that should be her natural weight? I am not sure. She will often try and eat till she gets sick and has always had this issue with food. Belle and Dash will walk away when they get full. Dora seems to have good amount of energy and I did take her for individual walks for awhile but I try to scale her back a bit on the cookies. She is just as enthusiastic if I break the cookie in half! Belle is back down to her weight to, not sure what it was but I thought she was gaining weight and when I finally weighed her, I was right. 

Dash could still gain some weight and basically, he gets to eat how much he wants. I no longer play the game of here is something else. I do try and give him lots of cookies too but the boy just wears it off. He has his training we do but if I let Dash he would go in and out the door at least 50 times a day. He runs around the backyard patrolling every chance he gets.


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## marb42 (Oct 19, 2008)

I usually just wait for the vet checkups to check his wait. I feed him a half cup of food twice a day, along with boiled chicken for treats and 2 little treat bones. When he gets heavier, I know the kids have been slipping him too much of their food:wink:so I tell them to slow down.
Gina


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## TheVintageVamp (Oct 14, 2009)

Hi Linda,
Murray is a rescue, so we aren't completely certain but the vet thinks he is around 2 years old.


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## Kathie (Jul 31, 2008)

Abby was 7.3 at eight months when we got her - a year later she was 7.3! Now when I weigh her on my scale she is more like 8 lbs. which is probably due to her snacking with her Daddy! I do want to run by the vet's office soon just to weigh her, though. I don't worry about her weight but do like to monitor it. An overweight dog can cause too many health problems and I want to keep her in the best possible shape so she will live a good long life!


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## Jill in Mich (Feb 24, 2008)

I weigh both dogs whenever we go to the vets (which is usually monthly due to Tess' allergies). Tess is almost 7 years old and weighs 9.9 - 10.1 pounds. She's on a very restricted diet but I feed her as much as she wants to eat since she is too skinny (I should be so lucky!) My two never get table scraps (and now won't even take them if offered) and their treats are limited.


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## irnfit (Nov 21, 2006)

It's funny that this should come up today. I gave Kodi a bath yesterday, and noticed "love handles". He is not fat by any means, and doesn't get a lot of treats. His last weight at the vet (a few months ago) was 15 lbs. The vet said his weight was fine. I will have to get the scale out tonight and weigh him. He's not a very big eater, either.


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## Eva (Jun 20, 2008)

Todd's weight is pretty stable at 13 lbs or at least I think that it is..I don't weigh him. I just make sure that I can still feel his ribs when I pet him and call it good


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## princessp (Aug 2, 2009)

We weigh our dogs every once in a while, but I don't "monitor" it. They do the "free-feed" system and I think they are doing OK. They are both about 15 lbs.


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## lcy_pt (Aug 17, 2007)

I don't weigh the boys on a regular basis. When Seymour had his lovely diarrhea issue a few months back and they were at the vet's...Seymour weighed in at 13 lbs...a nice weight...and Harley...ahem....18 lbs....but in his defense....he is all muscle, absolutely no fat...just a big boy...I adjust their feed accordingly....Harley is big boned...Seymour much finer bone structure...although they are litter mates.


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## Havtahava (Aug 20, 2006)

Weight? No.
Fat? Yes.
I groom, hold and snuggle with my dogs regularly. While touching them, I inadvertantly run my fingers through their hair feeling for mats or anything unusual and also go over their ribs checking their fat. Sometimes you can tell when a dog would benefit from higher calorie food and/or more treats, and when you need to cut back.

I only treat (foodwise) for training anyway. I have never been of the mindset to make "treats" around my house for the humans for no reason, and likewise, I don't treat my dogs without a reason either. I prefer praise and affection instead of food and extra calories.


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## RikiDaisyDixie (Apr 15, 2008)

*feel the ribs...*

As long as I can feel the ribs, we are okay. When I cannot...I know that too many treats have been given or not enough running. I am not feeding my dogs only once a day with a small treat "snack" at night which is the second meal. This way they eat their food and I can clean up the dishes instead of them bringing their food across the room to eat it in small pieces which is yucky.


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## maryam187 (Jul 18, 2007)

My dogs get weighed whenever they go to the vet. I feel for their ribs on a daily basis while cuddling with them and I make sure the have a nice waistline (looking from above) when I bathe them.


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## January (Oct 23, 2008)

During healthy times, I weigh them once a week. During illnesses, I do it once a day.
January NJ


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## good buddy (Feb 20, 2007)

I check weights and measurements 2-3 times a year and just go by feel the rest of the time. If someone seems thin or has been ill I would weigh to check, but so far they are all doing fine. I recently checked them all and was pleased to see both girls have gained a pound each but measurements are smaller. They added muscle and I figured they would since they have a more active lifestyle than they did before coming here. :becky: 

I have a balance scale at home and get the REAL weight here. My vets scale hasn't always been accurate and that silly receptionist tried to tell me Chingy was a bit heavy at 10.4! I wonder how'd she'd feel to see her now at 11 pounds lol! She looks great, does well on a 2 mile walk and acts like a puppy!

Linda, even though your boy is likely full grown, he may still fill out a little over the next year.  Don't be surprised if he goes to 13 pounds or so!


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## mckennasedona (Feb 20, 2007)

I have one Hav who struggles with a weight problem. She's been as high as 19 lbs and as low as 16 lbs. The vet thinks that 17 lbs is as low as she should go. I don't overfeed her, at least I don't think I do. She gets 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of food twice a day and all the dogs get one treat in the morning before I leave for work. I have probably chosen higher calorie foods by accident. I have her on Wellness Core right now and she's slimming down.


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## tuggersmom (Oct 16, 2008)

princessp said:


> We weigh our dogs every once in a while, but I don't "monitor" it. They do the "free-feed" system and I think they are doing OK. They are both about 15 lbs.


We feed a measured 1/2 cup of dry food 2x a day, which is what the package says. We put it down for 1/2 hour and if Tugger doesn't eat if we take it away. 99% of the time now he eats it up. when he was a puppy he was a really bad eater. We went from mixing it with wet to hand feeding. Then we just stopped worrying and took the food away if he stopped eating.

We try to keep Tugger on the slim side as he really thinks he can fly off of anything. I am always worried that he will hurt his joints if he is over weight. They say that a dog is a good weight if you can feel the ribs when you run your hands over the chest so we go by that. He only gets weighed at the vet once a year.


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## Rita Nelson (Jul 13, 2009)

We have never weighed Tucker ourselves. The vet has of course. We check to see if we can feel his ribs and an indentation at the waist area. This is the way the vet said we could make sure he wasn't getting heavy or too thin.


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## Missy (Nov 6, 2006)

poor Cash! we do check their weights every time we go to the vets (every other month for Jas' AG's) mostly because of Cash...but my picky eater Jasper fell prey to my wanting to my jewish mother syndrome (eat! eat!) so he also had love handles. But now they are both pretty good. Jasper is excellent at 17.4 and Cash is doin pretty good at 22.4. I agree with feeding twice a day and a calculated amount treats (we budget in so many calories for treats.)


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Rita Nelson said:


> We have never weighed Tucker ourselves. The vet has of course. We check to see if we can feel his ribs and an indentation at the waist area. This is the way the vet said we could make sure he wasn't getting heavy or too thin.


This is pretty much what we do. I figure if I can feel Kodi's ribs, but he's not "boney", he's a good weight for him, no matter what his specific weight is. I'm not sure what weighing them on a scale does for you unless you're sure the dog is full grown. (unless you think they're losing weight, which of course wouldn't be a good thing in a young dog!) It's hard to tell with a dog with a lot of fur... My husband made a comment the other day about Kodi being "chubby". I had him feel his ribs, and he changed his mind. You can't feel my HUSBAND'S ribs like that! :laugh:


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Missy said:


> I agree with feeding twice a day and a calculated amount treats (we budget in so many calories for treats.)


We kind of do it the other way around... I guess because we're doing so much training at this point, and there are LOTS of treats (although tiny pieces, and good quality) involved. I reduce Kodi's next meal by the amount he got fed during training. So he gets all the treats we need during training, but then he has to "budget" his meals. (much to his chagrin!<g>)


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## Missy (Nov 6, 2006)

Karen, I have had trainers say Jasper should never get a meal...that he should have to work for everything and have his food parceled through the day as treats and in kongs. The problem is we feed raw...so it would get messy...and there is no way he would get to eat his kong unless we closed Cash away. Do you feed Kodi his kibble as treats?


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Hi Missy,

No, the kibble isn't a high enough value for Kodi that we can use it for training. We use diced fresh carrots, high quality dog jerky (turkey, chicken or lamb), boiled chicken (his favorite!!!), cheese... I rotate through different things to keep his interest. everything is diced into TINY pieces. 

My "fall back" positions are a few Solid Gold Turkey Jerky pieces in a plastic bag in my pocket for walks and while we're out and about, because they're not messy and are really easy to break up small on the fly, and boiled chicken or cheese for class, because he likes them better than anything else.

I agree, I sure wouldn't want to feed raw in Kongs... what a mess! And any sort of "free feeding", even if it's in Kongs, is going to be hard if you have more than one dog. Kodi isn't very good at getting most of the food out of a Kong anyway. He usually gives up pretty quickly, and I end up having to scrape the mess out later. (yuck!)


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## Padolph (Apr 13, 2009)

I keep a pretty close eye on Tango....he loves his food. He gets 1/2 cup of Prairie Harvest Orijin twice a day...and he is still growing. He rarely gets treats as they upset his tummy but it doesn't seem to affect his growth.

At 8 weeks (2 months) = 5.5 lbs.
At 12 weeks (3 months) = 8.0 lbs..taken by our vet.
At 16 weeks (4 months) = 10.5 lbs..taken by our vet
At (8 months) = 17.5 lbs...taken by our vet
At (10 months) - 19.5 lbs...taken by us..


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## JASHavanese (Apr 24, 2007)

If one of the dogs was sick they'd be weighed but probably by the vet. Since they're on our laps all the time we can feel them daily. They're free fed and fine.


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## Jérôme (Dec 5, 2008)

Here are the curves for my two boys :


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## littlebuddy (May 30, 2007)

fortunately for me, i take django to the vet every 21 days for his shot so he gets weighed in then. great way to see what's going on. he's on a diet, need to loose half a pound.


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## hyenna (Nov 10, 2008)

I weigh Lizz every so often but not weekly... she is walked all spring summer and fall and since I live in Michigan snow and ice keep me from walking her.... I feed her twice a day Innova and some ground beef...probably totals a cup ... treats she loves the chicken strips and she gets one per day I break it up for her... Now of course she is always right by us when we eat and gets some extra food from not ever saying no to her....she will be 2 on Dec 18th and have to post a new picture of her....


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## littlebuddy (May 30, 2007)

django gets 1/2 cup of california natural lamb little bites once a day. one small blueberry treat and a small piece of chicken strip, maybe about an inch when we leave him for the day. he chews purina rawhids chicken, he just licks the gunk off the rawhid, doesnt eat the rawhide. no table food ever, since he was a puppy he has always had belly issues so we never gave him table food, he gets a small sliver of cheese with his pills every other morning.


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## hyenna (Nov 10, 2008)

Iam Lucky Lizzy has not had stomach problems I maybe feeding her to much what do you think? I stil feel her ribs so I no she is not to fat....Lizzy was black and white when she was born like Dingo but her black has now gone to silver ... love her no matter what color she had turned out trying to change her picture but when I upload it says upload has failed so I have no clue on what to do next any suggestions?


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## littlebuddy (May 30, 2007)

i always ask the vet. django was up to 11.7 lbs and the vet said he needs to go on a diet and get back down to 10 or 10.5lbs. . if your vet says your dog is okay, then what you are doing is great.


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## JoePal (Apr 19, 2009)

*Puppy weight*

I am very surprised by the wide disparity of weights! Everything I read suggests an average weight of 7 - 13 pounds. Our two boys (litter mates) are 10 and 15 pounds at 29 weeks. Our breeder doesn't worry about weight and has never had an overweight dog. Given the weights you are reporting, I guess I shouldn't worry either. Both are healthy, active little guys with very different bone structures - one like their mother and the other like their father.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

hyenna said:


> Iam Lucky Lizzy has not had stomach problems I maybe feeding her to much what do you think? I stil feel her ribs so I no she is not to fat....Lizzy was black and white when she was born like Dingo but her black has now gone to silver ... love her no matter what color she had turned out trying to change her picture but when I upload it says upload has failed so I have no clue on what to do next any suggestions?


Did you resize your photos first? jpg's can't be more than 800x800 pixels. If the files are too big, you'll get that "upload failed" message.


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## gelbergirl (Jun 9, 2007)

only when he goes to the vet once a year for the check-up on an annual basis.
Last time they told me Henry had to drop a pound or two so I have severely cut down on his treats.
He still raids the cat food so at least there is less calories. I think it is better to have the weight controlled to some degree, just like the hu-mom (ha ha)


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## heatherkurt (Sep 1, 2009)

Hudson and Cosmo are brothers from the same litter, but don't look anything alike, and have completely different bone structures (not to mention personalities!). Both are now 10 months and hopefully reaching their full size. Hudson is a hefty dog and tips the scale at 17 pounds. Cosmo is a slighter build and weighs about 14.


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## dmgt (Apr 18, 2009)

My main concern is my own weight which I check a number of times each week!!:hungry: Plan was to work out, but I heard muscle is heavier than fat, so as I want to loose weight, must avoid muscle so won’t work out!!!

Now my dogs. Feel the ribs a number of times each week. Use this as a weight guide. Was concerned that Sangio was a bit chunky so took both to the vet. Both from the same litter. Sangio, the boy is a big build and weighs 13.5 lbs. Ripasso, the girl weighs 7.75 lbs. Vet says both are perfect weights. They are 11 months old.


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## Havtahava (Aug 20, 2006)

dmgt said:


> Plan was to work out, but I heard muscle is heavier than fat, so as I want to loose weight, must avoid muscle so won't work out!!!


Dmgt, you are kidding, right? Can't tell for sure, so I just had to ask. Muscle raises your metabolism, which actually causes you to burn fat faster, even when resting.


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## dmgt (Apr 18, 2009)

Havanese said:


> Dmgt, you are kidding, right? Can't tell for sure, so I just had to ask. Muscle raises your metabolism, which actually causes you to burn fat faster, even when resting.


Thanks for being concerned, but.. don't worry, be happy. I was just kidding. I work out regularly and am healthy.

I always tell people muscle is like having a bigger car engine like a v8 instead of a 4 cylinder. The more muscle, the more cylinders resulting in greater fuel burn.

Also tell people, must not just do aerobic as need muscle to be the most efficient, so some weights etc are an important part of a balanced program.

Thanks and now back to chat about our Havanese that are special.

Have a great day.


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