I can understand the OP’s rage. I do rescue and often walk dogs that don’t look healthy. That is mostly because they are not healthy, but they still need to be walked and socialized. The hateful looks and snide remarks used to upset me. The thing that used to bother me the most was when someone would do the whisper while walking next to me to say that they were going to call animal control RIGHT NOW, and then pull out their phone.
Now I smile at them and agree that said dog does need a new home. I point at my t-shirt that says “RESCUE”, point at the sign that says “ADOPT A PET TODAY”, and then offers them the leash while talking about how this special needs dog needs a special person to love.
They usually give me disdainful look and walk away.
To the OP, if I saw your dog (and he’s very handsome), I wouldn’t ask why he was so slender, I would ask about his breed because I have never seen one before.
Get this a lot with our golden retriever. He’s 26kgs, in amazing shape, eats as much as he wants (and is the only dog I’ve ever seen that will leave food in his bowl - when he’s full, he’s full). Unlike the other retrievers around here he’s not a wallowing pig. I hate it when owners that clearly have no clue about the risks of over-feeding / under-exercising their dogs (particularly for mid- and large-breeds)ask me in reproachful tones what I feed my dog ‘because he looks so thin’.
Our old cat (15 years old) dropped a bunch of weight when she was about 13 and was looking awfully thin and bony. We took her to the vet, and he said no, that’s a normal weight for a cat - we’re just used to seeing all pets so well-upholstered.
Your dog looks perfectly healthy and the right weight for a sighthound. They’re supposed to look skinny and non-visible ribs is actually considered overweight for them.
Also, with the snide remarks by passersby while you walk a skinny dog, threatening to call animal control or saying that you need to take better care of him- they’re fucking idiots. It should come as a clue that if the person with the skinny dog is actively walking the dog on a leash, then the dog is being cared for. Shitty and neglectful dog owners don’t bother to take their pets out for a walk.
I had the opposite problem- I rescued a grotesquely obese lab, who waddled pathetically when I took him for a walk. He was 150 pounds and the vet said his ideal weight was 100. It took a year, but we went for walks every day (starting with just around the block, which was all he could handle at first) and I put him on a diet. He actually lost 50 pounds (though his arthritis and hip dysplasia never healed from years of obesity).
But oh man, the comments I used to get about how I must be feeding my dog ten buckets of ice cream a day, how he looks more like a manatee than a dog, all the “Are you walking him or is he walking you (he weighed more than I did when I first got him)?”- comments. I would eventually not even look up, and just kind of grunt when people said these stupid things.
I can’t tell much from that photo, but he certainly doesn’t look “too skinny” or anything of the like from that angle. He looks like a perfectly normal dog.
That is such a wonderful pic. I think that if I were to show it to my rescue friends there would be lots of complimentary things said.
QFT
Shitty and neglectful dog owners usually just chain their dogs in their yard with no shade or food or water. That’s how I end up walking skinny, frightened dogs that have no manners and try to hide behind me when a stranger looks at them.
I used to own a rescued St Bernard. She was smallish for the breed, only 80 lbs, but I would get those “are you walking her or is she walking you?” comments all the time. This despite the fact that she wasn’t pulling on the leash and when I stopped moving would sit on my feet while wagging her tail like crazy, hoping that the person I was talking to would pet her.
Many people just don’t pay attention. Brandy was obviously under my control, but people just seemed to assume that it takes size and strength to walk a giant dog.
I can see how the “too thin” rules would work for dogs that actually have fur. I had a German Shepherd who had EPI and we had to supplement her diet her whole life because her pancreas didn’t work. She got really thin before we realized the problem. On a dog with plenty of fur, yes I can see how those rules apply. They certainly applied to my dog. (She eventually got stomach cancer and we had to put her to sleep.)
However, my current dog’s fur is shorter than an eyelash, pretty much all over. It’s longest on the tip of his tail. He might as well be furless. So I think those rules only apply if the dog has actual fur and all those bones and ribs still show.
The golden retriever looks great.
I’m glad everyone liked the picture. I noticed that he is thinner now than when that pic was taken (about a month ago), so I called my vet and asked if he’d had his thyroid checked when he had his annual checkup (two weeks ago) and she said yes and that his thyroid was fine and did not recommend medication at this time.
So:
Vet says his weight is fine.
Vet says his health is fine.
No one at the vet’s office expresses shock or dismay upon seeing his weight. It takes 3 people to hold him down for a simple nail clipping. (And sometimes they just give up anyway.)
And if something comes up and it turns out that it’s something I missed, you can be sure I’ll pit myself about it.
