Seen the other night on television, a commercial for diet dog food. It might have even been this brand. The brand is of no consequence, the category however is.
We had a problem with our dog, Nellie, years ago. The vet told us she was in fine health. But because she is a lab mix, there's a good possibility she could develop hip problems further down the road. The best way to prevent that, have her lose a few pounds.
The vet didn't say how we should trim Nellie's weight, he just said it would be in her interest to do so. This being Southern California, we had many options, options which fuel the reputation of Los Angeles of being one enchilada short of a combo platter.
We could have, for instance, paid a king's ransom and hired a canine personal trainer. It's like P90X for dogs. Or P630X in doggie time.
Cleansing seems to be a popular method of weight loss in trendy LA. And sure enough someone is pimping the cleansing technique for dogs.
Or we could have opted for the Science Diet brand of dog food (pictured above) for the weight conscious canine. Science Diet, especially formulated to reduce dogs' body fat by 22% in six months.
We could have chosen any of those options. But being rational people with east coast roots and a nose for obnoxious pretention, we chose none of the above.
We simply employed some psychology. And some simple discipline.
We bought Nellie a smaller feeding dish so she wouldn't notice that we had cut her meals from 1 full cup of food to 3/4 of a cup. And we upped her exercise regimen. Meaning more walkies. Which she didn't seem to mind. If there's one thing dogs love, it's the opportunity to pee on top of another dog's pee and poop in other people's yards.
The program worked wonders. Within 6 months, Nellie dropped about 17 pounds. And she seemed happier.
It was that easy.
I wish I could drop 17 pounds using the same exact method.
Though I don't think my neighbors would appreciate it.
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