Chunky Stew!!!

[Jess & Stewart]

Stew just had a vet checkup, he's in perfect health except he's overweight! He weighed 29.5 lbs and the vet said he should be 27, but he could even go to 25-26 because its better to be slightly under. 

Stew has never been fed the amount of food for a 30 lb dog, he only eats the Blue Buffalo amount for a 15 lb dog, 1 1/4 cups, no toppers. The vet wants me to decrease Stew to 1 cup daily and substitute the treats to small pieces of green beans.

I think I've been overdoing it with treats, Zuke's minis, small bits of cheese and usually a large spoonful of PB smooshed in a KONG when we go somewhere for more than 2 hours. My dad used to feed him pieces of his dinner as treats too which I hated, pieces of pizza crust, pepperoni, cheese etc. But that has stopped. Since he's bad at drop it & come, we play A LOT of fetch which involves lots of small Zuke's & bits of cheese. 

He said to start with 1/2 cup of green beans throughout the day as treats & to try to increase exercise. More exercise will be hard because in the city, Stew doesn't get to run around my Dad's yard. I may need to start making a daily trip to the large dog park (20 blocks from my apt) until I go back to work since I have the time. 

Any other advice? I've read the discussion about green beans in the FG. I guess Stew's nickname will be Chunky Stew for awhile, until he gets back down to "Lean Meat Stew" LOL! He doesn't appreciate the nicknames but they crack me up!

[Melanie, Wookie and Dr. Watson]

Don't worry.  He'll get better with engagement.  The older and more mature he gets and the more your bond develops, he will start to engage more and be less and less inclined to run off independently.  He still might get a wild hair now and then, but it will become so much less frequent and you'll know it's just because he wants to have a little adventure, not because he thinks you're boring.