Do you have any advice on convincing someone that their animal is morbidly obese? My grandmom’s dog is so so fat (she has buttcheeks and her belly drags on the ground). Every time I tell my Grandmom her dog needs to be on a diet she makes some joking remark to push it off. Rn she is between vets (last vet retired and I’m glad cause he never said anything about how fat dogo is). I’m hoping a new vet will knock sense into her but worried she might ignore them. Any advice on changing her mind?
Ooooof, that’s always a really tough situation, to be honest. Your best bet is probably to try & get to the root of why she doesn’t want to address it. Does she actually think it’s not that serious? Does she not know how to help the dog lose weight? Is she convinced it’s a medical issue, in which case the vet might have better luck suggesting otherwise?
I would also try to figure out why the dog is so overweight - is she free feeding, or possibly feeding too often (which could be caused by memory issues, if she forgets she’s already fed the dog)? Does the dog need more exercise that she has a hard time providing?
If she’s avoiding the issue because she has trouble with the required solutions, it might help if you point it out & then follow up with a suggested solution. Switch from free feeding to a feeding schedule when she feeds herself. If she has trouble remembering that the dog was already fed, perhaps an auto-feeder that she just has to add food to each morning, or a timer reminder or something similar. She might need some help from family with exercising the dog, or perhaps a hired dog walker.
If the issue is simply that she disagrees the dog is overweight or doesn’t think it’s a problem, the vet may be more useful for this, but it depends on how much she listens to professional opinions too.
You could also be more direct in trying to discuss it with her. Saying something like “I know you don’t really want to talk about this, but I’m very concerned about your dog’s weight and health, and I would appreciate it if you would be willing to have a serious discussion about it with me instead of brushing it off.” But that kind of thing could also cause a fight in some situations, so it just depends.
Good luck, and I hope you can convince her!! Fingers crossed that she will be willing to help get her pup healthier so she can have her around longer. ♥
