Pet owners hear it at every single vet checkup: Watch your dog’s diet. And, if your pet is overweight, make sure he or she loses those extra pounds, pronto. With the number of overweight dogs in the U.S. in the millions, though, the majority of pet owners are losing this battle.
Here’s a visual tool to try to help keep your pet’s diet under control: A dog-to-human weight calculator.
It’s pretty simple–it’s based on body-mass index (BMI). But it can be an eye-opener. We hope it’ll be inspirational in helping you keep your dog’s diet in check.
A Parson Russell terrier steps on a scale.
Here’s how it works. First, enter your height, then how many pounds your dog weighs. Then, enter how many extra pounds overweight your dog is. Voilà! You’ll see how many pounds you would weigh if you were as overweight as your dog.
If you’d rather not play around with the conversion, you can also check out the site’s many charts, organized by common dog breed. You can see how much your pup would weigh as an average-height adult male (5′ 9″) or female (5′ 4″). For example, 7 extra pounds on a female Golden retriever is like 16 extra pounds on an adult woman, or 18 pounds on a man.
And a pug who’s 4 pounds overweight? That equates to 32 extra pounds on the average woman, and 38 extra pounds on the average man. In other words, a pound on your pup would equal many, many extra pounds on you.
The calculator was developed by Dr. Ernie Ward, a veterinarian in North Carolina with been in practice for 22 years and is the founder of the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. You can find it here.
Here’s what the weight table for Golden Retrievers looks like:
For great tips on helping your dog lose weight, we’ve got a handy guide right here.
The information provided in this article is not a substitute for professional veterinary help.
