How can I help my severely overweight beagle to exercise?
How can I help my severely overweight beagle to exercise? Dog Breed Discussions
Allie, our four-year-old beagle, suffers from very strong seasonal allergies. She is taking a medication that helps dull the itchiness and other symptoms, but the side-effects are cruel. She has not only an increased appetite, but a slowed metabolism as well. On top of this, she is always sleeping! While we have another dog (a perfectly healthy lab), Allie does not get nearly enough exercise during her day. She has always enjoyed lazing around, but it has really caused a big problem now -- she has difficulty getting onto her feet, waddles when she moves, and can't really climb anything without great effort.Are we too late? We realize that we could have done a lot more, but now we fear that there are very little options for us, and time is running out. While we have restricted her diet (with care), we do not believe that this will be enough.How can we help motivate our Allie to exercise more?A few responses:Treadmill idea is interesting!Yes, we realize that beagles have a tendency to be overweight and overeat -- I've looked up a few websites on this.She is indeed on steroids -- are shots considerably more expensive or something?As for toys, Allie is not a playful dog. She's always happy, but definitely not a playful pup. She doesn't like playing with our dog Jackie because I think she's a little afraid of Jackie's aggressiveness (which is honestly very mild -- Jackie's just the playful sort!). So, no toys.The horrible part about walking our dear beagle -- she hates it. We tried a lot over the summer to walk her (probably every day for a month), but after a few steps, she just suddenly stops and sits down! It's going to take a lot of effort to get her to take a half-an-hour walk, but maybe we can pull it off. I'll look into the idea.As for the hambone idea, we tried that with bread, her favorite food (unsuccessful). And no need for a bike! She's too slow!Her allergies are so severe that her prednisone being decreased would probably not be a good decision at all. She gets incredibly itchy, and often forms scabs on her head from scratching it almost viciously with her claws. No, I wish we could lower the dosage, but I think this would make her suffer even more.Allie also happens to be a girl, for those who hadn't figured that out already. =P