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My Fat Dog: Ten Simple Steps to Help Your Pet Lose Weight for a long and Happy Life

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I am the author, and I hope you like this book. I was inspired to write both My Fat Dog and My Fat Cat because I had a fat dog, and I know, first hand, how easy it is to overfeed and underexercise your pet...and how it can affect your pet's health and life span. (Our dog is now 12 pounds lighter and lots healthier.) I tried to make the book fun to read, and offer a lot of ways to get your pet started on the road to good health. It can be done, and I want to help. Please visit me on the web at http://www.myfatdogbook.com, and share your stories.

But I also want to tell you that I will be donating a portion of books' proceeds to organizations involved in rescuing and sheltering pets in the devastated Gulf Coast area. Every little bit helps.

The first time I met a dog on a diet, twenty or so years ago, I felt nothing but pity for the poor thing and scorn for its owner. How dare she enforce human standards on her sweet, good-natured lab? Sure, he was a little barrel-waisted, but so what? Let the dog be free!

That was twenty years ago when I was a young pup myself and hated society's pressure on me to be thin. I have a bit more perspective now. I also have a dachshund. I've read that dachshunds are prone to back problems as they get older, and that excess fat aggravates this unhappy condition.

But it's so easy to slip him a little extra dog food or drop a bit of my dinner into his dish after I eat. He loves people food. He also loves training snacks, and the mini-treats in the car, and the food stuffed into his kong to keep him busy when left alone.

He began to expand. I knew I had to take steps. To paraphrase that notorious radio psychologist, Dr. Laura, "I am my dog's owner." I bought this book to help me be a better guardian of my pooch's girth.

It's a very nutritious book! My favorite tidbit is how to know if your dog is really fat of just, ahem, "big-boned." And I also know how much food to feel my dog, and how to read dog food labels. No more dumping food in his dish according to how hungry he looks or how especially fond I am of him at that moment. I guess one of the things I need pounding into my head is that overfeeding is not the same as love. If I want my dog to live long and prosper, I'd better control his diet and give him enough exercise. The author gives lots of ideas on exercise for all kinds of different types of households. Just do it! It matters.

Halfway through the book, there's a startling picture of a fat daschshund with my dog's face and coloring but a lot more pudge. I look at my dog and see his still boundless energy and healthy spine, and I know that picture is what I want to avoid.

I'd like more discussion of different theories of nutrition, because a perusal of the Internet discloses fierce argument over this point, and it seems hard to figure out. But so is human nutrition.

This book is exactly what it advertises itself as - simple. But that does not stop it from being a very valuable source of information on ways to improve your dog's life. There are no high-tech, high-expense suggestions for how to treat your dog just like Paris Hilton treats Tinkerbelle. Instead, Ms. Garvey uses a straightforward approach, giving detailed and specific information on how to improve your dog's general living habits, from diet to exercise and much, much more.

If you are looking for the new Atkins diet for your dog, steer clear. But if you want to help your dog improve his or her overall health for, as the title says, "a long and happy life," you should absolutely buy this book.

I am thoroughly enjoying this book. I have had difficulty in the past finding an easy, reliable source for calories and comparison of dog foods. The exercise ideas are great and I feel like my dogs and I are all profiting from the new diets and alternatives means of exercise. I highly recommend this book for people wanting a practical way to increase their dogs health.

Although weight-loss in dogs involves common sense more than anything else, such as reducing caloric intake and increasing activity, this small book offers most of the tips that will ensure safe weight-loss in any dog. The book is easy to read, and is medically accurate. But perhaps the best lesson to be learned is not to let your dog get fat in the first place. It's easy to succumb to giving your dog that extra treat or table scrap when you see see those pleading eyes, but this temptation should be resisted for the long-term health and longevity of your dog.

In full disclosure, the book author, Martha Garvey, is my wife. But that is all the more reason why I can strongly and sincerely recommend this book. I am sure that anyone can achieve the same great results with your dog that Martha achieved with our dog Faith using the methods in this book.

When we first adopted Faith from a shelter, she was quite overweight (close to 70 pounds) and out-of-shape. Martha is a very caring and loving person, and long before she thought of writing this book, she took on the project of slimming Faith down and getting her as happy and healthy as she could. She did a tremendous amount of research into dog nutrition and exercise. And in a fairly short time,
Martha had gotten Faith's weight down almost 20 pounds, and converted Faith into a very active dog who is still an avid swimmer in upstate New York lakes almost 10 years later.

What happened is that soon after Martha's success slimming down Faith, she was approached by a publisher to write "My Fat Dog: Ten Simple Steps To Help Your Pet Lose Weight." She put all the steps and principles that worked so well with our dog into a very fun and easy-to-use book that has already helped many other dogs. You will immediately pick up tips on each page that will start making a difference with yours.

Also, the book has great cartoon-style graphics that will make any dog-lover smile, by very talented illustrator Sebastian Conley, who also did the cover.

My Fat Cat: Ten Simple Steps to Help Your Pet Lose Weight for a long and Happy Life