My Weim is gaining weight and nothing seems to be helping

[backwoods]

I adopted these two Weims in Dec and they came with issues.  One is that Maggie, adult 4 yr old, is food obsessed and immediately after I got her, gained about 10 lbs and nothing I try will help her lose it.

When I mean food obsessed, I mean, literally, food obsessed.  She eats her bowl of food and starts plotting how to get the other two dogs meals...staring at their bowl, crowding them, nudging them, literally working them out of the way so she can eat their meals too.

Have any of you run into this and if you have, how is the best way to:

1) get their weight under control
2) and secondly, stop the food obsession and food stealing?

I only put food down at 8 am and 5 pm and portion it, but no matter how I do it, she ends up eating 2x or more, as much as she should.

Suggestions?  Please dont say a lap band.  lol

[Go Big Red!]

Weight control - keep the portioning.  She won't starve especially when she has body fat stored.

Obsession and stealing - feed each dog separate or in different areas and keep them separate until all are done eating.

[backwoods]

I started feeding them at different times tonite and am going to keep that policy...shes going to come into heat next month and I have been considering having her bred but not until shes in shape and can handle it.  Shes packing so much extra weight that carrying a litter might just kill her with the overload.

[Go Big Red!]

Good luck and keep me posted. 

[Benny]

Check up your trash as well, my lab would eat her bowl empty then head to the trash can and eat every paper plate and food scrap she could find.

She started the trash can thing when ever we left the house, at first we didn't even see the paper plate remanants were from her eating them.

But as she found out we were not punishing her for it she became more bold and would go right up to the counter and drag them off in front of us.

She also developed some very bad gas from eating the scraps.

Benny

[beeker]

my brother found that his kids were feeding the dog after he did.. so he was getting 3x's the  helpings a day

[Go Big Red!]

Any progress made?

[backwoods]

I made some progress but this dog is a voracious eating machine!!  I can't get over how she can eat and eat and is so obsessed with it. 

I got these female Weims from a young couple that were having problems with the dogs (her and another female pup from her litter) and said that they had to have surgery done on her at one point because she at so much they were afraid it would pack the intestines and kill her.   So its evident that the dog hasn't learned anything from that experience.  :(

She knows when its 8 am and 5 pm on the button and comes and gets me and goes thru a routine where she leads me to the bowl and almost comes out and says, "fill it or else!"  lol