Like owner, like dog – proof that the adage may be true

Owners of average weight tend to use treats for training their pets, while overweight owners share their food.

That means overweight people are more likely to have overweight dogs, partly because they are more likely to feed them treats, Danish researchers said.

The study by the University of Copenhagen lends credence to the saying “like owner, like dog”, the scientists wrote in the journal Preventive Veterinary Medicine.

“The prevalence of heavy or obese dogs is more than twice as large among overweight or obese owners (35%) than among owners who are slim or of a normal weight (14%),” they said.

Of the 268 dogs studied, 20% were overweight.

Average-weight owners tend to use treats for training while overweight owners prefer to provide treats, “for example, when a person is relaxing on the couch and shares the last bites of a

Prevalence of heavy dogs is more than twice as large among overweight owners – research.

sandwich or a cookie with their dog,” the study’s main author, Charlotte Bjornvad, said.

In developed countries, 34 to 59% of dogs are overweight or obese, which can reduce their life expectancy and mobility, or cause diabetes and cardiac disease – just like in humans, another international team of researchers found in 2016.

On average, overweight dogs live 1.3 years less than dogs on restrictive diets.

The University of Copenhagen study also showed that castration tripled the risk of being heavy or obese.

“Castration seems to decrease the ability to regulate the appetite in male dogs and ... might also decrease the incentive to exercise, which results in an increased risk of becoming overweight,” Bjornvad said. – AFP