Your little dog looks like she is glowing with health
And remember she still has some muscle to lay down so she will naturally bulk up a little
Most dogs you see are overweight - and it is killing them
Ignore the show people and look at your dog, and underweight dog cannot run and run, neither can an overweight dog
People have commented on my boy - tough - he can do 3 hour walks with other dogs and at the end of it, when they have their tounges on the floor he has the zoomies

A lean pup grows nice and slow and builds joint strength gradualy, they live longer and have more energy and are happier
I know what I want (I just need someone to be as strict with my diet!!)

Oh i showed this thread to my OH and he wants to know if you will give him your girl! LOL!!

I think he is a bit smittern

She's a member of a whippet racing club (beagle division). It's very much a social / doggy fun club and we always have a little informal dog show afterwards. The whippet owners judge the beagles and vise versa. Little beanie has been given the title of "Best Beagle" and "Best in Show" twice and second place once in the three shows she's taken part in. So clearly the whippet owners appreciate her lean physique But I have to admit, she looks nothing like the other beagles to me - entirely different build! But that's down to genetics and not diet or exercise.

One of the whippet owners said to my partner the other day "You've got it made - she's a looker AND fast!".

It's funny how different people look at the same dog and see things so differently!

My feeling is she's fine. The vet listened to her heart today and just sighed and said "perfect".

This makes me feel a LOT better. Someone had said to me that the pups needed fat in order to build muscle bulk. I wasn't sure whether they were right as I know body builders always say you can't build muscle without (temporarily) getting fat. But I hadn't considered the possibility that you don't want a puppy to put muscle on quickly. Can you expand more on why slow muscle development is good? I know most show people are keen to bulk up their dogs, and I have to admit that I'm taking her for swimming lessons to help build muscle. Not for aesthetic reasons but I want plenty of muscle protecting her joints.

What a pleasure to see a fit beagle and not a fat one! So used to very heavy round Beagles coming in for boarding, Beanie is a pleasure to see!

It is such a myth in people and dogs that you need fat to make muscle
You need energy thats true - but fat does not turn into muscle, when you eat less energy that you burn fat is then turned back into energy
You will see if she starts loosing weight and needs a bit more food - bones will stick out more and she wont have the same energy

But pups bones and joints are still growing and adding density - you want weight to gain slowley and naturaly so bone strength can keep up
and like people a fat youngster will more likely be a fat adult

Pretty much with dogs muscle will take time to develop no matter what you are feeding - the extra food will turn to fat - not good for the dog
also many people are now seeing in dogs (and in children too if you watch some of the overweight kids documentries) that an overfed youngster grows taller quicker
not a good thing - so they dont have the muscle, joint or bone strength to cope with the larger frame

Hope that is making sense - I have been on the internet too long and cant type straight!!

anyway, none of these people commenting know your dog like you do - so ignore them
to me she looks exactly like she should

She looks in fab condition

Your beagle does not look too skinny from those pictures.

Nothing wrong with a lean dog, research has proved that they are healthier and live longer than their podgy friends!
Once the growing phase has passed then chances are that she'll fill out.

Sorry to bring this up again, but we're now getting *extremely* worried and confused. We'd be VERY grateful if people could give us advice and hopefully point us towards concrete studies that will help us to figure out what to do.

OK, it's going to be long, but here goes!

Those of you that have followed the thread know the problem, but I'll briefly sumarise. We've always felt that our Beagle puppy is in superb shape and have always been as proud as punch of her. People always comment on how fit and healthy she looks, and the vet says she's in excellent shape and ideal weight.

At a recent Beagle club event a lot of people said she was too thin and that we should feed her more. This concerned us and we checked with her vet. The vet confirmed that she was in great shape. More recently we got in touch with the people at Burns dog food to see if we'd put her on adult food too soon (at 9 months old) as she was eating way over the recommended amount and was still lean. The Burns people wrote back saying she looked superb (we'd sent photos and given Beanie's vital statistics) and advised that we should reduce her food over a couple of months and not try to increase her weight.

Now this has all been recorded on Beanie's blog - it's really just a diary of our life with our pup, and we put all our thoughts, experiences and photos in there. Just a fun thing and a way to make contact with fellow Beagle owners.

Today out of the blue we got an email message from a Beagle breeder that we don't really know telling us that he'd had lots of messages from people asking him if he'd seen Beanie's blog entries about weight. The message seemed a little angry to us, and kind of tried to argue about things that we really hadn't said and weren't wanting to get involved in. So we assured him that we weren't disregarding the advice of the Beagle experts, appologised for any upset and explained we'd chosen to go with the vets advice on this occasion because we'd assumed that the Beagle experts advice to fatten her up was influenced by show criteria and we weren't planning to show Beanie.

I emailed a copy to Beanie's breeder as I was concerned that we'd inadvertantly stirred up a hornets nest and didn't want any bad feeling with her. She responded saying that she had real concerns about why Beanie was so small and slight, and that it was because our vet had advised us to have her spayed at 6 months old. She said that this has without a doubt stunted her growth and development. She says it's apauling that we were given that advice and that we should change practice.

We just don't know what to do now as our vets practice is highly regarded in this area. The breeder gave us the names of some vets connected with the Beagle Club and told us that if we contacted them they'd give us very different advice from our vet.

Beanie has always been slightly built, and was lean and slightly built compared to her siblings before being spayed. She was the little one in the litter when we got her, and the breeder described her as small but perfectly formed - which she is in my opinion! She really is in superb shape and to be honest I think she looks a million miles better than most beagles we see - although I'm more than happy to accept that she might not conform to the breed standard. I just don't know or care! If you could see her running and playing I know you'd agree. At the Beagle racing we go to she was in the final on Sunday against three mature, powerhouses of dogs - the three fastest male Beagles in the club. And when it comes to stamina I've yet to see a dog that can keep up with her. Can she really be in bad shape or have developmental problems if she's already kicking the butts of most of the the adult Beagles at 9 months old?

It may well be the case that Beanie doesn't conform to the breed standard (I wouldn't know or care either way), but she's a superb looking, healthy little dog. Even if her growth had been stunted by being spayed too early (and I'll speak to the vet about this), or if she was just born unusually small and slender, then surely the solution isn't to make up for her small size by making her fat? We're just devastated that she's getting so much critisism from Beagle people and causing so much anger. Even the people that bred her. We think she's perfect.

The breeder said "some vets are only concerned with heath and fitness regardless of 'breed type' and are happy for Beanie to be the weight of a Jack Russell which she isn't". But if that's the natural healthy weight for Beanie to be, then surely we just accept it? Is 9.6 KG abnormally small for a 9 month old Beagle bitch? And does it matter if she's healthy, fit and happy?

Here are some photos we took the other day, and there are more on her blog:

http://www.fourleggedpal.com







Please help us figure out what to do for the best! My parents both died last year after long illnesses, and my partner's mum is currently dying in hospital and we're trying our best to stay on top of things. Now our breeder and the beagle club people are telling us that we've harmed our perfect little pup. She's what's keeping us going right now. We can't think clearly and don't know what to do or who to trust.

Thanks.

Reading this made me feel really angry....for you! I think she looks perfectly healthy and happy! Like you say, so what if she doesn't conform to breed standards! Are you that interested in showing?

She is your dog and not the breeders or the beagle clubs!

As for your breeder saying dogs should not be spayed before they are 6 months...is the breeder a vet? I don't think so! More forward thinking vets are now spaying before the dogs first season as recent research shows that it does not stunt their growth...the only real reason for doing it after their first season is because the sexual organs are bigger then and the operation is therefore easier for the vet and the chances of knicking a nerve and causing incontinence is greatly reduced. But if you have a good vet who is confident and has a steady hand this should not happen in the first place. I will be having Tonks sayed at 7 months, hopefully before her season. Some rescue center now spay before 8 weeks of age!

If i were you i would move away from shows, and engoy your dog, maybe do agility or fun shows with her. You don't sound like you need the stress of people critisising your well loved well cared for pet. I am sure if you took her to see a working pack of beagles they would love her and think she was ideal!

Which is better, a slightly over weight dog that does well in the ring or a slimmer dog that can run on the beach like that and is happy and healthy.


I would also be inclined to loose the breeders email address, and block her if neccesary. She sold you the dog, the dog is being well looked, even if it is not looking the way she would choose to have it for show standard, so really she should butt out!!