Your dog might need to compete for food during meal-time with another dog who is more outgoing. This can happen or be caused by a variety of different things. The final consideration I want you to think about is “is my dog stressed” or “is my dog distracted”. I’ve seen it many times where dogs are double-fed meals on accident just due to lack of communication and a very smart puppy. Important note: check in with everyone that has contact with your pup! I don’t know how many times the grandparents, husband/wife, kids, petsitter, daycare is giving extra food to the primary caregiver. Refusing to eat additional calories because they have already filled up on treats.

And many small breed dogs are very in-tune with their hunger & fullness cues from their body (unlike labradors), and will self-regulate. It’s very easy to overfeed treats to a small breed dog. Most training treats are 3-10 calories each, teenie greenies are 26 calories, and bully sticks, tendons, collagen sticks, and trachea are 150-200 calories for a six inch chew. Of these values 90% should come from a balanced diet, and the rest from treats/additions. Small breed dogs don’t need a lot of calories each day unless your dog is competing in agility trials or doing extensive exercise.Ī 5 lbs dog only needs about 130 to 210 calories per day, a 25 lb dog only needs 430 to 700 calories per day. Write down how much they eat of their balanced diet, along with any treats, chews, and supplements. The first step of this process is doing a self-assessment of how much your pup is currently eating.

Step 1: Evaluate how much you are feeding

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