Obesity in dogs is a multifactorial condition that needs to be treated as a complex nutritional disorder requiring comprehensive and lifelong management. Despite standard diet and exercise intervention, many weight loss plans do not see success in part due to the veterinary healthcare team and pet owners not understanding and addressing the complex nature of obesity. Successful weight management programmes extend beyond standard nutritional management and incorporate an understanding of the human–animal bond between owners and their dogs. Novel ‘One Health’ approaches to weight loss are starting to consider the beneficial aspects of the human–animal bond that can be harnessed for physical health benefits in humans as well.
One of the first studies to attempt this One Health approach was the People and Pets Exercising Together (PPET) study, in which pet owners and their dogs were paired up to engage in a physical activity programme for 1 year (Kushner et al, 2006). Though the results did not show a drastic change in bodyweight for the owners, the study did note that participating in a weight loss programme for their dogs could have a positive impact on the pet owners' physical health and activity level. In addition, another cross-sectional study showed overweight pet owners may have a stronger attachment to their dogs and have less perceived social support from peers than healthy-weight pet owners (Stephens et al, 2012).
If overweight owners are indeed looking to their dogs for social support instead of a human social network of friends and peers, engaging pet owners in behaviours that could benefit their own health as well as the health of their dog could be particularly helpful and increase chances for success.
Regardless of weight status, however, many pet owners express their love for their pet through providing extra calories in treats, which increases the risk for obesity. Engaging in healthy and active behaviours with dogs could strengthen the human–animal bond and allow a substitute for pet owners to show affection and care for their pet. Future research into integrative treatment programmes is needed to better understand how these programmes could optimally impact human and animal health.
Family-oriented weight management programmes in which overweight families and their pets can engage in healthy behaviours together could have immense potential for improving pet owners' relationships with their pet while also significantly affecting health and wellness in veterinary and human medicine. Until further research is conducted on optimal protocols to maximise benefit and minimise risk for this type of a programme, the veterinary healthcare team should focus on preserving beneficial healthy human–animal relationships. This is best done by understanding the strong human–animal bond between owners and pets, fostering healthy behaviours already present, and creating healthy substitutes for behaviours that predispose both people and their pets to obesity.
Many aspects of weight management for pets overlap with challenges people face in maintaining healthy behaviours and diet. Some parallel aspects that can be included in discussion with owners include estimating calorie needs, implementing portion control, moderating ‘treats,’ critically evaluating pet food advertising, handling conflict with other caregivers and understanding the benefits of social support. For example, just as in human health and nutrition, pet food marketed as ‘lite’ may not always be low calorie or appropriate for a weight loss programme (Linder and Freeman, 2010).