Canine obesity needs to be regarded as a serious issue and one that can no longer be ignored. The dilemma is that an overweight dog is more difficult to exercise, as obesity gives rise to respiratory and musculoskeletal issues that also have a negative impact on a dog’s quality of life and an already short lifespan. Obesity can also increase the risk of other chronic diseases such as canine diabetes andheart disease，使犬肥胖成为兽医医学的重要健康问题。

体重控制饮食and programs for dogs are met with varied success, and it has been reported that few dogs are able to maintain their optimal body weight if they have developed a代谢障碍与超重有关。因此，预防总是比治疗更好，与犬肥胖相关的预测标记的知识肯定会帮助控制这一问题。

尽管人类肥胖症的研究表明，在成年期间，生长过程中的高出生体重和体重增加被归类为肥胖的早期危险因素，但尚不清楚狗是否同样。

在最近的一个BMC兽医研究出版物，一群来自Lunam大学and南特 - 大西洋兽医学院in France performed a longitudinal study in growing dogs to investigate predictive factors that could explain becoming overweight and obese in adulthood.

来自十个不同垃圾的猎犬狗被保存在受控的环境中，然后在出生后两年。使狗处于相同的条件下，使研究人员能够通过减少的外部变量来衡量整个成熟过程中的生长，身体成分和激素变异。尽管样本量很小，但该研究确实表明了肥胖发展的差异以及与年龄，性别和品种相匹配的狗之间的超重。

据确定，尽管有些狗来自同一品种并保持在相同的条件下，但更容易受到脂肪的增加。母亲和父亲的体重与他们的后代呈正相关，突出了可能需要进一步调查的父母与犬肥胖的关系。

Unlike humans, neonatal bodyweight did not appear to be correlated with becoming overweight later in life. The earliest predictive marker was thought to be at 2 weeks after birth, where it was observed that puppies which had a growth rate greater than 125% were significantly more likely to be in the “overweight” group; a finding that is comparable to human studies, which have shown that high weight gain in early life stages is associated with the development of adult obesity. However, it was unclear whether the dam’s milk and/or litter size had an impact on the overweight status.

这些初步结果令人鼓舞，育种者和兽医应使用有关肥胖预测因素的这种知识，以早期提出饮食建议。在前两周内，具有高增长率的狗应在限制饮食中开始在7个月时以7个月的高度成分得分，以确保狗保持健康的体重和更好的生活质量。

如果您担心狗的体重之前，我们总是建议您对兽医说话，然后将它们放在卡路里控制的饮食中。但是，我们希望对犬肥胖的原因和风险有更高的认识将有助于“苗条”（对不起！）当前的流行病。