Peaches is two years old and kind of short compared to other labs. She has gained 12 pounds since we got her at 9 months old, and now weighs 74 lbs. Talked to the vet about it when she was at 69 lbs and he said she was mildly overweight. I would guess her ideal weight at about 62 lbs or so.

Previously she and my other dog Oscar (a much taller, more active lab) were being fed together with Nutro Lamb and Rice, 4 cups in the morning and 4 cups in the evening. For the past few months we have been feeding them seperately, and she gets 1.5 cups in the morning and 1.5 cups in the evening. So, I was a bit surprised to see that she has gained a few pounds on this amount of food. She is fairly inactive, prefers sleeping to running around most of the time.

Any ideas on how to promote a gradual weight loss? Do you think I should feed her less than 3 cups total a day, or switch to a weight control formula? Any advice would be appreciated.

Ideally I'd say to increase the amount of exercise she's getting, though I know I couldn't take my own advice this time of year.

I think you could go ahead and cut the extra half cup from each meal and see how she does.

I agree, cut her intake back slowly to 2 cups per day, and also give her less treats. Fruit and veggie treats are much healthier than store bought dog cookies.

We know of the weight loss struggle with our Zoe, she is mildly hypothyroid however.

Good luck :).

Exercise.

Think about it, if calories in = calories burned, no weight gain.

You cut her food, but maybe calories in is still greater than calories burned. Which means weight gain.

Just like humans, they have to burn more than they take in, to lose weight.

And I would think, like humans, as she loses weight and gets in better shape, she would be more active, enjoy life more and maybe prefer playing to sleeping.