Spaniel 'star pupil' at slim club

By Catryn Jenkins
BBC News

Pippa was a master at extracting treats from her owners

She's blonde, bubbly and a bit of a flirt but despite all her good points, Pippa has a weight problem.

It started off with the odd biscuit here and there as a youngster eventually leading to eating the left-over dinner.

However, this is not your average tale of obesity because Pippa is a seven-year-old cocker spaniel and her weight was leading to health problems.

But she has joined a new pet slimming club and the weight is dropping off.

Pippa, like many dogs, was guilty of flashing her sad brown eyes at her owners as a way of getting a treat.

She learned the skill as a puppy and it was something her owners from Newport in south Wales, couldn't say no to.

Biscuits and treats meant the weight piled on

But it led to the dog hitting the 23.5kg mark - 8kg (1st 2lbs) more than her ideal weight of 15kg - and worsened athritis she had developed in her joints.

During a trip to Summerhill Vets in Newport, head receptionist Nicky Hart noticed Pippa in the waiting room and pointed her out to vet nurse Carly Davies.

"I knew Carly was thinking of starting up a slimming club for pets and thought Pippa would be ideal," said Mrs Hart.

"I thought she was the perfect candidate."

So they approached her owners and they agreed to allow Pippa to join the free slimming club.

"The owners knew she was overweight," explained Ms Davies.

"She's a real scrounger and would be begging them for biscuits and left-overs.

Pippa has become more energetic after losing weight

"But she really piled on the pounds - one biscuit to a dog is the human equivalent of a hamburger or bar of chocolate.

"Her owners just couldn't resist her sad brown eyes and she was constantly begging for treats.

"And because she has athrititis which is aggravated by her weight, her owners couldn't excersise her an awful lot."

And so began a stricter dietary regime including a diet dog food and biscuits were swapped for low calorie dog treats, Pippa has started to lose weight.

Pippa has done so well in weigh-ins and now checks in at 20kg - meaning she has already lost almost half of the weight she needs to.

"She comes to us once a fortnight and we weigh her and give her a bit of a check up," said Ms Davies.

"It's amazing really how well Pippa is doing - she's my star pupil.

"I've got about 11 cats and dogs in the slimming club at the moment and most of them joined in January - like in many human slimming clubs.

"It's quite concerning really how many more pets are obese these days and it's really worrying because it has such an effect on health like it does in humans.

"Hopefully by the summer, Pippa will be at her ideal weight. When I first saw her she was just plodding along but she's already got so much more energy."