Friday Apollo: a Blue Period

Apollo is on a diet, and that makes him very blue. Har har, see how I worked that in there? Yeah, seriously, he's on a diet. I took him to the vet last week, and we discovered that he was a shocking 93 pounds. He gained four lbs since his surgery in December. And that's on top of the seven he gained since summer. I did expect some weight gain because it's winter and we're less active especially in foul weather, but that's too much. He should ideally be under 80, but most of the time, he hovers around 82 because he's not super active due to his hips.

I evaluated his eating habits. He doesn't get a lot of treats. We walked fairly regularly, but evidently not often enough. And the real reason? I *ahem* am the main culprit - he is supposed to get half a "tub" (small tupperware tub) twice a day, but I had been giving him a little more each day because I felt bad for him after his surgery.  Or because he seemed hungry. Or... And we got to the point where he was getting a full tub twice a day. Oops.

So now he's on a diet, and we are walking more often. And each walk ends in a play session at the nearby field. As an aside, Canadian geese have taken over the field - goose poop yuck! And Apollo shows absolutely no interest in the geese. What kind of hunting dog is he? Anyway, he knows that all our walks, each one about a mile, ends up over there and he will faithfully carry the "flinger" the whole time. Every frickin' time. Apollo carrying a large, bright hunting-orange square frisbee toy that's bigger than his own head. We get odd looks from drivers as they pass us trying to figure out what the hell that dog is carrying.