The best gift you can give to your dog is a slim waistline and slim is not negotiable! It is also not subjective. In this article, we are going to define what a slim dog looks like and how you can determine if your dog is fit or fat, without putting him on the weighing scale! This must bring a lot of happiness to most pet parents because dogs have a notorious reputation when it comes to sitting on the weighing scale. Here we introduce to you the novel method of assessing a pet’s fitness through a ‘Body Condition’ grading system, called the Body Condition Score.
Before we move ahead to understand the Body Condition Score system, it is important to know why this system evolved. The BCS helps pet care-takers to take appropriate action for the wellness of the pet. It helps pet parents determine if their pet is under-weight (or mal-nourished) or overweight or just healthy. An underweight as well as an overweight pet, both have risks associated with their health. An under-weight pet would be at risk of deficiencies and diseases such as anemia, brittle joints, lower immunity etc. While an over-weight or obese pet would be at risk of problems such diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure or even heart disease. Once the Body Condition Score is determined, appropriate action can be taken by the pet healthcare provider for the betterment of the pet’s health.
What is Body Condition Score?
The Body Condition Score is a visual as well as touch and feel assessment method in order to analyze the pet’s body fat mass. It can be understood as synonymous to the measurement of Body Mass Index for human beings. However, since dogs are so varied in shapes and sizes, a standard BMI protocol is hard to make for dogs. For this reason, pets are evaluated for their fitness and fat levels using a Body Condition Score. In order to assign a score to a pet, the pet parent/ pet professional conducts a self-assessment of the pet’s body and then assigns a score as per the scale used. There are two kinds of scales used for determining the Body Condition score of pets, first being a scale with scores 1 to 9 and second being a scale with scores 1 to 5. Though both the scales are helpful in determining a pet’s body condition, the 9 point scale is more widely used as it enables differentiation of subtle alterations in a pet’s body. The 9-point scale also reduces the scope of subjectivity of the evaluator by virtue of being more distinctive of small variations in a pet’s body.
Steps to Determine your dog’s Body Condition Score (BCS):
To determine your dog’s Body Condition Score, you need to perform the following steps:
- Take a Top View: Stand on top of your dog and evaluate your dog’s body shape. A healthy dog’s shape should look like an hour-glass with some breadth at the chest and narrowing down towards the waist. A fit dog would have a well-defined waistline.
- Take a Side View: Look at your dog from the side. A fit dog’s abdomen would tuck up behind the rib cage.
- Feel your Dog: Gently press the rib-cage of your dog with your hands. One should be able to feel the individual ribs of the dog without having to press hard. There should not be a need to press hard to feel the rib-cage. If yes, it means there is extra fat on the ribs. At the same time, the ribs should not be effortlessly palpable, which would mean that the dog is underweight.
A fit dog is one who is neither too slim nor too fat. A Body Condition Score of 4 or 5 should be the ideal score of any dog. A score less than this would mean the dog is under-weight and needs more nourishment. While a score higher than this would mean that the dog simply needs more exercise (and less food!!).
Why Body Condition Score?
The BCS is a great way to assess a dog’s fitness as it can be used on all dogs irrespective of their breed, size or stage of life. It can be used as well on puppies as it can be used on adult dogs. It can also be used for dogs that do not fit on standard growth and maintenance charts, for example, for dogs who are taller than their counterparts of the same breed. The BCS also provides you the convenience of regularly monitoring your dog within the comfort of your home.
When not to use the BCS
While BCS has a broad functionality, there are times when it might not be right to determine your pet’s fitness such as if your pet is a geriatric (senior) dog or is suffering from a chronic illness or any such underlying condition which leads to muscle wasting (such as cardiomyopathy). Dogs who are spayed or neutered also have a drop in their metabolic rates and may not be monitored well on a Body Condition Score card.
While BCS is a great tool to self-examine your pet, a BCS grading should not be used to replace a veterinarian’s visit. It should also not discourage pet parents from keeping note of their pet’s weight on a regular basis. Having learnt about this empowering tool for evaluating your pet’s fitness, it would only be wise to make it a regular practice to score your pet’s body condition!
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