The two-minute check that's worth more than the scale

The most useful thing I do for Bettle takes two minutes, costs nothing, and involves no equipment at all. I run my hands over him once a month. I'm fairly sure it matters more than anything else on this website.

Here's why. Over fourteen years, researchers followed forty-eight Labrador Retrievers for their entire lives. The dogs were paired up by litter, sex and weight, and one of each pair was fed 25% less food than the other — not starved, just kept lean. Everything else was identical.

The lean dogs lived a median of 13 years. The others lived 11.2. That's 1.8 extra years, about 16% more life, from nothing but keeping the weight down. Arthritis showed up in the lean group about a year and a half later, too.

One study, one breed, and the dogs lived in a research colony rather than on your sofa. I'd treat the exact numbers with a bit of caution. But it ran for fourteen years with littermate controls, which is about as good as evidence in dogs gets, and it all points the same direction.

Why the scale won't tell you

Because there's no correct number. A healthy Jack Russell might be 14 lb (6.5 kg) or 20 lb (9 kg) depending on frame, and the same dog can gain three pounds of fat while losing two of muscle and the scale barely moves.

So vets don't use weight. They use body condition score — a nine-point scale you assess with your hands. Four to five is where you want to be. Every point above that is roughly another 10% over ideal weight.

The check itself

Do it with your dog standing, on a day when you're both relaxed. Three things.

1. Ribs. Lay a flat palm along their side and press very lightly. You're feeling for the ribs under a thin layer of covering. The reference most vets use: it should feel like the back of your own hand. If it feels like your knuckles, the dog is too thin. If it feels like your palm, there's too much over the ribs.
2. Waist, from above. Stand over them and look down. You want to see a clear narrowing behind the ribcage — an hourglass, not a rectangle, and not a bulge.
3. Tuck, from the side. Crouch down and look at the underline. The belly should rise from the bottom of the ribcage up toward the hind legs. If it runs straight back, or sags, that's a signal.

Be warned that you are the worst possible judge of your own dog. You see them every day, so a gradual change is nearly invisible to you, and there's a strong pull toward scoring your own dog kinder than a vet would. If you can, get a second pair of hands on them — or take a photo from directly above and from the side every couple of months and compare, which is what finally convinced me about Bettle.

A dog carrying an extra 20% is not a slightly rounder version of a healthy dog. They're a dog whose joints, heart and pancreas are all working harder for their whole life.

If your dog scores 6 or above

Don't crash-diet them, and don't just halve the bowl. Do this instead:

• Talk to your vet first. Weight gain can be a symptom rather than a cause — thyroid problems and some medications are common culprits — and they'll give you a target weight to aim at rather than a vague direction.
• Weigh the food, don't scoop it. A measuring cup is wildly inconsistent, and food varies enormously in calories per cup. Kitchen scales, grams, every meal. This one change does most of the work. (If you've never looked at the calorie line on your bag, that's on the label and it's the number that matters.)
• Count the treats. Everything outside the bowl should stay under about 10% of daily calories — training treats, chews, the crust off your toast. Whatever you add in treats, take out of the meal.
• Go slowly. Roughly 1–2% of body weight per week is a sensible pace. Faster is not better and can cause its own problems.
• Re-check monthly. Same day each month, same hands. You're looking for the waist coming back, not for a number on a scale.

If your dog scores 3 or below

That's a vet conversation, not a feeding project — particularly if it's a change. Unexplained weight loss in a dog who's eating normally is one of the things vets most want to hear about early.

The same goes for gain or loss that happens fast, or that comes with anything else: drinking more, low energy, a changed appetite, or a coat that's lost its shine. I'm not a vet and this isn't a diagnosis — the check tells you when to make the call, not what's wrong.

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There's no gadget for this and nothing to buy, which is probably why you don't see it pushed very hard. But of everything I've changed since getting Bettle, keeping him lean is the one I'd defend hardest.

Go and put your hands on your dog. Right now, while you're thinking about it. It takes two minutes.