I get a lot of conflictng opinions...so what should it be? At the same exact weight my boys have been called over and underweight by differant vets and groups. I bet a lot of people are confused.

I've heard/read (?) that you should see the outlines of the last 3 ribs.

We don't use ribs as a guideline - dogs can get fatty buildup around organs and can be over-weight but still show plenty of rib. My dog has that type of build. He's been up to 12 lbs over race weight and you could still see all his ribs. We go by hip points - they should be visible but not stark (some dogs have a blockier build at the hips, however, you should still see definition and a good tuck). Unless your dog was raced really, really thin, keep 'em within 5lbs of race weight, preferably right around race weight. The CRRG recommends within 4 - 8 lbs and that's pretty reasonable.

Also, I personally like to see condition lines visible.

I think you should be able to see 2-3 ribs depending on the build of the dog and I like to see a bit of hipbone. So many people are afraid to see the bones of greys/sighthounds but that is how their weight is healthy.
Half the time those same people that dont think their dogs should be able to see ribs, are boney themselves!

A HEALTHY weight is where a dog can preform and mantain a healthy lifestyle. An athlete at their peak are in amazing condition. As a dog retires and looses muscle mass often times they gain fat. That is not healthy. Weight needs to be evaluated on an individual basis BUT a greyhound should never lose sight of all bones and their tuck. IMO of course

It's a fine line to walk. I like a smidgen extra weight as a back up in case one of them gets sick. But let them gain too much, and their health can become compromised.

Henry used to be very overweight and no ribs were visible and his tuck was gone. I am glad his last foster home got him back down to an excellent weight. I like for his last two ribs to just barely be visible and this what was his foster parents told me to keep it at.

I voted other and other. Too many variables, each dog is different. For example.

13 year old Future is 12 pounds over his race weight and has been for the entire 10 years he has lived with us. Is he fat? No, he raced at a very lean 70 pounds. He is older now, still active and looks great.

Bones is five pounds under his race weight. Now probably about 8 pounds under. When he is sufficiently healed from his accident I expect him to be back at about 5 pounds under. He has been at that weight for about 8 years now. He is 10.5 years old and has always been tall, lean and lanky.

Pearl is right at her race weight. She suffers from kidney disease and you can see every rib on her. Due to her disease she sometimes is nauseous and will not eat. She is not as fit as she used to be. She doesn't always feel up to a long walk. It is what it is, we do the best we can for her. Her race weight looked a lot better on her when she was more fit. She just turned 7

Baby Tru is still an active racer at the moment. She will obviously be at her race weight of 57 pounds when she comes home in about a month. It remains to be seen what weight will suit her as a pet.

As I said........too many variables!

Those are both tricky questions. I can count at least 4 of Bucks and he is about 10 pounds over his racing weight of 78. Some kennels run lean and his was obviously one of them.

In general I'd say something like 5-10% of body weight would be a good guideline. 10 pounds on a girl that raced at 57# is a LOT different than 10 pounds on a dog that raced at almost 80.

A lot of this depends on the dog since they can carry their weight in different places.

In general I would say two bones and outline of hip bones. But you want to make sure they still have a very distinct tuck-up at the belly and not a roll of fat on their chest.

As far as pounds, I don't really use those as a guideline - I go by how the dog looks instead. I like to see defined muscle and for a greyhound to not be rounded but some ribs/hips poking through. I think the tracks also vary in how light/heavy they race their hounds, so what one would consider racing weight another may call over/under.

If you're not sure about your dog you can always post a few pictures and get input. You won't get 100% agreement since it depends on personal preference as well.

I like two ribs showing but I don't like the hip bones to show, my greyhound is almost 10
and I think she still looks great for her age

It depends.

Jupiter raced at 78 lbs, but sits around 72ish just fine. More than that and he starts looking chubby.

Angler raced at 67 lbs (I still think that must be a typo!) weighs 85 now, and at present has FIVE visible ribs. The vet thinks he's OK, though, so I guess he is?

I say about 2, but depends on the dog... and I said 4-5 bc that's the minimum I want mine to gain. And other, bc some would need less, some more.

I have been told by different vets different information too, Like I know my Sophie is over weight but they say she is perfect, we are on a diet anyways, I was told the proper is 4-5 pounds over the racing weight and 2 ribs showing by a NGAP board member and by a Adoption Group organizer and by books so that is what I am sticking too.

I don't think you can say 100% what the "rule" is for what a grey should weigh. It depends on the dog, what their activity level is, what they're being fed, and their general body type and condition. My feeling is they should be able to maintain a weight being reasonably active, and eating well. Sighthounds are naturally more lean than other dogs and many people think they're thin when in fact they're fine. Some ribs, some backbones, hips, and a nice smooth tuck-up make a pretty grey!

greysmom

I don't think it's that formulaic. It should be about how your dog is, not whether it it conforms to some sort of recipe. Different dogs are built differently and also their shapes change with age and exercise levels. My experience is that dogs that are exercised enough and fed sensibly with not too many snacks, treats or additions, find their own level and it's usually a good one. There's only really a problem if the dog arrives (or is allowed to develop) in a clearly underweight or overweight state. Greys are slim so things are fairly easy. A significantly underweight or overweight dog looks plain wrong and is not hard to spot. A few pounds either side of 'ideal', whatever that is, is nothing to worry about.

He raced between 71 and 73 lbs

Thanks for your inut everyone! On Timmy you can see his hip bones and last 2 ribs...Lucius has faint ribs but he's a slender dog. They are both healthy and what I would think loos greyt...just wondered what other people thought greys should look like.

Since my dogs still do fun-run sprints at local LGRA meets, they're kept right around their race weight.

Rocket is in phenomenal condition right now - lovely christmas-ham thighs, trim-lines on his lower ribs, hip points just barely showing above the muscle... he's a solid 82 lbs, and raced at 79 according to greyhound-data. He doesn't have an ounce of fat on him right now, he's actually more solid-looking than when we adopted him, since he'd been sitting around on a farm for a bit over a month since his last race. Cassie doesn't run nearly as often as Rocket, but she's still got trim-lines, hip points and solid muscles. I have no idea how they raced her at 56lbs, it's hard for us to keep her at 52 (she was spayed at 48) even with her eating MORE than Rocket. She's a dainty, fine-boned lady who can still keep up with the big boy when they're running.

I prefer a slightly trimmer dog than most, but as long as your vet gives the okay and your dog is able to run comfortably (barring old injuries of course) there's a HUGE variation as far as preferences go. There area few dogs in my area that are a bit soft, but not so much that they've lost their tucks or their 'streamlined' appearance.

I think it depends on the pup. Donovan raced at 75 lbs and is still 75 lbs. I can see 2-3 ribs and hip bones. TC raced at 65 lbs and is 63 lbs now with 2-3 ribs and hip bones barely showing. They are both healthy and happy.

Edit to add that TC was 59 lbs when I adopted him. He has/had a hard time keeping weight on. No medical problem just a matter of finding the right food.

I really don't worry about seeing ribs. My 9 yr old is still at her racing weight and when we got her right off of the track from her trainer at 3 years old, you couldn't see ribs. My other three are somewhere between 4 and 8 lb of their racing weight. I really don't like seeing one that is more than 10 lb over there racing weight. I had one boy that came to us 20 lb over his racing weight and he looked good, He was a biggggg boy, tall and long, but we got him down to only 10 lb over but it took three years to do it.

This is reassuring to me, as you can't see ribs on the dog I'm bringing home this weekend. She's been in the adoption kennel since March, but I don't think she's overweight (someone even said she tended not to eat a lot there). I'm definitely going to watch her weight, but I'd hate to think she needed to go on a diet on Day 1!

It depends upon the build of the dog. Carl shows about 3 ribs and about 5 vertebra, but the way he is built his hip bones do not show. They only become visible when he has been sick and lost a lot of weight (big D). He raced at 73.5, now weighs 75 - 76.5. When he got sick he dropped down to 68, that was the only time his hip bones showed up and he looked really frightening.

Your dog's greyhound data page says he raced at 71 pounds, by the way.

I clicked the link in your signature!

People might be disgusted at me, but Sailor has actually lost weight! his racing weight was 71lb and now he is 67lb. He looks good and healthy and eats the recommended 4 cups a day. I think he just lost a lot of muscle weight... he was much bulkier when I first got him...

Muscle weighs a lot- it could be just right for your boy. BTW he is gorgeous, love that color!

With Duncan I go by hipbones. The reason? He changes weight for no apparent reason -- no perceptible changes in diet or exercise. Some days, every rib shows. Others, you can barely see two. That can make me crazy. If I go by the hipbones, I can tell if things are truly extreme -- usually they change very little.

Duncan is at race weight. He was raced lean, but, even with running every day, he has lost muscle mass. What was lean racing is just right as a pet. OTOH, my first grey was almost exactly the same size as Duncan and raced at only 1 pound more. He needed to gain 5 pounds as a pet. You really just have to make a decision on a dog by dog basis.

Now, doesn't that information just confuse you more? Sorry.

I can't seem to get Luka to gain any weight and I have had him for 16 months. You can see most of his ribs, his hip bones and spine. He is healthy and eats Blue Buffalo, Nutro Ultra and Drs. Foster & Smith lamb and rice. Plus he gets extra healthy cookies which he loves. He has been seen by a vet a few times. My group tells me that some dogs always stay thin.

I think it's so different for every individual dog. Some coming off the track seem more underweight to me than others. I don't see a whole lot of rib on 3 of my 4, but no one would consider them overweight or even heavy. You can see all of Zippy's ribs, especially in summer during T-storm season. But she has free access to food and seems content so I'm not worried that she's thin, except when she loses extra because of storm anxiety. I think most of the hounds I see coming right off the track are thinner than is necessary, though.

I voted other because it really does depend on the dog. Loki looks about right to almost chunky at his race weight while Tally looks like a skeleton at her race weight and runs about 5lbs over and we can still see 3-4 ribs. The vet says she looks good and she does. When you can see more than 1-2 ribs on Loki, he looks skinny. It just depends on how they are built.

i don't know pound wise, but i have read that you should be able to see the shadows of the last 2/3 ribs. I tend to stick to just looking at what they look like as they didn't race so no idea what weight they would of been previously and don't weigh them all that often.

I like the condition my dogs are in at the moment although they do look thinner than quite a few other greyhounds we've seen on walks. Throp actually looks a bit thinner on this photo from last year, i think its just because he's in hunting mode that his ribs look more visble as they don't actually stick out. Throp is more solidly built than Hector whose leaner and tends to drop weight quicker.

Thanks everyone. I just wondered what everyone thought since I hear so many conflicting opinions.

Moofie...mine look about like that....outlines of last 2 ribs but very slim and fit.

Usually the outline of the last 2 or 3 ribs is good, but it really depends on the dog. The posture makes a difference too.

Hip bones and vertebrae help, but not much, since there is so much variation. Some dogs have arched backs, some dogs are straighter in the rear, etc.

As a general rule, I think you should see some of the bones. I don't think you ever want to see a Greyhound and not be able to see any bones at all. Greyhounds are not built to carry that much fat. On the other hand, I don't think you should see the first few ribs or the vertebrae in the upper half of the ribcage (when the dog is stacked). There should be muscle in the shoulder and neck areas to cover that.

Teagan is 2-3 pounds lower than his race weight (the 75 pounds that is listed for his one schooling race). He has lost muscle since adoption. He is also built in such a way that his hip bones are fairly prominent. I don't mind seeing shadows of his last 3 ribs, but I don't want to see the entire ribs, and I don't want to see any ribs further up than that.

I think a lot of adopted Greyhounds are overweight.



~Lindsay~

Yep i'd agree with you on that one, with quite a few of the adopted greys we've met your lucky if you can see any ribs but perhaps the last one. They don't look fat in the same way that a overweight lab would look but they don't have that lean shape & definition that a greyhound should. My boys aren't that fit and lack the muscles of an ex-racing grey but i think they still look athletic and have some covering in case they get ill.

2 was the answer I got from our vet

Here is what Rocket looked like at 84lbs in January. He wasn't FAT, but he'd lost his ribs and fit-lines:


Here is what he looks like at 82 lbs today, with a few more pounds of muscle and a few less pounds of fat:

Once I was told by group members that he was maybe a couple of pounds heavy, so I did cut back his food.

I've found that Coda's hip points are what I need to go by. If I go by the ribs he looks way to skinny and his hip points stick out too much.

Miss Nellie is all black, which I feel makes her ribs more noticable. When the sun is shining on her you can see quite a few of her rib bones even though she is 8lbs over her racing weight (raced at 56 and now weighs 62-65lbs). She seems to have lost a lot of her muscle tone though, even though she walks every day and runs at least once a week. When she came home to us the muscles on her back legs looked like...I don't know. They looked like something seperate from her body. She is a bit softer now . At one point, before we had adjusted to eachother (and she had us trained to feed her like crazy) she was up to 70lbs. The vet gave us literature on obesity in dogs. People laugh when I tell them that. She always looked like a skinny minny compaired to other breeds!

I can still see the last 3 ribs on Opie, plus hipbones, and vertebrae. He raced at 88, and now weighs 94-95 lbs. He still has big hammy thighs. I think he is at his perfect weight now. So he gained about 7 lbs over racing weight, but his is a very big boy.

The whole rib thing is so confusing to me because we can always see the ribs that are more toward the front before we see those in the back. So if it's supposed to be the last 2 or 3 ribs, that would mean that we would see almost the entire ribcage, which would be way skinny. I just do it by touch and deciding if *I* think they look okay.

It totally depends on the dog, some carry more or less weight quite naturally. Of course it is better for a dog not to be overweight, but I personally believe that as they get older it helps to carry maybe a couple or so more pounds as a buffer in case they get ill as they do seem to lose weight so rapidly.

Miss Sadi was overweight by about 8 to 10 pounds when we got her (she could live on fresh air) and we got her down to her racing weight about 68 pounds, one of the vets at our practice said she was overweight at that weight....I told her that she raced at that weight so I would hardly call her overweight (Okay, I know that she probably had more muscle then but the difference can't have been all that much) so it really does depend on the individual dog.

My outlook, you can't go by race weight. Odd hearing that from a racing owner but I've seen too many race hounds that I felt were underweight even for racers.
Some kennels run a leaner dog some run a heavier dog.

Also I don't think you can go by the rule of thumb about seeing ribs either. These hounds have so many different body shapes that it basically makes it impossible to go by those rules.
I've had active racers where you couldn't see ribs cause they were the stocky type of hound and yet I've had racers that you could see ribs, hip pointers and back bones.

Basically in the kennels we have many things to go by and judge by what race weight they should be set at. In home life there isn't that many options as to be able to tell.

I also totally agree with scullysmom on older hounds. Having those extra pounds as a cushion for if they get sick is a wonderful thing.

How do I judge weight in my hounds, I look at them and when I think there weight is at a good range I keep them there. Use to be a bit more in winter months and a bit less in summer but living in the south now there isn't much difference between winter and summer so they maintain around the same weight year round.

Augie is over 10lbs over his set racing weight and Brookie is about 8lbs or so over set racing weight. I think they look good and that is good enough for me and my hounds

I Can't do the poll as every dog is different weight wise. Beau is at his svelte racing weight of 63 pounds and looks perfect, but my Teddy is 12 pounds over his racing weight and looks fit with 3 ribs showing.

Lola is 2lbs over her racing weight and I think she looks perfect. I had several people from the adoption group comment on how good she looked yesterday. She still has hip points and a couple vertebrae but is showing 2-3 ribs. I see a lot of the dogs within our group get heavy very quickly. There's a few that even have overweight fosters. One of the guys who has overweight fosters commented on how I need to fatten my dog up a bit more. Sorry but I think she looks great and her vet agrees.

Wow! Only 2 lbs difference. It's interesting to see the photos side by side like that. Makes sense when muscle weighs more than fat. I thought Rocket looked good in the first photo, but I think he looks much better in the second. Very fit.

I voted "other explain" on both because I think it really does depend on the body-type of the dog (I have no facts to back this up - just MHO).

Lily raced between 53 and 57lbs and she now weighs 61lbs. The vet thinks she is fit as a fiddle and I think she looks perfect (I'm biased) .

my girl I just got a few weeks ago is really skinny. You can see ALL of her ribs, but she eats well and I feed her the recommended amount.

I saw Lee Livingood once & she had a great answer. This is from her... and going by FEEL rather than LOOK...

Make a fist -
run your hand over the BACK of your hand - that's a bit TOO much weight on a grey.
run your hand over your knuckles - that's too LITTLE weight on a grey.
run your hand over your fingers just past the knuckles. THAT'S what their ribs should feel like for ideal weight.

I thought it was great 'cause it's an easy thing to show someone (it's easier to SHOW someone than to explain it though...)

The only problem with this test is it depends on how bony or chubby your own hands are!

This is a topic that I'm still not really sure what the right answer is. Lego is five pounds over his racing weight and I can swear that at time I can see all of his ribs but most of the time, the last two are most pronounced. I went to a dog wash that my adoption group had this weekend and I asked a few different people and they all said that he was fine. I dunno, I think it's probably a dog to dog thing. You should probably just watch his weight, weigh him every so often and just don't let him gain or lose too much.