How can I tell if my dog is overweight?

Run your hands along their sides. You should feel the ribs easily under a thin layer of fat without pressing, see a waist behind the ribs from above, and see the belly tuck up from the side. If you have to press to find the ribs, or there is no waist, your dog is probably overweight.

What is a healthy body condition score for a dog?

On the 9-point scale most vets use, 4 or 5 is ideal. Scores of 6 and 7 are overweight, and 8 and 9 are obese. Some practices use a 5-point scale, where 3 is ideal.

How much overweight is my dog if they score 7 out of 9?

As a rough rule of thumb, each point above 5 is about 10% above ideal weight, so a 7 is roughly 20% heavier than they should be. Your vet can give you a more precise target weight.

Can I tell from the breed weight chart alone?

Not reliably. Dogs of the same breed vary in frame and muscle, so a dog can be inside the breed range and still carry too much fat, or slightly above it and lean. Use the chart alongside the body condition check.

Why is my dog gaining weight when I haven’t changed their food?

Less exercise, extra treats, neutering and age are common reasons. But conditions such as an underactive thyroid or Cushing’s disease can also cause weight gain, and a swollen belly can be fluid rather than fat, so see your vet.

Is My Dog Overweight? Body Condition Score and Rib Check

Your dog is probably overweight if you can’t easily feel their ribs without pressing, if there is no visible waist behind the ribs when you look down from above, or if their belly doesn’t tuck up towards the back legs when you look from the side. Vets put this on a body condition score from 1 to 9, where 4–5 is ideal, 6–7 is overweight and 8–9 is obese.

It takes two minutes to check at home, and it is more useful than the number on the scale alone. Here is how.

The two-minute check

Do this with your dog standing, in good light. Long or thick coats hide a lot, so use your hands, not just your eyes.

1. Feel the ribs

Lay your hands flat on your dog’s sides, just behind the front legs, and run them gently along the ribcage.

Ideal: you can feel each rib easily, with a thin layer of fat over them, without pressing.
Overweight: you can feel the ribs, but only with some pressure, under a layer of padding.
Obese: you can’t feel the ribs at all, or only by pressing firmly.
Too thin: the ribs are sharp, easy to see, with no fat over them.

VCA suggests comparing the feel with your own hand. With your hand open, palm down, touch the back of it: ribs that feel like that are about right. Ribs that feel like your knuckles when you make a fist suggest too thin. Ribs that feel like the fleshy palm below your thumb suggest too much fat.

2. Look from above

Stand over your dog and look down. A dog at a healthy weight has an hourglass shape: a visible narrowing (the waist) behind the ribs and before the hips. If the sides run straight from ribs to hips, or bulge outwards, they are carrying extra weight.

3. Look from the side

Crouch to your dog’s level. The line of the belly should rise from the chest up towards the back legs: the abdominal tuck. A belly that runs level or hangs down suggests extra fat.

Also feel the base of the tail and the lower back. Soft fat pads there are a sign of an overweight dog.

The body condition score, point by point

This follows the WSAVA chart that most vets use:

Score	What you see and feel	Verdict
1	Ribs, spine and hip bones visible from a distance. No body fat. Muscle loss	Very thin
2	Ribs, spine and hip bones easily visible. No fat you can feel	Very thin
3	Ribs easy to feel and may be visible, no fat over them. Hip bones becoming prominent. Obvious waist and tuck	Thin
4	Ribs easy to feel with a minimal fat covering. Waist easy to see from above. Tuck evident	Ideal
5	Ribs can be felt without excess fat. Waist visible behind the ribs. Belly tucked up from the side	Ideal
6	Ribs can be felt with slight excess fat. Waist visible from above but not prominent. Tuck still apparent	Overweight
7	Ribs hard to feel under heavy fat. Fat over the lower back and base of the tail. Waist absent or barely visible	Overweight
8	Ribs can’t be felt, or only with firm pressure. Heavy fat over the back and tail. No waist, no tuck	Obese
9	Large fat deposits over chest, spine and tail base, and on the neck and legs. Belly obviously distended	Obese

Some vets use a 5-point version instead, where 3 is ideal. Ask which one yours uses so the numbers mean the same thing to both of you.

How many kilos is that?

VCA defines a dog as overweight at 10–20% above ideal weight and obese above 20%. A rough rule of thumb used by many vets is that each point above 5 is about 10% extra weight. So a 30 kg dog scoring 7 is likely to have an ideal weight somewhere around 25 kg. Treat that as a ballpark: your vet can estimate a more precise target.

What the scale tells you (and what it doesn’t)

Weighing your dog is still worth doing, because it shows the trend. A slow creep of half a kilo a month is easy to miss by eye and obvious on a graph.

But a single number can mislead:

Breed charts are ranges, not targets. Dogs of one breed vary in frame and muscle. A dog can sit inside the breed range and still be carrying fat, or slightly above it and lean. Our breed weight charts show the typical range for many breeds; use them alongside the hands-on check, not instead of it.
Mixed breeds don’t have a chart at all, so the body condition score is the main tool.
Muscle weighs more than fat. A fit working dog may weigh more than a sedentary one of the same size and be in better shape.

The most useful record is the two together: weight every few weeks, and a body condition score at the same time. If tracking it is the hard part, PetTrackr places each weigh-in on the healthy range for your dog’s breed, age and sex, so the trend is visible at a glance.

Why a few extra kilos matter

Carrying extra weight isn’t just cosmetic. VCA lists links between excess weight and osteoarthritis, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, some cancers, bladder stones and anaesthetic complications. VCA also notes that studies show being even moderately overweight can reduce a dog’s life expectancy by nearly two years: in a lifelong study of Labrador retrievers, the dogs kept lean lived longer than their littermates fed more.

The good news is that losing even part of the extra weight helps, especially with stiff joints.

When to see your vet

Your dog scores 6 or more and you want a safe plan to bring it down.
They have gained weight without any change in food or exercise.
The belly looks swollen or round but the rest of the body (spine, hips) is thin. That can be fluid, organ enlargement or pregnancy rather than fat, and needs checking soon.
Weight gain comes with other changes: drinking or peeing more, hair loss, panting, tiredness, or seeming to feel the cold. Conditions such as an underactive thyroid or Cushing’s disease can cause weight gain.
Your dog is losing weight without trying. Unexplained weight loss always deserves a check.

What to do if your dog is overweight

Ask your vet for a target weight and to rule out a medical cause.
Work out the calories for the target weight, not the current one. See how many calories a dog needs.
Weigh the food and count the treats; extras should stay under about 10% of the day’s calories (how many treats can a dog have?).
Aim for slow, steady loss, about 1–2% of body weight a week.

The full plan is in how to help your dog lose weight.

PetTrackr helps you keep track. It is not veterinary advice: if your pet seems unwell, call your vet.

Is my dog overweight?