Six Months!

Today is 6 months since we brought Stanley home to live with us. It's hard to imagine that there was ever a time when he wasn't here....


And, for extra celebration, we have a new low on the scale! 97.3 lbs!!!! We may make it to 95 by the end of the year.



Then and now....


I'm going away for the holidays, so I'll definitely be missing Mr. Stan, but his dad will take good care of him! Sardines for dinner tonight!!

Thiiiisssss close!

We had another weigh in today. Still not officially into the double digits, but inching closer! I think winter is going to be tougher for weight loss, and I knew we wouldn't keep things up at the rate they were going, but it's so hard to be soooo close to the 90's!!!!

100.3!!!!

Rainy day on the way to the weigh in!

Woohoo! 100 lb dog!

Stanley would like you to observe what a 100.1 lb dog looks like:


We're down 21.9 lbs in 16 weeks! Most people would be excited to make such good progress on their weight loss plan, so we are super proud of Mr. Stan.

Winter coat is in, so his measurements are all up, but the weight just keeps going down!!

That's his baa-baa there in the picture...more on baa baa in a future post!

Stanley's excited! He says WOOT!

Weigh in!

SO - We had a weigh in this week and we've hit the next big milestone! Stanley is under 105 lbs...104.4 to be exact!



It's been pretty thrilling watching him start to look less like a baby seal and more like a dog :) He even occasionally leaps to his feet these days!



We're off to a week at the happiest place on earth, but we have plans for the blog and we'll be returning to more regular posting when we get back! Woot!

Update!

First things first - we want to welcome everyone who saw us over on Melvin's blog Mouchois! It's great to have you!!

Wow - I can't believe how behind we are on the updates! Things are a little crazy in Stanley land - mom and dad are both doing national job searches, so things have been a little hectic!!

Now, time for the news you've all been waiting for, Stanley's big update!



I wanted to take a minute and give a run-down over his overall measurements from day 1 to today!

Chest:
Then - 43"
Now - 37.5" (-5.5")

Waist:
Then - 40"
Now - Waist: 34" (-6")

Neck:
Then - 28"
Now - Neck: 20.5 (7.5")

That's a total loss of 19" for Stanley!!! I know I mentioned his neck would be the hardest one to keep consistent, but he has a bit of fur line where he probably had a collar for a long time and we've been trying to keep it there. I think the area behind his head and around his waist is definitely where we've seen the biggest changes.



Weigh in today was very encouraging! 107.1 lbs! We're down a total of 14.9 lbs :) very exciting!

Making Friends

After his weigh in Saturday, Stanley was off to meet Sarah, the lovely wheaton mix. It was an important meeting - Stanley will probably be spending some time with Sarah and her family when we head out for vacation in September.



I was very nervous. We hadn't introduced Stanley to any other canines yet and let's just say that his encounters to date on the street have been less than friendly....

Apparently, I was nervous for nothing - they weren't exuberantly playing together, but things were uneventful. Whew!

They both were very attentive when I had some treats in hand...



and we even made it out for a short walk around the block!



Hopefully things will only be better when Sarah comes to visit us!

Week 7!

Woohoo!

Stanley's got reason to celebrate with the latest weigh in:

If you're having trouble seeing, that says 108.3 lbs! We've broken the 110 lb mark, which was our first goal on the way. Of course, we're also on the way to the next goal: 100 lbs.

Here's some more pics from week 7...I think Stanley is a bit of a born story teller, no? When he's not being silly, he looks like he's turning to share some sage bit of advice about how to tell which carrots are the best for noshing ;)

Update!

We're only doing weigh-ins every other week because it's not easy getting to the vet (and DH and I really want to go together :) )

BUT - we have measurements and photographic evidence! We're out of the 40s! Go Stanley! :)

Neck: 24" (-2)
Chest: 39.5" (-1.5)
Waist: 37.5" (-1)

And, as you can see, his waist is emerging!

traditional top-down view, now with definition!

Stanley has not been feeling very photogenic this week, oddly. I was trying to get some more updated pics this am, but he was having none of that flash!

you can see his bones almost!

When we got him, a friend saw a picture and said "I can't wait to come over and hug his rolls!" I had to break it to her that he was so overweight that snausage was a pretty good nickname. The appearance of some rolls is an improvement!

Overall, things are still moving in the right direction! Stay tuned for some live-action Stanley.

Latest Weigh In!

Stanley had his first weigh in since his initial vet check up yesterday morning! Good news!

you can see he's getting narrower!

Weight: 113.5 lbs (-1.8 lbs!)
Neck: 26" (-2)
Chest: 41" (-1)
Waist: 37.5" (-.5)

(of course, his dad INSISTS that the scale is wrong and that he lost more weight...)

don't be fooled by the tongue! even the vet's treats were not up to his standards...

I've been concerned about his belligerent walking behavior in the last week...sitting down and refusing to go further. I don't want to push him to the point that he gets hurt, but his amazing ability to jump up and run home as soon as I give in leaves me suspicious of his sitting-down motives! But last night he did a HUGE walk for him - up to the corner, over two blocks, down the block and home! Our house is on skinny blocks across, but it's a big accomplishment for him!

Stanley's Shrinking

Last week we didn't have a Stanley weigh-in, but I did re-do his measurements:

Neck: 28" (-2)
Chest: 42" (-1)
Waist: 38" (-2)

Moving in the right direction!

Unfortunately, his walks are starting to slow down. We were going all the way around the block pretty regularly last week, but the last 3 days we've hardly made it to the corner before he sat down and quit....we'll be talking with the vet about this soon. I'm not sure if something's wrong and he's hurting or he's just stubborn and doesn't like to be out of breath! (but I'm definitely leaning towards the latter...)

We'll be doing an official weigh in tomorrow!

Baselines

Stanley was scheduled for his first visit only 4 days after coming to stay with us. So now we have some good baselines for our big boy.

As of June 24:

Weight: 115.3 lbs (down almost 7 lbs)
Chest: 43"
Waist: 40 "
Neck: 28"


His neck measurement is hard to get because of his coat, but I'm just trying to be consistent so we have markers!
In the meantime, we were trying to get him settled in and find some food.

The shelter had sent him home with Science Diet R/D, but we had heard he was used to a diet that mainly consisted of chicken breast and steamed carrots, so the SD was not quite up to his standards. We tried Innova, Merrick and a lot of other brands before he settled on the Orijen senior food. Consensus from the vet and other owners/trainers/breeders was not to give in - he was almost wearing us down when we found out he'd only eat 1 1/2 cups of food over 4 days - but I'm glad we persisted in finding him a kibble he can live with!

It's not diet food, but because he is so severly overweight, we talked with the vet and agreed 3/4 c food twice day with regular walks should do the trick. We've gradually got him up to around the block about twice a day, and we're already seeing a difference!

Stanley likes rollin' in the yard!