I miss

[bubbatd]

To me that dog is not lean .....it's skinny !

[Xandra]

Uh oh.

Someone will have a much better, more thorough explanation for this but the dog is healthy- he is lacking in fat which my vet tells me is bad if they get sick as they have no reserves... however a dog that isn't getting enough food/ is starving will lose muscle mass (atrophy) and as you can see he is plump with muscle... just no body fat.

[2pups622]

He actually Look's like he's got muscle He's not just bone's. Which i think makes a difference between Healthy thin & Just plain Thin. JMO

[SmexyPibble]

I just love pit bulls, there is no dog like them, huh? I'm glad there's someone around here to share the undying love for pit bulls that I have; they're unlike any other!

[cricketsmygirl]

A lot of pit bulls are conditioned to look this way. If he was down right skinny he would have NO muscle mass. When I joined my first PB forum I thought they were skinny as well, until someone explained. I will have to find it and cross post.

[Laurelin]

There used to be a really good thread about this on here. It was a LONG read though lol.

The basic jist is they're conditioned like that. If you look the dog is lean but also has a lot of muscle mass. Also a lot of the pits you see nowadays are overdone as in too fat. The Am bullies come to mind (short and low pits)

[Laurelin]

Here ya go: http://www.chazhound.com/forums/t38419/

[darkchild16]

That is a amazingly conditioned dog CMG. *droooool* Grammy they are a working breed and that is the perfect condition for them. And I know dekka but they arent the same

[Bailey08]

They're not always kept like that, though, right? I thought I remembered that from the other thread -- that's what they look like when conditioned for a specific event.

So, on the subject of lean dogs, there's a big article on the NYTimes site right now about all of the health benefits of decreasing calories. Animals have been shown to live much longer if their food is limited and they are kept lean. Exercising is also beneficial, of course, but food reduction alone (as opposed to decreasing food less and increasing exercise such that the actual caloric "intake" is the same as the significantly reduced calorie program) is actually the best in terms of increasing longevity and slowing intrinsic aging. The article was about a study being done with humans (reducing caloric intake of average weight and slightly overweight adults by 25%) and was based on studies done on animals. I thought it was very interesting.

[Tahla9999]

This video is being shared on my other forum. It is heart breaking and warming at the same time!

YouTube - The loyalty of a pitbull