How easily can you feel his ribs? That's your best tool in determining if the dog needs to gain or lose. From that picture Duke could just as soon be Cheyenne- their build is the same. Although Cheyenne is much smaller.

Huskyluv wrote:

So Duke is 25" tall and 57 lbs? He does look like he could probably gain a few more pounds from the pic but it's so hard to tell from a picture. How old is Duke again?

I ask about age because if he's young (i.e. less than 3 yrs) then he may not be done filling out which is normal. Heather's Koda, just like my Dakota, both were very thin at around 2 yrs old or so, and both of them filled out nicely by the time they were 3 if I'm remembering correctly. (I know for sure that was the case with mine, Heather's Koda is where I'm not sure at what age he filled out exactly).

What does your vet say about Duke's target weight?

Koda filled out at 2.5 years old but it wasn't due to age, it was because I found a food he stopped having constant diarrhea or vomiting with. My Koda was 20lbs underweight though and I wouldn't say Duke is anywhere near that. Maybe 5-8lbs but it's hard to tell how much skinnier he is under the coat. With Koda you could see the outline of his hips and ribs, etc etc, through his coat, you basically only petted bone on him. Duke looks like he just has a very large chest and then maybe needs a little weigh added.

and that's all we are really trying to accomplish is at most 10 pounds. When you stroke down his back you can easily feel his backbone and his hips especially. As far as far as his ribs go they aren't as easily felt as when we first got him so I'm guessing that he has already put on a few pounds.

Don't worry to much about feeling the spine as its really easy to feel that even on a overweight Husky. The rib cage is the best gauge on a Husky, best being can't see them but can feel them. Plus once the winter coat grows in you'll have a hard time even feeling them.

ok thanks for all the help. I really appreciate it.