OK, another APBT person here. From what I've read, many of you are getting ticked because we are not providing y'all with adequate answers. But I have yet to see actual questions listed. Rather what I've read have been some inaccurate statements that y'all would like us to say "you are correct" to and of course we are not going to do that. List the questions, and we will do our best to answer them as proficiently as possible. Also, when a question is answered & the replying poster is basically called a liar because you seem to know better, then why even bother asking if you don't want to hear & accept the truthful answer? We have no reason to lie, so why should we?
Second, Gamedog came on here to defend his pet whose picture was stolen off a site & put onto this one only for the reasons of ridiculing it & causing a hysteria that we as APBT owners like to starve, abuse, & neglect our dogs. He shouldn't have even had to do this as the person who started the original locked thread is nothing more than a troll. If he doesn't want to partake in indepth discussions, he shouldn't have to or be criticized when he chooses not too. It wasn't his idea to come to this forum for chit-chat anyways.
As far as conditioning goes on all the dogs, ALL of them were & are in great shape. To the untrained & HSUS perverted mind, a well conditioned dog looks the same as a starved/neglected dog. However, the major difference is that when a dog is indeed starved, the body begins to feed upon the muscle therefore breaking it done & causing severe atrophy which results in a very sunken in & skeletal appearance. A conditioned dog still maintains it's muscle mass & some ribs are slightly visible due to the low body fat percentage.(Machobuck was in top conditioning in the original pic & due to the extreme training regimen to get a dog there--long walks, jogs, runs, flirtpole & springpole activities, etc & a very strict yet proper dietary program--he was not kept in that kind of shape year round). The same goes for human athletes. I was once a Division 1 (collegiate) female soccer player. In my prime I weighed approx. 103lbs & had 11% body fat. My ribs showed, my collarbone stuck out, & many of my bones in the breast area below the collarbone were visible. However, my body was in peak physical condition thereby allowing me to play my sport to the best of my abilities. I prided myself on my quadraceps, hamstrings, & calf muscles (as leg muscle is very important in the sport of soccer). Yet some people still told me I looked anorexic & tried to get me to get "help". To the coach, trainer & team physcian I was in tip-top shape. Now, did I stay like that year round? Not entirely, but it was cyclical & I pushed my body to the extreme every fall & spring.
As a vet tech, I'm all too familiar with the widespread state of obesity most pet owners keep their animals in. As a clinic with 60,000 active clients, it would be accurate to say that the majority of cats & dogs we see are overweight & many are plain obese. Many owners think that a dog should have "meat on it's bones" & look 'healthy". But think about this: if you're dog has an abundant layer of fat under the skin (that would prevent one from filling the ribs), imagine all the fat surrounding the internal organs? A thick layer of fat surrounding the heart muscle can be detrimental to a dog's health. A dog's skeletal structure is NOT desgined to accomodate an overweight pooch, therefore an overweight dog will begin to have many musculoskeletal problems especially with the joints (the hips are the most affected part). Besides cardiac problems, Type II diabetes is also having a huge spike as overweight animals are more prone to developing the disease (& a dog doesn't have to be obese, just overweight to put it at risk). On the other hand, a fit dog should have a distinct tuck behind the abdomen when looking at it from above. If the dog sides run in a straight line, that dog is overweight. A dog's ribs should be easily felt (meaning one should not have to push in to feel the ribs) & it's perfectly fine if some are visible when the dog is in motion. When lucking at it from the side, it should also have a good tuck up behind the abdomen. If all you see is a straight line, the dog is overweight. A good rule of thumb for the lumbar vertebrae (spine) is that 2-3 visible is perfectly fine if the dog is in good condition with a good amount of muscle mass & healthy. If all the vertebrae are visible, the cranial bones are visible, & there is no muscle tone whatsoever, then it's obvious the dog is underweight/malnourished. But again, that dog has a totally different look & structure than the one in supreme physical condition.
