# Visible Spine?



## ~Missy~ (Apr 3, 2013)

Harley is 2 years and 3 months old. The past few months I have noticed that is spine has become visible. Standing, sitting, laying down....it's visible. He hasn't lost any weight anywhere else on his body, and I haven't changed the amount of food I feed him. He's regularly wormed and such.

Is this something I should worry about? I know some dog's spines are visible when they sit, but is it okay to see it while he's standing?

These are the most recent pics I have of him. You can't really see his spine in the pics. His belly looks pudgy in some because they were taken just after he ate.


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## GoingPostal (Sep 24, 2012)

A lot of dogs show some spine due to their structure, he looks fine to me.


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## ::::COACH:::: (Apr 4, 2012)

This breed is a lean dog and is normal to show the spine some and a little of the ribs. There is a huge difference in a underweight dog and a dog at a good weight. Your dog looks like he is at a great weight and I think he would look wonderful if you did some conditioning with him  
There are too many fat dogs here that people accept that has "normal" weight and is just sick!


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## welder (Jan 25, 2013)

go thru some of the pics on here of known show people.ck out there dogs.mite give you something to compare with.I dont see ant thing wrong with the dog. he mite could use a little muscle in his rear. you gotta spring pole or a flirt pole? anyway nice dog..........................................yeah what coach said.that whats happens when i type correctly.i get outrun..good post coach!


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## ~Missy~ (Apr 3, 2013)

Thanks everyone! I'm starting some conditioning this summer!


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## surfer (Feb 20, 2013)

you must be fishin for some compliments.............. cause there aint nothin wrong with that dog that a little conditioning wouldnt fix. other than that he looks good


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## BullyGal (Jun 25, 2012)

Once you build up those muscle on either side of the spine you won't see it as much.

My girl lost the muscle around her spine and hips over the course of winter, because NC has really crappy weather. And I didn't account for that and soon I noticed her hip bones and spine were showing more than normal

Her before winter









After I noticed her being skinnier


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## ~Missy~ (Apr 3, 2013)

surfer said:


> you must be fishin for some compliments.............. cause there aint nothin wrong with that dog that a little conditioning wouldnt fix. other than that he looks good


Um, no I'm not. His spine is visible. As I stated, you can't see it in the pics. I only showed pics to show that he wasn't underweight.


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## ~Missy~ (Apr 3, 2013)

BullyGal said:


> Once you build up those muscle on either side of the spine you won't see it as much.
> 
> My girl lost the muscle around her spine and hips over the course of winter, because NC has really crappy weather. And I didn't account for that and soon I noticed her hip bones and spine were showing more than normal
> 
> ...


Thank you! His spine looks just like your girl's in the second pic. I guess it is just loss of muscle!!


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## surfer (Feb 20, 2013)

i dont see how you can even think that your dog is in the same catagory as bullygals, 
her dog is muscular and in shape, yours needs to run a lap or to thats all i was saying.

yours looks like a couch potato where as bullygals looks like she would have fun playing out ih the yard burning off calories. just take a close look at them there is no comparison.

but its relatively easy to get one in shape, as far as vertabrae you want to be able to see 3-5 when they're in shape for a show, check what the adba standards are, but during the off season theres really no need to keep them on a training regimen.

and please dont take it personal. you asked and i answered


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## ~Missy~ (Apr 3, 2013)

surfer said:


> i dont see how you can even think that your dog is in the same catagory as bullygals,
> her dog is muscular and in shape, yours needs to run a lap or to thats all i was saying.
> 
> yours looks like a couch potato where as bullygals looks like she would have fun playing out ih the yard burning off calories. just take a close look at them there is no comparison.
> ...


The ONLY comparison I made between my dog and bullygal's dog is the spine being visible. If you can't read what is being posted, please stay off my post. Thank you.


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## ~Missy~ (Apr 3, 2013)

You can kind of see it in this pic:



The reason I am concerned with his weight is because when I took him back from my ex a year ago, he looked like this:





So forgive me if he isn't perfectly conditioned, my focus this past year was getting him to a healthy weight, and maintaining that. And he's an American Bully, not APBT, so he's not going to be as lean as an APBT.


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## GoingPostal (Sep 24, 2012)

Wow he has filled out a lot since those pics, how old was he then? His weight looks good imo now, see how in the old pics that his hipbones are protruding and there is less muscling overall? That is underweight. Now it is probably just his structure leading to showing a bit of spine, pretty common to see that in apbt and bullies. My male does a little but you can only really tell from above photos.


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## ~Missy~ (Apr 3, 2013)

GoingPostal said:


> Wow he has filled out a lot since those pics, how old was he then? His weight looks good imo now, see how in the old pics that his hipbones are protruding and there is less muscling overall? That is underweight. Now it is probably just his structure leading to showing a bit of spine, pretty common to see that in apbt and bullies. My male does a little but you can only really tell from above photos.


Those pics were from just a year ago, so he was just over 1 year old. He was severely underweight because my ex wasn't taking care of him. I originally bought him as a pup for my ex, but after we broke up he stopped taking care of Harley so I stole him. 

Thank you!


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## downlikedisco (Mar 19, 2013)

I think he looks good. Especially compared to what he used to look like  ugh men lol. Now just conditioning and he'll be perfect 

Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## ~Missy~ (Apr 3, 2013)

downlikedisco said:


> I think he looks good. Especially compared to what he used to look like  ugh men lol. Now just conditioning and he'll be perfect
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


Thank you!

I'm planning out a flirt pole now! And we're planning on lots of trips to the river and hiking at the state park this summer.


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