Conditioned APBT's Working Dogs

Just thought I would share this as an educational post

Skinny dogs

"SKINNY" DOGS? -

I thought I would write this for all the people on here who ask questions and are willing to learn but may not have their questions answered correctly or at all due to arguing or people without proper knowledge or a full understanding of what is asked answering the questions. I will try my best to answer and cover the common questions pertaining to this subject. This is addressing the "skinny" dog pictures. We have all seen the pictures posted with what most people who have never seen a conditioned dog refer to as "skinny". Here is a picture of Tea, this shows a fit looking, well exercised and muscled dog. She is playing with a flirt pole..



Now, if you are reading this and never have seen this what do you think? What do you see? You, like many others, probably look straight at the lines on the side, the ribs and the spine bumps showing. When most people see ribs on a dog they think what? The dog is skinny! The dog is underfed, abused, neglected, starved! Well now thats not always the case, allow me to explain..First off, lets go over what it means to have a conditioned dog.. Conditioning a dog in essence means to exercise and feed your dog so that it is at peak physical condition, much like an athlete does in preperation for a season of a sport. People may condition a dog for many reasons, some being reasons being.. dog shows, weight pulling competitions, dock diving, lure coursing or just to better their dogs health and fitness.When a person conditions a dog the dog will, just like people, lose the excess fat from its body. When this happens muscles become more pronounced, and yes ribs (and sometimes spine) will show. You may wonder, why if a dog is being exercised will the ribs show? Well... lets look at a picture of some dog muscle anatomy!


See the triangular shaped muscle that the arrow is pointing to. That is the Latissimus dorsi muscle, or Lat muscle. That covers the rib cage on a dog.







In this picture of Franzi's dog Chilly, you can see the Lat mucle as indicated by the arrow. You can see the clear lines forming that triangle shape. This muscle, like all muscles, require exercises (and in some cases, genetics) to become visible. Conditioning of a dog, as stated above, removes most if not all of the excess fat from the dog. Now what mostly covers the ribs of a dog is what? Fat. When all that excess fat is burned off it leaves the ribs only to be covered by the Lat muscle.






Here is Tea, this is what she looks like wearing her "winter weight". She is not conditioned in this picture.. See how no mucsle tone or ribs are visible at all, everything is covered by a layer of fat.






This is Tea after 3 weeks of conditioning. Notice how that layer of fat has been exercised off and you can see all the muscles and the Lat line covering the ribs. A few ribs are slightly visible. Now lets go over other exercises and how genetics come into play! The Lat muscle is a very hard to define muscle in some dogs. Some dogs will show a perfectly defined Lat muscle just from running alone, some require other exercises (like springpole or drag work) to even get the muscle to show a small amount, if at all. This is because genetics sometimes just dont permit it to be as pronounced on one dog as it is on the other. Some dogs, like Chilly and Tea, have a easily seen Lat muscle and some dogs dont. Does it mean one dog is being "starved" and the other isnt? No. It just means one dogs body is different than another, kind of like the how one persons body will differ from another persons when exercised. Another issue with pictures posted of dogs in a conditioned or well exercised state is what the dog is doing when the picture is taken. This is commonly a problem because the dogs have little fat on them, which means their ribs are only being covered by the Lat muscle which may or may not be extremely well defined, so if the picture is taken while exercising or inhaling deeply, the ribs may be more visible than what they normally are when the dog is in a resting state. This will lead to the dog looking extremely "ribby" when it is in fact not at all. Had the picture been taken when the dog was exhaling or at one second later the dog would have little to no rib showing, depending on the dogs body structure and how their Lat muscle is defined.






Here is a picture of Turbo exercising on a slat mill, as you can see in the picture he was caught while inhaling, notice how the ribs are clearly visible..






Now here is Turbo again, but the picture was taken a second later while he wasnt deeply inhaling..Notice how the ribs that were so clearly visible before are now covered by the Lat muscle and only a hint of the last few are visible. It makes all the difference in what second the picture was taken on whether or not the dog looks overly "ribby".



Some other comments made about dogs in a conditioned state are "This dog looks nice, but I like more meat on my dogs" or something similar, is this wrong? No! Each person has what they like a dog to look like, some people like to keep their dogs very fit and in peak physical condition. That isnt really what all people prefer to do and its perfectly fine! Some people like a dog to be kept at more of a pet weight, NOT OBESE, but not quite as conditioned as the dogs pictured above. Again, that is fine. So long as people understand that a dog in that body condition is not emactiated, neglected, skinny, etc. and that it takes a lot of work to get a dog to look like that and quite a lot of food for the dog to be able to get into that condition. So in essence the comments about a dog being "starved" into that condition are completely false and in fact IMPOSSIBLE.



That goes into the last part of this, the idea that you can somehow starve or cut feed to achieve the results above. That is impossible for the simple fact that, when a dog (or human) is starved, after the fat is gone, the muscle is quick to follow. So instead of a dog looking like the dogs above it looks like...



That dog looks nothing like the dogs pictured above. That is because the dog was starved. You can see how all the bones in the dog are visible. Every rib is clearly visible when the dog is in a relaxed pose, the top of the rib care is clearly visible, there is zero hint of a Lat muscle covering the ribs. The hip points and entire spine is visible, there is zero muscle covering those areas at all. That and the dog has little to no muscle mass in its legs, as well as the gut area being sunken in. The dogs starving body cannibalised the muscle tissue to keep itself alive after it used what fat it had. This is not the same, nor is it close to the dogs posted on this page.


I hope this answered some of the questions people have pertaining to the "skinny" dogs posted and helped the people who truly want to know about the conditioned dogs this page posts.


*All photos used (except the last one of the emaciated dog) are of American Pit Bull Terriers. Slight variations are expected when other breeds such as the American Staffordshire Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, or American Bully are conditioned. Each breed conditioned will look somewhat different due to breed standard and body structure.

Katie*

im katy with a y. gets confussing. i was 1 of 3 katys at my last job. i ended up being called george. Amazing looking dogs we have an american bulldog at work thats muscled like your dogs. he does weight pulling competitions and doesnt have a scrap of fat on him just solid muscle but i can understand people getting confused as he can also look a bit bony at times depending whats hes doing. he's called egg, had to tell you that as i find it so funny

Excellent post! I hate when American Bully owners and general people call the dogs "malnourished". My previous dog was crossed with game lines (RedBoy according to the person who bred him) and he was skinny kinda like that when he was in condition, which was rare since he was just a lowly Labrador mix. As he got old... he kind of wasted away to a bony rail dog, but as a young fit dog... he was in GOOD SHAPE and lived to 15.

I always got asked on his old YouTube channel (and also in real life)... "WHY is that Lab so skinny?" And "do you feed him"? And it was UGH for ages. I always said I love the American Pit Bull Terriers, not just "pit bulls". Real APBT look like THOSE dogs you featured, excellent condition. Tea looks great, good job!

Here was my Brownie in prime condition:



Like you said... some rib and Lat muscle clearly visible. No fat on that dog at all. He was not as muscular as an APBT as he was a mutt. He was not short haired and his skin was looser because of the Lab, but still. That's what I love about the APBT. Even a LITTLE bit can truly do wonders for the dogs physical shape. But all Brownie got called was SKINNY and WEAK.

Truly unfair, because the only reason is due to lack of knowledge about how dogs really should look... especially the APBT which are NOT the block headed, stout dogs most people think they are.

My current two dogs are just pudgy puppies... but Jade is 11 and Nigredo has no pitty in him at all. I scarcely come across a fat one. Never really unless very old, and even still not usually. I'll always love the APBT and am so glad to see this post. Thank you.

Ooops non of my pitbulls looked like any of the above photos, they all look like fighting dogs to me, 1 of my pitbulls I had was heavy set (not fat) like Cesar Millan's lovely small pitbull Daddy was, whereas my other one looked like Cesar Millan's tall pitbull the beautiful Junior.
The picture of Tea after 3 weeks of conditioning. reminds me of a dog that as been conditioned ready to fight, as does the pictures of Turbo.

I also hate seeing them chained up with thick heavy chains & wear thick collars, they are dogs not monsters a normal harness/collar lead is all that's required.

Beautiful dogs shame about so many of their owners.

Daddy was actually an American Bully/American Staffordshire Terrier rather than an APBT, Junior I would also say is an Am Staff. Its very rare for a blue dog to be an APBT as blue was traditionally culled out or rarely bred from. Also another tell tale sign is that you rarely ever see cropped ears on an ABPT.

I guess when they are conditioned they are conditioned as they would bee for fighting, but are used instead for sports or hunting.

Thick collars are needed as they are usually encouraged to pull, again to help build up muscle, if normal width collars are used then the dog is likely to damage its neck and throat.

Here is my favourite bitch. OMK's Little Sky

Yup, ANY short or stout dog is NOT a pit bull bred from true APBT game lines. Pit bulls are NOT always APBT. Sorry about it, but it's facts. Also, these dogs are surely not fighting dogs as I don't see scars on them and they don't have crops.

Fighting dogs almost always have short "battle" crops. APBT true to type are rarely kept as just indoor pets, and if you owned one... you'd know why. No blues or "greys", no crooked legs, and NO stout looking dogs. What you had 6JRT's weren't APBT, they were "pit bulls" which is totally different.

This is why the TRUE APBT has fallen out of fashion, because people would rather have a "pit bull" than a true working grade APBT. I don't like the chaining them up and whatnot, but as I've said... these are working dogs and truly don't often do well indoors when kept like Pomeranians.

Junior is an American Bully with his stubby build and blueish coloring. That ugly "blue" color you're seeing is the Gottiline or Razors Edge type stuff. American Bully lines. True APBT aren't blue. Jocko, RedBoy, Red Rum, Colby, Chinaman, Spike, etc. REAL lines of APBT are not blue.

The true APBT is a rare breed these days, so I appreciate seeing real ones in condition instead of the short, stout dogs I keep seeing that people are calling pit bulls when really they are closer to Bandogges or American Staffords. They are barely even healthy half the time...

Going edit to say... When a dog is on a spring pole etc. it shouldn't be allowed to hang without being able to touch the ground with it's legs. Any APBT owner should know that and stop trying to show off like that. The dog should NOT be hanging way above the ground like that. I DO hate seeing that.

Excellent post Katie, with some fantastic looking dogs! With obesity in dogs on the increase, people really need to know what a fit, conditioned, dog looks like.

My boy isn't an APBT, but if you look at his body in the picture below you can see how well defined his muscles are. He's rock solid. Although, I would say he's a few pounds overweight to be honest. But it seems to be more "middle aged spread" then anything



Coming towards you, you can see his muscle tone in his back legs especially.

It seem a lot of people think cropping is done for fighting dogs but actually in a fight having full ears is a good advantage. Yes ears bleed a lot if ripped but in a fight if the ears of dog #1 are grabbed and held onto then it is very easy for #1 to swing its head underneath and grab dog #2's throat which would be a very good advantage to a fighting dog

I dont mind seeing a dog hanging on a springpole personally as long as it is not too high from the ground and there is someone close by. When the dog is able to touch the floor it gives good muscle build up but hanging increases the core muscles and also the jumping is practiced a lot for competitions.

He is a lovely boy, is he a cross?

This is my Staff x Whippet boy, 9 - 10 years old roughly He could lose a few lbs and get a bit toned again too, need to get him out on bike rides and wold like to do some endurance weight pulling with him but I know what people are like for criticizing around here








And when we first got him about 7 or 8 years ago

He's a Lurcher type. Whippet/Saluki/Lab But he's so muscular, and I think he resembles a bull Lurcher more then your typical skinny Whippet/Saluki mixes.

Your boy looks great! You can blame any excess weight gain he has on "middle age spread" too

Hi kitkat. Could you tell me the details of your conditioning program for Tea please? That's an amazing improvement for 3 weeks work.
Thank you

Hi kitkat. Could you tell me the details of your conditioning program for Tea please? That's an amazing improvement for 3 weeks work.
Thank you

She isn't my dog, just the example used in the post I shared

Oh okay. Thanks anyway. ☺

Very good thread.

This is a great post. I've been there with the starving or fighting dog comments. A lot of people are ignorant on the subject.

But I see some questionable stuff. You aren't supposed to let them hang like that and the huge chains arent necessary