Eating and fat problem

[Sambelyna]

I have a beagle name Dongdong. I suspected he had abit mix Basset hound. He is 1 year 8 months now. He been neuter when he was 10 months old. I walked and sometime run with him 2 hours a day. Every Saturday I bring him to hiking for about 3hours. He is strong and active dog. Usually I walk him with unleash. He had a very good sense of food, he can smell food from far away. He always eat food from the garbage(bad food). When I found him eating garbage he eat so fast and sometime together with the plastic bag. He likes to eat. His tummy is getting bigger, like beer tummy. The problem I’m having now is he getting fat.

I had attached 2 of his photo, when he was March 2009 and April 2010. Can you see the different?

[MaxHollyNoah]

Hi Sambelyna,

Your Beagle/Basset is cute and I don't see him being too fat (of course it's hard to tell from a picture). I am not so worried about him getting overweight since he is getting a lot of excercise.

Beagles are known for following their nose (scent) and getting lost and/or eating bad stuff. I am rather concerned that your dog is eating toxic foods (raw salmon, etc.) and non-food (plastics, etc.) and will get sick or seriously ill by having something stuck in his intestines. I know a Basset Hound that had to go through a surgery after eating a plastic/latex glove.

Is there a lot of garbage on the streets where you live? If so, I would leash him so that I can prevent him from eating something from the ground. In the mean time, I would teach him "leave it" command. Please take this bad habit seriously and don't let him loose where there are garbage, etc. for his own sake.