https://www.bbc.com/future/article/...earn-from-overweight-pets-about-human-obesity
This is a very interesting article which talks about studying obesity in pets (including labradors) as a possible way of getting insights into obesity in humans. Despite the title, the article goes on to discuss other putative contributors to obesity such as antibiotic use, food additives, sleep debt, light pollution, BPA, and processed meals with large portion sizes and ingredients that tap into our reward pathways.
Eleanor Raffan, one of the researchers who discovered the gene which contributes to some labradors getting fat suggests giving meals that are more satiating and the use of puzzle feeders which allow the dogs to exhibit their genetically driven food-seeking behaviour whilst restricting the amount of food they can obtain. The article summarises her view as ' ...
we shouldn’t view obesity as some sort of moral failing in either owners or their pets'. She is then quoted as saying, "
We’re so used to condemning humans who are overweight as being just greedy and weak-willed ... but, this is inaccurate: eating behaviour is susceptible to genetic drives – and dogs are an example of this ... Dogs don’t make value judgments. They eat because they’re hungry and this variability in dogs is hardwired.”