A 10 stone dog which refused to go on walks and was too fat to play fetch has a new lease of life – after shedding almost HALF its bodyweight.
Shiloh the Labrador ballooned to 146lbs – twice the average weight for his breed – after being fed large portions all his life.
But in October last year the podgy pup was taken in by photographer Heidi Fiore, 42, after she spotted an appeal on Facebook.
The mum-of-three slashed his food intake to two meals of dog food and vegetables a day and started taking him for walks.
At first the stubborn pooch would beg for snacks, lie down mid-walk, refuse to budge for 30 minutes and even shy away from playing fetch.
He lost 8lbs in the first two weeks and now, 11 months later, has dropped a further four stone (60lbs) and weighs roughly six stone (86lbs).
Shiloh walks up to two miles a day but Heidi admits he is still obsessed with food and will do whatever he can to get his paws on it – including rummaging through bins and raiding the fridge.
Heidi, a librarian of Massachusetts, US, said: “Even when Shiloh was overweight, everybody loved him.
“But it has been really amazing to watch him have more energy and just be a normal Labrador.
“When we first saw him I thought he looked like a bear or a pig. He was enormous but he was so excited to see us – his tail was wagging.
“It seemed like he had no idea how big he was.
“We agreed he seemed like a good boy and we felt like we could help him, so we decided to take him in.
“We took him to the vet the next day and he was 146lbs. Everybody who saw him was in shock at how big he was, including the vet.
“We threw out his old food and scoop, which was enormous, and put him on a diet of two scoops of healthy food a day with vegetables like peas or green beans.
“He lost 8lbs in the first two weeks.”
Heidi, her husband retail manager Joe Fiore, 45, and three children Corey, 20, Callia, eight and Freddy, four, also took Shiloh out on regular walks.
But he had no energy at first – not even to play fetch.
Heidi said: “When we walked him he could barely make it to the end of the street without stopping to take a break. It would be every 80ft, he would plop down and refuse to budge.
“He would sometimes lie there for 30 minutes and I couldn’t get him up, so I would have to call my husband and we would take him home in the car.
“With time he got better and now he can walk two miles.
“He didn’t play when we first got him. He had no interest in chasing a ball or a stick.
“The transformation is amazing.”
Eight-year-old Shiloh still has saggy skin from where he lost so much weight and vets have suggested plastic surgery to remove it.
Heidi added that helping him lose weight has been easier that shedding the pounds herself – because she’s controlling what goes in his mouth.
But the cheeky canine still manages to flout the rules whenever his owners aren’t looking.
Heidi added: “He is still obsessed with food. The kids have left the fridge open and he will jump up and eat everything.
“He jumped up in a neighbor’s kitchen and ate a plate of cookies and he gets into the trash to find scraps.
“We do a lot of walks around town and go to the beach. His latest thing is he goes down there and looks for crabs and eats them whole.
“He really loves food – I don’t think we’ll ever change that.”
