Fat camp helps canine couch potatoes

Let's see, are they fat from an infection, culture, ethnicity, the built environment, lack of access to certain types of food stores, the dog school lunch program...

Before attending day camp, the 2-year-old would lie on the couch all day, leaving his comfy cushion only to eat meals. Rocky also has eaten rocks, three remote controls and a smoke detector, incidents that required a hospital visit and emergency surgery.

The 113-pound yellow Labrador retriever represents the 45 percent of the nation's dogs that are overweight or obese, according to the most recent study by the Association for the Prevention of Pet Obesity. An even larger number of cats - 58 percent - are overweight or obese. According to the study, 6.7 million dogs are estimated to be obese and 34.9 million overweight. Again cats rank higher, with 20 million estimated to be obese and 54.3 million overweight.

"Rocky is a food-motivated dog," said Pat Paretti, Rocky's owner. "If you call him and he doesn't feel like moving, but then you tell him, 'Rocky, I have a cookie,' he comes running."

Uh-huh.

What can it possibly be?

I wonder.