Obesity is becoming one of the most common nutritional disorders in companion animals, often the result of either excessive food intake or inadequate physical activity. Veterinary health experts have an important message for pet parents. They urge them to recognise the importance of companionship, training and exercise, and the role this plays in enriching their pets’ lives instead of simply stuffing them with food. Many people work long hours which means spending less time with their pet and they often feed their pet extra treats to make up for their absence. This will, in the long term, have detrimental effects on the pet’s weight and thereby their health.