A body condition score (BCS) is a method for assessing a dog’s body composition, particularly body fat percentage (% BF), and for estimating the degree of overweight and underweight. A scale of 1 to 9 is effective for dogs and cats (Laflamme D 1997a, Laflamme D 1997b).

Please refer to Step 3c for guidance on how to adjust your dog’s weight to compensate for a BCS that does not equal 4 or 5.