2026 Pet Obesity Communication Guidelines

Pet-first language, respectful images, and accurate communication about overweight and obesity in dogs and cats.

Ernie Ward, DVM ORCID iD

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Version 2.0 · Published September 2026 · Association for Pet Obesity Prevention · doi:10.68316/apop.0002

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Ward E. 2026 Pet Obesity Communication Guidelines. Version 2.0. Leland, NC: Association for Pet Obesity Prevention; 2026. doi:10.68316/apop.0002

https://doi.org/10.68316/apop.0002

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APA 7th

Ward, E. (2026). 2026 Pet Obesity Communication Guidelines (Version 2.0). Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. https://doi.org/10.68316/apop.0002

Harvard

Ward, E. (2026) 2026 Pet Obesity Communication Guidelines. Version 2.0. Leland, NC: Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. Available at: https://doi.org/10.68316/apop.0002

MLA 9th

Ward, Ernie. 2026 Pet Obesity Communication Guidelines. Association for Pet Obesity Prevention, 2026, https://doi.org/10.68316/apop.0002.

Chicago

Ward, Ernie. 2026. 2026 Pet Obesity Communication Guidelines. Leland, NC: Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. https://doi.org/10.68316/apop.0002.

RIS, for EndNote, Zotero and Mendeley

TY  - RPRT
AU  - Ward, Ernie
TI  - 2026 Pet Obesity Communication Guidelines
PY  - 2026
ET  - Version 2.0
PB  - Association for Pet Obesity Prevention
CY  - Leland, NC
DO  - 10.68316/apop.0002
UR  - https://doi.org/10.68316/apop.0002
ER  -

BibTeX

@techreport{ward2026pocg,
  author      = {Ward, Ernie},
  title       = {2026 Pet Obesity Communication Guidelines},
  institution = {Association for Pet Obesity Prevention},
  address     = {Leland, NC},
  year        = {2026},
  note        = {Version 2.0},
  doi         = {10.68316/apop.0002},
  url         = {https://doi.org/10.68316/apop.0002}
}

License: CC BY-ND 4.0. Share it unchanged, with credit. Translations are welcome with authorization from info@petobesityprevention.org.

What is in the guide

Every section, what it covers, and its page number in the PDF.

Forty-seven pages, organized so that each reader can go straight to their own part. Page numbers refer to the PDF.

Start here: the guide at a glanceThe standard, five rules, the four terms, and a quick check before you speak, write, or publish.p. 5 A note from the authorWhy precise words matter in the exam room, and what changed one veterinarian’s mind.p. 3 · also on this page

Words and terms

  • Pet-first and person-first languageDescribe the condition without making it the pet’s identity.01 · p. 8
  • The four termsOverweight, obesity, preclinical obesity, and clinical obesity, and the two-step method that separates them.07 · p. 32
  • One standard for people and petsWhat each audience can do to promote respectful communication about obesity.p. 41

For each audience

  • Journalists and editorsHeadlines, statistics, cause and effect, and expert quotes.02 · p. 12
  • Marketers and campaign teamsHealth benefits, message planning, and checking with readers.03 · p. 17
  • Veterinary teamsListen, explain what the examination shows, and agree on a next step.05 · p. 25
  • Pet ownersWhat to expect from a veterinary visit, and what to ask.06 · p. 29

Images, tools, and sources

  • Images and storiesChoosing images, getting permission, before-and-after comparisons, and labeling AI-generated content.04 · p. 21
  • Adopting the standardChecklists, a sample policy, and ways to suggest corrections.08 · p. 38
  • References and practical resources62 sources with access dates and a statement of how each was used.p. 42
  • About this editionHow the guide was reviewed, disclosures, and changes from 2025.p. 45

A note from the author

I’ve been having this conversation my entire career.

A pet comes in for vaccines. I run my hands along the ribs, feel the abdomen, check the waist. And I know, before I’ve finished this part of the exam, that the words I am about to say will be remembered more than anything else I cover during that appointment. The pet owner knows it too. You can see them tense up.

For years, I made that moment worse without meaning to. I led with the usual body-size label, “obese,” just as I’d heard my professors use it, read it in textbooks and journals, and seen it in ads. After I said the word out loud, I usually followed with a joke and an apology, and moved on to another topic. Both of us were relieved. But I had done nothing for the pet in front of us.

What changed my mind wasn’t a study. It was listening. Pet owners repeat back the words they are given, and the words they repeat are chonky, fluffy, big-boned, and well-fed. They learned them from us. We had chosen the easier words, and then we wondered why nothing changed. I had minimized a consequential disease because saying it precisely and seriously made me uncomfortable.

The science has moved a long way over the past 20 years. We can now determine what obesity is in a given animal: a disease in some, a risk state in others, and a body-condition finding in many more. The words veterinary professionals use have not kept up with the science. We still use one word, obesity, for all three, and we still turn it into a label, obese, that we attach to the animal rather than to the finding.

This guide aims to close that gap. We are already good at being gentle. Where we fall short is precision. A dog with a body-condition score of 8 out of 9 and difficulty climbing stairs, or a cat scoring 9 out of 9 that struggles to hop onto the couch, is better served by an accurate sentence than a euphemism. The euphemism feels kind in the room. The accurate sentence is respectful for the years that follow.

You’ll find the evidence reported honestly here, including where it is lacking. Changing one word will not change a patient’s body condition. Nor will it magically improve treatment adherence or outcomes. But the words decide whether the conversation happens at all, what goes into the record, what the next clinician reads, and what the pet owner remembers on the drive home. That’s worth getting right.

Ernie Ward, DVM

About this edition

The 2026 Pet Obesity Communication Guidelines set one standard for how veterinary teams, journalists, marketers, researchers, organizations, and pet owners write and speak about overweight and obesity in dogs and cats. They cover pet-first and person-first language, respectful images and stories, accurate reporting of body condition and prevalence figures, exam-room conversations, and the plain-language meaning of overweight, obesity, preclinical obesity, and clinical obesity.

This edition replaces Guidelines for Pet Obesity Communication: Promoting Respectful Communication about Animal Obesity (2025), which remains available as an archived PDF marked superseded. The next scheduled review is 2028, or earlier if a major evidence, consensus, regulatory, or communication change affects a core recommendation.

What changed from the 2025 edition 10 changes
  • The four weight terms now open with a formal definition sentence each: overweight, obesity used descriptively, preclinical obesity, and clinical obesity, aligned with the World Pet Obesity Association clinical obesity framework.
  • A documented route for cases where the assessment is incomplete: obesity with the stage undetermined.
  • A two-step method separating the body-condition finding from the question of whether excess adiposity is affecting health, with the Three A’s recorded for each animal.
  • New guidance on reporting prevalence figures without overstating them, including a worked example using APOP’s own survey data.
  • Expanded guidance on images and stories, covering permissions, before-and-after comparisons, and labeling AI-generated content.
  • A section written for pet owners on what to expect from a veterinary visit and what to ask.
  • A note for research authors on wording study groups, tables, and figures.
  • A note from the author opens the guide, and the author’s note and the evidence for pet-first wording draw on human-medicine studies of how a single term changes clinical judgment, labeled as such.
  • Nine figures, including the four terms on the 9-point body-condition scale, a finding-versus-diagnosis-versus-identity figure, and a two-step figure with the BCS ranges defined. Each diagram carries its source and license line so it can be shared on its own; see Figures to download.
  • Fully referenced throughout, with access dates and a statement of how each source was used.

This page records the 2026 edition and is not updated. For the current edition, the interactive tools, and the ready-to-post images, see Pet Obesity Communication Guidelines.

Clinical resource suite

Four diagrams from the guide, ready to reuse in slides, documents, and web pages. Each carries its source line and license, so it can travel on its own: share unchanged, with credit (CC BY-ND 4.0). Select a diagram to view it larger.

The four terms on the body-condition scale Figure 1 in the guide · CC BY-ND 4.0 · © 2026 APOP The four terms on the 9-point body-condition scale: underweight, body-condition score (BCS) 1–3; ideal, BCS 4–5; overweight, BCS 6–7; obesity range, BCS 8–9. BCS describes body fat; in the obesity range, the assessment decides which term applies.
Finding, diagnosis, identity: three different things Figure 3 in the guide · CC BY-ND 4.0 · © 2026 APOP A finding, a diagnosis, and an identity are three different things. The first two belong in every record. The third belongs in none.
Two steps: describe the body condition, then assess health Figure 8 in the guide · CC BY-ND 4.0 · © 2026 APOP Two steps: describe the body condition on the 9-point scale, where body-condition score (BCS) 1–3 is underweight, 4–5 ideal, 6–7 overweight, and 8–9 the obesity range; then, for BCS 8–9, assess whether excess body fat is affecting health. The record says only what was assessed.
The Three A’s of clinical obesity Figure 9 in the guide · CC BY-ND 4.0 · © 2026 APOP The Three A’s of clinical obesity: adiposity, abnormality, and attribution. All three are needed for a diagnosis of clinical obesity. The wording follows the guide’s definitions of the four terms and the World Pet Obesity Association (WPOA) clinical obesity framework.

Download the figure pack

One ZIP with all four diagrams as PNG (for slides, documents, and social posts), SVG (sharp at any size), and print-quality PDF, plus the two illustrations from the images and pet-owner parts of the guide. The PNG and SVG buttons above are made in your browser; the pack is the same set, ready to keep.

Download the figure pack (ZIP)

Figure

Figure pack (ZIP)

The Three A’s of clinical obesity

The Three A’s are a diagnostic framework, and this is a communication guide, so the reason they appear here is narrow: they explain why the four terms are not interchangeable. Adiposity is what a body-condition score measures. Abnormality is a separate clinical finding. Attribution is the judgment linking them in this animal. Each term describes how far that sequence has been taken, which is why “obesity” and “clinical obesity” are not two ways of saying the same thing. Select each one for what to check, what to record, and what to say.

all three are presentClinical obesity
the assessment is complete and no adiposity-related illness is identifiedPreclinical obesity
the assessment is incomplete, or the link remains uncertainObesity, stage undetermined
The three outcomes: what to record, and what you could say

Preclinical obesity

Record. BCS [body-condition score/scale]. Assessment completed: [history, examination, function review, indicated tests]. No current adiposity-related illness identified. Record unrelated conditions, management, and review.

“The checks we completed today did not identify a current problem linked to the excess body fat. We still need a plan to treat her preclinical obesity and keep checking her health.”

Clinical obesity

Record. BCS [body-condition score/scale]. Meaningful abnormality: [finding and method]. Excess body fat plausibly contributes because [patient-specific reasons]. Other possible explanations: [findings and conclusions]. Record treatment of both the excess body fat and the health problem, and the recheck plan.

“What we found supports excess body fat as causing or worsening his problem. We’ll treat both the clinical obesity and his other health problem.”

Obesity, stage undetermined

Record. BCS [body-condition score/scale]. Incomplete assessment or unresolved attribution: [specific item and reason]. Record the care plan, what to do meanwhile, remaining checks, and follow-up.

“We do not yet know whether the excess body fat is contributing to her current health problem. We can begin treatment while completing the assessment of the other problem.”

These examples show the structure of a record, not a complete patient record. Replace bracketed prompts with actual findings. Neither step should delay appropriate care for excess body fat, pain, or other disease. The categories are not a validated scale of severity and do not, by themselves, determine which pets are eligible to receive treatment.

Adiposity: body fat

Is body fat in the obesity range, and how was that assessed?

What it means

Adiposity means the amount of body fat. Adipose tissue is the tissue itself. Neither term alone means excess fat or illness. Excess adiposity means body fat above the ideal range identified by a stated method, including the overweight and obesity ranges used in this guide.

How it is assessed

A trained assessment by sight and touch, using a validated body-condition score (BCS) chart, estimates body fat. It does not directly measure fat mass, percentage, distribution, or how fat tissue functions. On the 9-point body-condition scale, scores of 6–7/9 usually indicate the overweight range and 8–9/9 the obesity range.

Body weight remains useful alongside BCS, muscle condition, and clinical findings. It includes fat, muscle, bone, water, and other tissues. Do not equate a weight change with measured fat loss, or a body-condition finding with adiposity-related illness.

What to record

Record body fat in the obesity range, how it was assessed, and the body-condition score or other finding. Check results that are borderline or do not fit the rest of the assessment. BCS alone does not diagnose clinical obesity.

Say it plainly

Explain adiposity as body fat and excess adiposity as excess body fat.

Abnormality: a health or function problem

Is there a current, clinically meaningful problem beyond the body-condition score?

What counts

A current, clinically meaningful problem beyond BCS, such as dysfunction, functional limitation, or quality-of-life impairment. State how it was assessed. Risk alone or an isolated mild test result is insufficient.

What a defined, clinically appropriate assessment includes

What counts depends on the patient, but it is not body-condition scoring alone. At minimum it includes the body weight trend, body-condition and muscle-condition scores, a structured nutritional history, a physical examination, a review of function and quality of life, and the baseline laboratory testing indicated for that animal. Record what was done. If an indicated part of that assessment was not completed, the stage is undetermined rather than preclinical.

Keep it separate from the other two

An examination or test can establish and document an abnormality; it does not establish attribution to excess adiposity on its own. An abnormality found in a pet in the overweight range is evaluated and documented separately; it does not by itself establish clinical obesity.

Attribution: the link to excess body fat

Does excess body fat plausibly explain this pet’s problem, after considering the alternatives?

What it means

Explain why excess body fat plausibly caused, worsened, or sustained this pet’s problem. Consider the timing, how fat could contribute through its biological or physical effects, and other relevant explanations. It need not be the only cause.

Its limits

Improvement as body fat is reduced can strengthen the suspected link, but cannot prove it alone. A reasonable explanation for one patient does not prove cause and effect across a population.

What to record

BCS [body-condition score/scale]. Meaningful abnormality: [finding and method]. Excess body fat plausibly contributes because [patient-specific reasons]. Other possible explanations: [findings and conclusions]. Record treatment of both the excess body fat and the health problem, and the recheck plan.

What you could say

“What we found supports excess body fat as causing or worsening his problem. We’ll treat both the clinical obesity and his other health problem.”

References

The guide cites 62 sources: veterinary research and guidance, human evidence used with stated limits, and communication resources. The list below is the same list as in the PDF (pp. 42–44), where each entry also carries its access date and a statement of how the source was used. Links go to the publisher’s record.

Show all 62 references
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Publication details

ItemDetail
Title2026 Pet Obesity Communication Guidelines
SubtitlePet-First Language, Respectful Images, and Accurate Communication About Overweight and Obesity in Dogs and Cats
Version2.0
PublishedSeptember 2026
PublisherAssociation for Pet Obesity Prevention, Leland, NC, USA
AuthorErnie Ward, DVM
https://orcid.org/0009-0009-6665-4625
ReplacesGuidelines for Pet Obesity Communication: Promoting Respectful Communication about Animal Obesity (2025)
Next review2028
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.68316/apop.0002
Archive copyZenodo record
LicenseCC BY-ND 4.0

Corrections to this edition

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Send comments, corrections, or questions to info@petobesityprevention.org.

Scope. This is a communication guide. It is not a diagnostic or treatment guideline, and it does not replace patient-specific veterinary judgment; diagnosis and management decisions rest with the attending veterinary team. Clinical definitions are cited from the World Pet Obesity Association clinical obesity framework and other published sources; references to any organization, publication, or product are for identification and attribution only and do not imply endorsement, sponsorship, or affiliation in either direction.

Reuse and translation. This edition is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license (CC BY-ND 4.0). You may share it, including commercially, provided it is unchanged and APOP is credited. Translations are derivative works and are not covered by the license, but we welcome them: contact info@petobesityprevention.org for authorization, normally granted at no charge, so that the translated wording can be checked before release.

Association for Pet Obesity Prevention

© 2026 Association for Pet Obesity Prevention, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, Leland, NC. Brief excerpts with attribution are encouraged for education, journalism, and policy work. Privacy policy · info@petobesityprevention.org