Pet Obesity Communication Guidelines
The World Pet Obesity Association uses and recommends the 2026 Pet Obesity Communication Guidelines, Version 2.0, published by the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. This page is the quick reference. The complete guide, the wording checker, practice scenarios, and ready-to-post images are on APOP’s site.
Version 2.0 · September 2026 · doi.org/10.68316/apop.0002 · CC BY-ND 4.0: free to share, unchanged, with credit
Five rules for talking about pet obesity
The standard in one sentence: communicate about pet obesity as a medical condition, using pet-first, nonjudgmental, evidence-based language that focuses on health, body condition, quality of life, and veterinary-supported care.
Name the pet first
Say “a dog with obesity,” not “an obese dog.” The condition is something the pet has, not what the pet is. The same applies to people: “a person with obesity.”
Use the four terms precisely
Overweight, obesity, preclinical obesity, and clinical obesity are not interchangeable. Excess adiposity is a finding; clinical obesity is a diagnosis. Definitions are below.
Lead with body condition, not body weight
Report body-condition score and muscle condition, and frame progress as improved body condition, mobility, and quality of life rather than pounds lost.
Treat obesity as a multifactorial disease
Genetics, hormones, comorbidities, environment, diet, and activity all contribute. Do not reduce it to overfeeding, and do not assign blame to owners or pets.
Choose respectful images and stories
Show health, dignity, and veterinary partnership. No ridicule, no “before and after” built on weight alone, and label AI-generated images as such.
| Use | Avoid |
|---|---|
| A dog with obesity | |
| A cat with excess body fat | |
| A cat with preclinical obesity | |
| A healthier body condition | |
| Reduce excess fat while preserving muscle | |
| Weight management with veterinary support |
The four terms
A body-condition score identifies excess body fat. Whether that excess has become a disease in this patient is a separate clinical question, answered by a documented abnormality and plausible attribution, not by the chart alone.
Overweight
A body-condition category, not a disease stage: more body fat than the ideal range but below the usual obesity range, with no obesity-related dysfunction established by body-condition score alone.
Weight management begins here.
Obesity (descriptive)
Documented excess adiposity recorded before the clinical classification has been completed: a clinically important finding and a potential disease process, but not yet a disease-stage diagnosis.
Use it whenever the assessment has not yet been done.
Preclinical obesity
Excess adiposity in the obesity range with preserved function of tissues and organs, carrying an increased risk of progression to clinical obesity and to other adiposity-related diseases.
Not “metabolically normal,” and not a reason to wait: begin structured weight management and reassess.
Clinical obesity
A chronic, systemic illness in which excess adiposity in the obesity range alters the function of tissues, organs, or the whole animal, or diminishes quality of life, in an individual dog or cat.
All three A’s must be documented in that patient. Treat adiposity as a therapeutic priority alongside concurrent conditions.
The clinical framework behind these terms, including how to stage a patient, is in the WPOA guide to diagnosing and classifying clinical obesity.
Where the 2025 sections now live
The 2025 edition of these guidelines was published on this page in 15 sections. The 2026 edition reorganizes that material by audience. Section and page numbers refer to the 2026 PDF.
| 2025 section | In the 2026 edition |
|---|---|
| 01 Introduction | Start at the 2026 guidelines front page, which routes each audience to its own section. |
| 02 Avoid “obese”; use pet-first language | §01 Pet-first and person-first language, p. 8 · test a draft with the wording checker |
| 03 The four terms | §07 The four terms and the two-step method, p. 32 · interactive definitions |
| 04 Body condition, not weight | §07, p. 32 · BCS and MCS charts |
| 05 Balanced, accurate coverage | §02 Journalists and editors, p. 12: headlines, statistics, cause and effect, expert quotes |
| 06 Respect diversity; avoid stereotypes | §04 Images and stories, p. 21 |
| 07 Context and visuals | §04 Images and stories, p. 21: choosing images, permissions, before-and-after comparisons, AI-generated content |
| 08 Media and advertisers | §03 Marketers and campaign teams, p. 17 |
| 09 Representation and imagery | §04, p. 21 · ready-to-post images |
| 10 Collaborations with experts | §02, p. 12 (expert quotes) and §08 Adopting the standard, p. 38 |
| 11 Compassionate campaigns | §03 Marketers and campaign teams, p. 17 |
| 12 Ethical considerations | §08 Adopting the standard, p. 38, including a sample policy |
| 13 Myths and misconceptions | §05 Veterinary teams, p. 25 · practice scenarios |
| 14 Call to action | One standard for people and pets, p. 41 |
| 15 Select references | All 62 references, linked to their DOIs |
Previous edition and what changed
Guidelines for Pet Obesity Communication: Promoting Respectful Communication about Animal Obesity (2025) is replaced by Version 2.0. The archived PDF opens with a notice that it is superseded and is kept for reference and citation only.
Related tools
Clinical obesity
How clinical obesity is defined, diagnosed, and classified, and how it fits with the four terms above.
Read the clinical guideBCS and MCS charts
Species-specific body-condition and muscle-condition score charts for the exam room.
Open the chartsCalculators and tools
Feeding, energy, and body-condition tools for veterinary teams and pet owners.
Open the calculatorsCite the guidelines
Ward E. 2026 Pet Obesity Communication Guidelines. Version 2.0. Leland, NC: Association for Pet Obesity Prevention; 2026. https://doi.org/10.68316/apop.0002
Published by the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 license. Translations require written authorization from the publisher.