Like many of you, I read this forum from time to time and seem to be attracted to the threads dealing with everyone's favorite subject - FOOD.

What to feed? What do you feed? Have you ever fed....? the questions and comments go on and on kindling a debate which will linger for a long time.

It dawned on me this morning as I was scooping the remains of the expensive food I buy for the crew, what did we feed before the marketing folks got a hold of the pet food industry?

Oh yes, make no mistake, the marketing and advertising do little to educate but rather sell us on some such idea. It comes in waves over time too. Holistic, human grade, all natural, grain free, vegetarian, and on and on and on.....

If you fed dogs for more than 20 yrs, you can clearly remember there being very little choice in the way of dog food. Our labs had nice coats and life went on. In fact, I think conception rates were higher too. Purina Dog chow, Waynes, perhaps a few others were our choices and they worked fine. Why do we feel it is in the dog's best interest to feed grain-free? Do dogs really benefit from all of this man-made input? Are our dogs healthier? Do they live longer? Are incidences of cancer down?

From the posts written here, it appears not. Dogs suffer from allergies, gunky ears, cancer and all the rest.

Perhaps we need to buy food which makes sense and believe less from the very expensive marketing folks selling us something. Think about the next dog show you attend and think about the sales booth Eukanuba or Purina has out. Who pays for that? Who pays for the giveaways? Who pays the salaries of all the reps? Why so much effort put into selling us a food? PROFITS are sky high and the dogs still are not really benefitting.

Just a thought.

To answer one question: Yes dogs are living longer and it is due to food and medical care. Because of this more problems will be found due to longer lives just like in humans. Do I think all the tweaking is causing allergies and other items - Yes. Just like anything you keep trying to improve you bring out other problems. Thats why we continue to breed to improve our lines and continue to look for the best solutions- food, supplements, medical. And I do not agree that litter sizes are smaller or mortality rates are down.

Living longer due to medical advancements I would buy.

I do not buy that they are living longer due to food.

My childhood dogs lived LONG lives. Mom fed them off the table 100%. When I got my own dogs as an adult, that was the biggest sin around. Now folks will admit that feeding healthy human food is good.

Food is a trend. But I would not attribute longer life to it.

Food ,food , food, bored , bored , bored.

Food is not everyones favorite subject , just those new to the breed. Find ONE food , and stick to it , feed it as long as your dogs look good on it . If you make the best choice for your dogs, that will be forever, there is NO ONE BEST food for every dog, most show dogs eat Performance food , that is 30%-20% .A dog receiving the right amount of excercise needs that ratio to build muscle. They only get fat on it , if they are standing around in a kennel run or living in a crate[OMG} ! If one dog has allergies , spay/neuter that dog, move it on, it is no longer breeding stock, it is a pet that will be better off in a pampered pet home, and stay focused on your goals. All of this changing food business really only does one thing, it upsets your dogs digestion. Nothing else.
There is a real pattern to the "foodies" , they are in dogs less than 5 years, on average, and they "think" feeding the "right" food will give them an edge. News flash, that is a bunch of bunk !
If you want to give your dogs an edge in the ring, TRAIN , condition, and TRAIN some more.

Hell, I remember the early commercial foods like Gainsburgers, Gravy Train kibble, Dr. Ballards - the first canned food, and my grandmother standing at the kitchen sink peeling potatoes and the dogs at her feet waiting to catch them, supper leftovers dumped into dishes for them and the gravy poured over top......were the dogs healthier? Nope. Swollen ears, diet intolerances, and lots of mushy stools.

Medically, we (generic we) see a lot of different types of ailments now - lots related to old age. Our dogs live so long, it's their bodies/joints that fail them, while the heart and internal organs are still going strong. They are still basically healthy, just REALLY aged.

Dog food companies are big business. It's well worth their while to put out a product that does what they say it does. Research has shown what foods animals do best on; the first commercial foods were formulated to use up scrap and garbage ingredients and were marketed for people on tighter budgets. They were designed to appeal to the humans feeding the dogs - not the dogs (Gainsburgers? REALLY?). Big advertising budgets don't impress me; how the food works with my dogs does. I think that rotating foods within a brand is the way to go, not rotating between different companies/products. I've tried lots of brands of kibbles in many years gone by; I like what I've been using for almost a decade now.