My take on this is that the big three dog food companies have the budget for food scientists and a reputation to protect. After all the scares with boutique brands, I would only ever feed my dog food from Purina, Mars, or Hills.
For training, I use either their normal kibble if the dog is sufficiently food motivated, or string cheese.
The only treats my dogs get are to lick the plate if it’s suitable.
> My take on this is that the big three dog food companies have the budget for food scientists and a reputation to protect.
When we first got our pup and had her in for her initial vet check-up, the vet went over all the fancy-ass boutique brands of dog food that were all natural and holistic and organic, blah, blah blah. I said that all seemed a bit silly to me and I'd rather feed my dog kibble unless it was definitely unhealthy for her. The vet then said, "yeah, honestly, that's what I feed my dogs. But people like to get sold all this stuff, so..."
Again, caveats a mile long. No RCT, no systematic reporting, overall small number of cases…but there is at least some association with super fancy boutique diets and dilated cardiomyopathy.
But beyond that: not exactly swimming in good evidence that feeding dogs something beyond, I dunno, Purina Pro Plan, ends up in significantly better health outcomes for dogs. I mean, I love my dog, I'd do a lot for my dog, but there better be a stack of evidence a mile high that I should be paying 3x or 4x for boutique dog food. From everything I can see, keeping him lean and active is going to do a lot more than getting some “paleo” dog food that’s hyped by a TikTok influencer.
Unfortunately my dog is somewhere between "brat" and "so fraught with digestion issues" that she gets the fancy stuff with a mix of dry and wet.
In the hopes of this not being entirely low-quality reply: sometimes the fancy stuff is needed / better, but also I think younger people especially want to give their dog something good and not feel like slop that the dog doesn't enjoy. I personally wouldn't give a normal healthy dog any of the mega-brand stuff because of how much filler and crap there apparently is.
I'd much rather feed my dog a custom raw diet than subject them to bunch of filler and grinded up bones tbh. Pet food brands have a steep hill to climb to shake off the impression it is just like garbage-tier materials grinded up.
Yeah, my dogs both ate Purina One at the rescues where I got them, so I just kept them on that. Once my older dog got to about 6 years old, he started having loose stool, so I switched him to Taste of the Wild, and that's been better. In general as long as your dog is healthy and pooping fine, there's no need to buy ultra-fancy foods.
For training, I use either their normal kibble if the dog is sufficiently food motivated, or string cheese.
The only treats my dogs get are to lick the plate if it’s suitable.