A few months ago, the owner of a small, premium pet food company remarked to me, "If the giant food companies ever started using top-quality ingredients - the kinds of things that are in your Top Dry Foods' selections - all of us little guys' are going to be out of business."

Actually, it has begun; the big dogs of the pet food industry are starting to develop products that contain the sorts of ingredients that Whole Dog Journal has celebrated for the past five years - things like fresh, whole meats, vegetables, fruits, and grains; organically raised meat and poultry; health­ful herbs; and natural colloidal trace minerals.

Fortunately for all the small makers of premium foods, the ones who have been committed to achieving truly excellent product for years, the giant food conglomerates have not really put all the pieces together yet.

How should you select your dog's food? When you walk into your local pet food store, and walk the miles of aisles of stacks of bags, what is it that makes you grab that sack, and not any of the others? Is it:

Price?

Label claims or package appearance?

The recommendation of a friend?

Your veterinarian's prescription?

Bzzzzzzzzt!!  Bad answers!! Here's why:

Commercial dog foods today contain anywhere from two to dozens of main ingredients, as well as vitamins, minerals, preservatives, and other additives. People have become sensitized to the presence of certain ingredients that have a bad reputation - some deservedly, some not.

Let's take a closer look at some of the ingredients in dog foods. We have included several ingredients that we've seen pet food manufacturers either hype (in the case of ingredients they use) or denigrate (in the case of their rivals' ingredients). We're not going to address the hype, pro or con, but just tell you the facts.

What do you think of when you think of canned dog food? Many people unconsciously wrinkle their noses as they ponder this question, immediately associating the image with the distinctive aroma of canned meat. In addition, people frequently describe the contents of dog food cans as an indistinguishable mash of uncertain meats and who-knows-what.

In general, people tend to have a better image of dry dog foods. Kibble is less aromatic and more visually appealing to us. Despite our preference for neat and discrete pieces of kibble, the canned versions of most dog foods are frequently made with higher-quality ingredients, including fresh, whole meats, grains, and vegetables. Canned foods generally contain a higher percentage of meat than their dry counterparts; there is a limit to the amount of moist ingredients that dry food extruders can handle. (Let's try to remember that dogs don't eat grains in the wild; meat and vegetables are what they have been eating throughout their evoution.)

Also, canned foods generally contain way fewer chemical additives than dry.

The rescued puppy has diarrhea, gummy eyes, ear mites, and ringworm, but there's a spark in his eye and his tail is wagging. A stray dog has an upper respiratory infection, skin lesions and worms, yet the person who finds her knows she'll make a loyal companion.

Some of the best dogs come into our lives in damaged condition, and the right support can transform them. Yet when dogs have multiple problems, it's hard to know what to do first. Many dogs and puppies in pet stores, animal shelters, or on the street suffer from malnutrition and conditions that take advantage of impaired immunity; parasites, bacterial infections, fungi, and viruses all take their toll.

Not only neglected or starving dogs suffer from a lack of wholesome, nutritious food, causing any prolonging illness; there are numerous dogs whose food bowls are filled with kibble daily who nonetheless exhibit signs of nutritional deficiencies. A dog who eats nothing but low-quality, generic, and/or grocery store type foods -which may not contain quality ingredients with bioavailable nutrients - may develop chronic conditions relating to his undernourished condition.

I love the commercial where the lady puts down a bowl of new dog food down, and the dog shoves it under the rug. The voice-over gravely intones, "(Our food) . . . every day."  It's very clever advertising, directly aimed at getting all of your pet food dollars into just one manufacturer's pocket. But the concept is all wrong.

Imagine that you have a child, a two-year old boy, and you take him to the pediatrician for a checkup. The doctor bustles in, very jovial, looks Junior over, then plunks a big can of "Allinheres" down on the exam table. "Good news," he beams. "Chef Kidardee has put all the vitamins, minerals, and a perfect balance of nutrients that Junior needs into New Complete “Allinheres”. Now all you have to do is make sure Junior gets three servings every day." The doctor wags his finger at you as he continues, "But since this food is perfectly complete and balanced, don't feed Junior anything else, like apples or oatmeal or broccoli or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, because it might cause a nutrient imbalance!"

With hundreds of dog foods on the market, many of them similar in terms of ingredients and nutritional value, the factor that determines which one gets bought is how well the manufacturer can convince the consumer that its food is superior to the others. Most of the time, the only place they can accomplish this is at the point of sale, where the only information available is on the label itself.

Lately, the label game has heated up. The claims being made range from the subtle to the ridiculous, and truth is sometimes stretched to its outermost limits or beyond. The consumer must be wary and consider exactly what the claims actually mean, given the way they are worded. For instance, I've seen foods that claim to be "nutritional," which is meaningless in this context, though possibly close enough to "nutritious" to fool a naive consumer.

As previously discussed in this column ("Who's in Charge?" WDJ December 2000), the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) is the single biggest organizational influence on the pet food industry in this country. Even though it is a non-regulatory, non-governmental voluntary agency, it is also comprised of the individuals who are most concerned with the production of pet foods - that is, state feed control officials as well as advisory liaisons from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the pet food industry, so most states adopt some or all of its rulings and regulations as law.

AAFCO meets twice a year to discuss developments in the industry and to hear requests for changes from its various constituents. These meetings are always interesting - at least, to those of us who are intensely interested in how the actions of this body can affect the food that gets eaten by the nation's dogs and cats!

It seems self-evident (to me, anyway) that dogs can live perfectly healthy, long lives and never ever eat a commercial dog food. Why this fact is so shocking to some dog owners is beyond me; the commercial dog food industry is only about 150 years old! (Dogs have been with us a few thousand years longer.)

But maybe it makes so much sense to me because I already went through this with my son. Sure, there are thousands of pre­pared baby foods on the market - dried flakes, moist purees, and liquid formulas -and you can raise a baby to toddlerhood on nothing but these foods. But at some point most of us realize that the baby would re­ally be a lot better off eating real foods, just like we eat. It makes sense that it's got to be healthier to break off a piece of your ba­nana and mush it up and feed it to your baby than it is to feed him ajar of commercially prepared, cooked, preserved, and vitamin-fortified banana mush.

On the other hand, those neat little jars are as convenient as all get-out. Jars of ba­nanas don't turn brown in a week or so of sitting on the counter, and can be taken on car and airplane trips without being worse for wear. And, oddly enough, it's often less expensive to buy ajar of banana baby food than it is to buy a banana.

Convenience and affordability have also been the driving forces behind the creation (and enormous success) of the dog food in­dustry. In fact, the industry leaders have made buying and feeding canned and kibbled food so much of a societal norm, that it now strikes some people as weird and obsessed to feed a dog "regular" food. While it doesn't seem at all strange to buy grocer­ies and prepare fresh, wholesome meals for your children or yourself, to some people, it seems

Dog food is a big deal, here at WDJ. This is partly because it's so important (all dogs eat food), and partly because it's so com­plex. Regulation of the pet food industry in this country is spotty at best. Enforcement of what rules there are is practically non­existent. And nutritionists still argue among themselves about what dogs need.

Educating ourselves about what our dogs are eating, is important. It's also diffi­cult. The pet food industry is not accustomed to scrutiny; many manufacturers feel it is simply not in their best interests to reveal everything about their foods. And because the best foods are usually made by small companies with smaller advertising bud­gets, it can be hard to locate their products.

It has come to our attention that numerous dog trainers and veterinarians routinely copy and distribute articles from Whole Dog Journal to their clients. Copying an article for a friend once in a while does not concern us; this may introduce the person to the publication and result in a new subscription. But making multiple copies of articles for distribution as a client handout, without the permission of the publisher, is unethical and illegal.

We very much appreciate our readers' enthusiasm for WDJ. However, this publication is supported by sales of subscriptions and back issues. The fact that we are NOT supported by advertising sales gives us the editorial independence neccessary to present a subjective and critical view, which we believe can be of great value to dog owners. We can continue these efforts only if subscription and back issue sales are sufficient.

If you think your clients would benefit from reading an article in WDJ, please encourage them to call our Customer Service Department (800-424-7887) and purchase that issue or subscribe. Or, if you would like to distribute a copy of a single article to all of your clients, please call our Reprint Manager, Mona Komfeld, at (203) 422-7343.
Physical copies of these articles may also be viewed at the Pet Owner Education and Training Library located in Mechanicsburg, PA.  Please call for details and directions at (888) 858-7638