Confessions of an Aspiring Dog Owner

Just when we thought we were through being bombarded with new words like “EVOO” and “Yum-o”, Rachael Ray strikes again. This time she’s unleashing her creative vocabulary on the canine culinary world with her new line of dog food called “Nutrish”. Nutrish promises “real meat and no artificial ingredients”, and some of the proceeds from sales are going to support animal welfare charities. In spite of the mildly irritating name for the product, the premise is admirable and supposedly it’s what Rachael feeds her own dog. 

So would I buy it? The jury is still out. I’ve just started reading a few books on dog training and dog nutrition over the last few weeks, so I am by no means a nutritional expert. However, if there is one message that rings out loud and clear in every book I’ve picked up so far, it’s that inexpensive grocery store dog food is pretty much the devil. The fact that it’s available at Walmart and grocery stores around the country makes me leery right off the bat. That may be a bit extreme, but the impression I’ve been left with is that you get what you pay for, and when you pay a little you get a lot of crap. Literally. 

Poor quality dog food is bad for three very compelling reasons:

1. Cost. While lower quality dog foods are cheaper per ounce they also contain fillers, which means you need to feed your dog more to get the nutrients they need. 
2. Behavioral Problems. Dogs that don’t get proper nutrition from their dog food can end up with behavioral problems like chewing, biting, going to the bathroom in the house, and begging. Wouldn’t you feel awful if you were annoyed with your beloved puppy for begging, only to find out that he’s truly starving for nutrients? 
3. More Poop! Lower quality dog foods have lower digestibility, which means more coming out the other end instead of being absorbed and used by the body. One book I’ve been reading (Dogs and Their People by Steve Diller) recommends a minimum of 90% digestibility in dog food. I’m very curious to know what Nutrish’s digestibility is but the website doesn’t say. They do have an 800 number on the site – I’ll try to find out.

OK, I think we get it. Poor quality food is bad. But what is considered good quality? Unfortunately in the dog food industry, there’s no standard definition of “premium”, “super premium”, or even “natural” so you can’t go on that alone. To sort through the mess, the FDA article “Pet Food: The Lowdown on Labels” recommends looking at the life stage claim, the ingredients and the contact info for the manufacturer when evaluating a dog food. The fact that Nutrish offers a phone number on their website is a plus, but they fall short in the life stage claim area. It looks like Nutrish is making their life stage claim based on calculations rather than actual feeding trials – something else I’d like to ask customer service about when I get them on the phone, in addition to how much poop I can expect (ie the digestibility rate)!

In his book The Dog Whisperer, Paul Owens cautions that even though a company advertises a product as “all natural”, short of visiting the manufacturing plant it is difficult/impossible to gauge the quality of the product. Finding a product that is made with USDA human grade food is the optimal commercial dog food solution, but even then he recommends supplementing high quality commercial dog food with raw foods and nutritional supplements. However, if you have the time, Paul says that homemade organic food combined with high quality supplements is really the optimal doggie diet. There’s a lot more to research there, so I’ll plan to follow up with another post to dive into the details of his homemade diet recommendations.

While I work on that, how bout telling me what your doggie’s favorite food is?

Tags: dog food, healthy dog diet, Nutrish, The Dog Whisperer