Hi,
I'm doing a marketing project into dog food and have been reading these boards for info.

I'm trying to understand how you choose which foods are best for your dogs? Is it a case of trial and error over the years to see which suits your particular breed best or are there well known ones that are best for all?

Thanks for any comments that might help!

> Is it a case of trial and error over the years to see which suits your particular breed best or are there well known ones that are best for all?
>

Neither.  Trial and error to see what suits the individual but would obviously start with what you are feeding your others.
Factors on the initial choice would be availability, price, recommendation.

Stooge, totally agree but you forgot Ingredients.  I didn't buy if it had loads of fillers which are not natural to a canine diet before I switched fully to raw.  Now, the better quality foods are just out of my price range.  I can feed proper meat for a lot cheaper than most dry food.

Now, the better quality foods are just out of my price range.  I can feed proper meat for a lot cheaper than most dry food.

Ditto. It's scary even how little meat some food have in them. Especially if you look at canned foods -some have just 4 % meat! (Same for cat food.) I've found a lot of dry foods don't list how much meat is in them. 

Thanks for all the replies. they're really helpful - it's more complicated than I thought!

So it seems like you start with what works for your other dogs and then try some different foods if they don't suit.

Stooge - you mentioned you your initial choice might be based partly on recommendation. Would this be from another breeder?

Thank you so much - all very helpful :-)

I agree ingredients first recommendation ,usually initally from breeder if new pup, price and availabilityand what suits the dog
I feed mine raw which after research and recommendation I have decided suits us best in all those ways.
Not every "type" of breeder necessarily is the oracle on dog food either so I would consider who I respected when taking recommendations and also their reasons for what the choose

> totally agree but you forgot Ingredients.

No, I didn't forget :) 
I don't know any commerically available food that is not fully nutritious to meet a dogs need. 
It may not suit our individual dogs and I am not inclined to pay money for colouring that my dog will not appreciate but each food appears to suit some dog or other. 
For instance, if you mean by "fillers" fibre then I would say this is something I look for to be at least 3% for all the dogs I have so far owned.

> Would this be from another breeder?
>

In my instance I fed my first dog as my parents had fed theirs.  I suspect that is how a lot of people start :).  But, yes, in the following years I have taken an interest in foods recommended by both other breeders and friends.  Always, I would say, where I had the physical evidence of their dog to attest to it.  I have never been much interested in "on line" recommendations or advertisements.

agree with everyone else,have never had a problem as such,whatever ive fed,but ive always looked for the best food possible,read anything i could find on nutrition,my last dogs were fed on arden grange,which seemed to be a pretty good food,then i discovered raw feeding!Was a bit worried at first-still am occasionally!-after two years!-,but it just feels so right,somehow,at gut level(!) and now I am convinced this is the best way to feed my precious dogsll still learning as i go,though!

I look at ingredients and their relation to price.

As dogs are carnivores I want to see a reasonable level of animal based protein sources.  In a dry complete over 25% by dry matter weight of meat meal.

There are foods that have as little as 4% meat/fish meal (the rest being cereal and vegetable matter).

On the other hand I will not buy completes that cost more than my won food to buy.

So I look for the quality of the ingredients and then choose on value for money by comparing similar recipes made by different makers.

I avoid artificial colours and imported foods, and those highly advertised.  The first is unnecessary, and with the second more of the price is going on shipping costs and advertising than the food.

After that different dogs may do better with differeing animal meat poteins, and the carbohydrates,  grains or other ingredients, like potatoe etc.

I start out with the intention of feeding what the breeder was feeding to avoid upset stomachs, but each dog must see me as a soft touch because not one has eaten what the breeder recommended even when the breeder has given me some to bring home out of the bag the pup had been getting previous meals from and eaten them with gusto.

When I got my first dachsie he was a nightmare with his pickiness, I gave away to colleagues and friends so many nearly full bags of food rather than throw them out, this continued till I got my second one who if he dragged his heels about eating she would nip in and clear his plate too and he would stand back and watch till one day suddenly cleared his dish in record time and hasn't had a problem since.

I do listen to recommendations if I am having problems with what I am currently feeding and will get a small bag to make sure it agrees with them all before splashing out on a large bag.

Unfortunately not all foods will agree with all dogs so to some extent there is an element of trial and error.

Hi Amber

How to choose foods which are best for our dogs.  Well I started out as a newbie with my old boy 15 years ago by following breeder recommendation but then you start thinking for yourself.  Do you put into your own gut nothing but the same one food day after day?  No.  Do you put in to your own gut food which is so highly processed and which has so many "concealed" ingredients that the listed contents only add up to 40% 50% or 75%? No.  Do you happily ingest "fuzzy" ingredients like "meat derivatives" "cereal" "animal fat"? No.  So I started checking all the ingredients of just about every complete food marketed in the UK, a huge job (used basic filters of not bothering with those which are well-known as being cheapo rubbish).  Ended up with Fish4dogs, nothing but proper fish & spud which together with mins & vits etc add up to not far short of 100%.  Ditto Simpsons Premium.  With old boy would feed him raw apples & pears, he loved both and was fine with em; plus leftover cooked veg. Individuals' requirements (youngster doesn't like fish and has sensitive digestion) narrow things down further.  Breeders turned more into raw food, so have experimented with youngster on that, is fine with breast of lamb, lamb & ox hearts, cannot tolerate even the minutest bit of liver either raw or cooked so have to be careful with that.  The various trays are mostly pretty good pure ingredients too, Nature's Diet etc with proper meat, rice or spud & veg adding up to nearly 100% & he can tolerate those - but be careful with PetsAtHome own brand as, tho good, 2 out of their 3 have 5% liver.

I "mix and match" - ie if going into town will buy enough raw meat for 3 days; otherwise mix complete with 1/3rd tray per meal for flavour to make appetizing.  I know you're not supposed to switch between raw & the complete but practicality dictates for us as we live in a remote place & I never remember to defrost in time!

So to sum up - we came to a modus operandi which suits the individual/s by wanting the best, researching it, finding the best at the price you can afford, and then trial and error as to whether it's liked & is suitable.  Advertising would never play a part in this, altho as someone has already said, the over-hyped stuff tends to be over-priced as well, correlation there which is off-putting never mind the purity/suitability (or otherwise) of the food!

Where's the like button for Rafferty's excellent post!!

ditto

Thank you everyone - this is really helpful. I'm learning so much!

When I got the first of my current breed I found the breeders information about food really interesting - she told us what she'd fed over the years, what she'd learnt and what seemed to suit her dogs the best.   The puppy continued on her recommended food and I also moved my adult rescue to the adult version of the same brand (Nutro).  When they went out of business (takeover and difficult to source) I looked for something similar and moved to Arden Grange.

In the meantime I had begun to research raw - partly motivated by a dog with allergies and I gradually moved them over to a raw diet.  Realising that neither dog was a fan of raw fish I introduced them to Fish4Dogs complete and dried fish skin treats.  Now we have three dogs they are fed a predominantly raw diet with F4D once a week for their fish booster and as a back up food for travel.  My youngest pup was fed raw almost immediately upon coming home but stayed on 50:50 with F4D til he was 6 months.  At nearly 18 months he continues to have this as an ocassional topper as it saves me from defrosting an extra pack of mince.

When researching dog food I like personal recommendation backed up by what I see in their own dogs.  I also like to read the science behind it and understand the ingredients.  Managing a dog with allergies and feeding high energy dogs has made me more aware of their nutritional needs.  I don't see me ever moving away from raw feeding...