Just a thought. Ive been reading all the messages on the topic board and everybody says how marvellous their dogs look on Natural Diet, BARF, Cooked Natural, Raw Natural etc; ad infinitum; but if the huge full page spreads in the dog papers are to be believed, all our top show dogs are fed on Pedigree, Hills, Eukanuba et al; Are natural feeders wrong - or are some show people fibbing.

If you have been reading ALL the messages in the feeding debates, then you will see that both sides claim their dogs look marvelous on whatever food they feed. Why would anyone lie about it :rolleyes:

Oh dear! I seem to have stirred up a hornet's nest. It was only a tongue-in-cheek observation.Since you brought it up. Many years ago, I worked at one of the top showing kennels in the country. When they won reserve best in show at crufts they were approached by a large dog food company to endorse their product. To my certain knowledge, the only time their dogs were given that particular brand was when the company gave them a large amount of it for free. The rest of the time, including the run up to crufts, the dogs were fed raw tripe and mixer. 

I have to admit to doing the same, my boy was mostly fed on tripe, but I didn't want to turn down the full page colour ad in the dog papers :rolleyes:  Anyway, as Brainless says my lot did eat the free cans they won at shows :)

All dogs are individuals with individual preferences and tolerances. There is no single right feeding regime. The best food is the one that suits your dog, your lifestyle and your pocket. :)

Its not Just Showing though Saxon to be fair ;)
Really you have two different debates in one here... I think we've all seen 'Celebrities' that endorse certain famous names brands falling foul in the press for being 'Papped' drinking the 'wrong' cola/beer/whatever.... :D

And for example In sled dog racing if you look at the Biggies Iditarod/Yukon Quest etc Many mushers are sponsored by Large brand feed companies there are many famous names in the sport who do feed Kibble..*but* usually only adding 25% kibble to diet as and when is possible as most of the time the extreme conditions make it impossible (everything including M&Ms in your pocket freeze solid!!) so Most, realistically, will be feeding a warm stew cooked at rest from frozen meats.

think JG probably summed it up best :)

Unless you throw the food away when you win at shows you tend to win food or vouchers for food, so of course the dogs owners claim their dogs are fed x food.  Waste not want not.

I was approached by a well known dog food manufacturer, cameras at the ready, when my dogs had a very special win, and I told them I did not feed their product. 

I quite agree. Although I try to give my dogs as natural a diet as possible, I never look a gift horse in the mouth.

Its not what a dog looks like on the outside (think Kate Moss) but more importantly what's going on under the coat(joints, digestive system) .Also if all dogs are different why do breeders spend so much time getting them to look the same . I believe that dogs are mostly the same on the inside, just think identical twins in humans they often suffer the same aches and pains and ailments as each others and dogs are usually the product of multiple births .that's why I think dogs fed on a good quality complete food really benefit from all the advances in nutrition .Of course personality is something else...... 

A litter of puppies is no more genetically alike than any other siblings, Jo, because they are from different eggs, not the same fertilised egg splitting. It matters not a jot that they're born at the same time. If they were identical, then each litter would be all of one sex. ;) You can even have litters where the pups are sired by different fathers!