My Golden is 13 months old. He comes from working dogs and is VERY active. He started on James Wellbeloved but I moved him on to Chudleys after visiting the Game Fair and having tried a sample. Excuse the subject but....the recent bag is chicken and since being on it his poo :rolleyes:has gone more of a yellow colour and seems more loose than usual. He is due for a worming and I wondered if that might have a bearing on it too?
I am wondering if I should move him onto a working dog formula for his energy levels but off Chudleys if it is not suiting him. Names I have seen include Eukanuba, Autarky, Arden Grange, Burns.
Does anyone have any experience of these brands and how good they are????????!!!!
Vet said if it continues loose to get a sample in.

We have an 18 month old GR who is also fairly active but is raw fed. I don't have any experience of working dog formula but would have thought it may make him even more active as I would imagine it is formulated for active dogs who are working most of the day and is intended to give them the extra energy they need to maintain a day's work?

If you made a sudden change to his food and didn't do a gradual introduction the new brand may have upset his stomach. When our GR was kibble fed we used Arden Grange which was the food that was supplied with him as a pup and it seemed to be a good quality brand. :)

If i were you i would get your dog off chudleys asap and back on to a food like JWB.I just had a look at chudley's ingredients,and well....not nice at all :(

Harley the protein and fat in the working dog formula is only 24 and 12 respectively.The fat being too low for the average sedentary dog,and the protein,derived from cereals,nowhere near enough for working dogs :( I dont see anything in any of their formula's that would help the average dog,lettalone a highly stressed working one....

Lyndob out of the brands you listed i would go for Arden grange.But if you really want to feed a super premium food more suited to active dogs have a look at Timberwolforganics,particularly wild&natural,and another brand named Orijen.
http://www.zooplus.co.uk

I feed Arden Grange - ok I don't have a working breed but I'm very happy with my dogs condition and would never change to anything else

Well Ktee if you can get Timberwolf through Zooplus - good luck to you!   And have you tried Orijen to be able to recommend  it thoroughly? 

Well Ktee if you can get Timberwolf through Zooplus - good luck to you!

Ok I don't buy dog food but had to try the link to see if it works and you can definitely get what Ktee suggested from zooplus

According to previous posts on here, people who've bought it from them previously can no longer due to supply problems.

According to previous posts on here, people who've bought it from them previously can no longer due to supply problems

Oh I see :rolleyes:

Nope, the one variety they have listed is still on a delivery due date and they used to stock about another 4-5 varieties of Timberwolf too, I knew I was right........   very rarely am I wrong!

>And have you tried Orijen to be able to recommend  it thoroughly?

I recommend foods based on the ingredient list and GA wether i have tried them or not.Afterall what may suit my dog,may not suit another and vice versa ;) So it really is a mute point,if i've tried them or not :)
As it happens i have read many positive reviews from Orijen feeders,no negatives thus far,and if you look at the ingredients it really is a superior food.It's not as iff i'm going to recommend something like pedigree or Bakers...If i see a good food i'll stick it on the list whether i can thoroughly,absolutely,positively, recommend it from personal experience or not!
As for the Timberwolf i am aware of their supply problems,hopefully this wont last forever and the food will be available soon.I've still got haf a bag of W&N left

>It's not as iff i'm going to recommend something like pedigree or Bakers..

Why not, we see lots of positive testimonals for these too?    As you say...........

>Afterall what may suit my dog,may not suit another and vice versa :)

Testimonals say more to me than lists of ingredients that not everyone is going to agree are superior or inferior. 

See I would go for tried & tested.   Lots of people recommend JWB & Burns but it goes through mine like a dose of salts but the ingredients read ok, nothing hellishly bad in there.  

Orijen is not only expensive, it's a food new to this country and so I would probably feel happier using it if someone had something positive to say about it rather than just looking at the general analysis and basing an assumption on that.

One bag of Timberwolf only lasts my 3 over 2 weeks so the current drought which has been going on for a couple of months now is not really endearing themselves to me.  I have a friend in NY and she complains about the lack of distribution of Timberwolf there, so if that's how they run their company in their homeland doesn't say much for their European distributors & customers.

Edited to add:  See Isabel got there before me!    I had a dog who was fed Beta & Pedigree etc. throughout her life and lived to over 14, can't be that bad! 

Having looked at Berrimans analysis I can already tell I wouldn't feed the adult to my dogs as it's only 12% fat, my breed functions better on a min. 15% fat.  

What I'm currently feeding my dogs reads much better to me in ingredient quality & GA 

>it's a food new to this country and so I would probably feel happier using it if someone had something positive to say about it rather than just looking at the general analysis and basing an assumption on that.

Like i said i am not only basing my assumptions on the ingredient list,i am also basing my opinions on the many positive reviews i have read from pet owners who have used this food,all of whom were already feeding grain free super premium foods,but are having even stellar results than before on orijen.As yet i have not heard anything negative..
Personally i cant wait to try it,i have no doubt my dogs will do well on it :)

I'd go for personal experience over theory every time too, Christine.

Another factor I would consider too would be whether or not the food was manufactured in the UK. Our regulations for manufacture are higher than many other countries (all meat must be from carcasses passed as fit for human consumption, for example - although the parts used might not be those which it's conventional for us to eat!), and of course importation leaves an injustifiably (to me) large 'carbon footprint'.

>but are having even stellar results than before on orijen

What does this mean?

If you have a dog that you consider is doing very well on a food then you are unlikely to change it whether it is raw or Bakers.  If you have a problem with a dog and change the food and find an improvement surely it could just as easily be that the dog didn't suit the food he was on before rather than the new food being superior.  Some dogs don't do well on JWB so if you change them over to Supermarket's own brand and their health improves, does this mean that Supermarket's own brand is a superior food? Well for that dog, yes it does because you are seeing stellar results.

>If you have a dog that you consider is doing very well on a food then you are unlikely to change it whether it is raw or Bakers.

I think this is a very relevent point Cheryl.  I sometimes wonder if there is not a disproportionate number of owners with dogs of difficult digestions, either from breed, genetics or environment, that get themselves drawn into the world of ingredient reading and world wide food options.  The majority of the population bound happily along into old age on the most commonly fed foods with their owners never considering the search for the Holly Grail of diets.  Those that are maybe have a skewed idea about how unnecessary it is for that majority.

Thanks Harley

I take the idea about feeding an active dog a "working dog formula" rather than for an actual working dog.  He certainly doesnt need any more energy!  I have also seen before about the fact that it is called that for VAT purposes as much as for the makeup of it.......note made by "mygirl".
He has actually been on Chudleys for several months. It just seemed to be after he started the last bag, which is Chicken Junior, that he went like this.
I still think I would like to change him. My main worry is the content of the food and "Ktee" has made a point about the content of Chudleys. I am not really sure what content I am looking for?

With the raw food diet I was told you had to be quite organised. Unfortunately I am firstly disorganised and secondly have a VERY busy life working around my "little man", fitting in running a business between his walks and training sessions!! Not sure if that would fit in?

With the raw food diet I was told you had to be quite organised. Unfortunately I am firstly disorganised and secondly have a VERY busy life working around my "little man", fitting in running a business between his walks and training sessions!! Not sure if that would fit in?

lynbob - feeding a raw diet is something you would get so used to it in time that it just becomes part of your routine!

I think if you do consider feeding raw then the best thing is to read up on it as doing it wrong is not going to benefit your dog at all.  I have 2 of Ian Billinghursts books and after reading through them a couple of times I now use them for reference.

I'd say the time it takes me each week to prepare the veg/fruit for my one year old golden is about an hour - then I pop it in the freezer in individual portions and defrost when necessary!

But as others have said on here - there are lots of foods and lots of alternatives and once you get one that suits your dog you will know by the way your dog looks and behaves!

Maria :)

With the raw food diet I was told you had to be quite organised

I'm not that organised myself but feed raw. I don't feed veg/fruit apart from any that is left over from our meals which isn't very often, so don't spend any time preparing it for our dog. When I get his supplies in it takes me about half an hour to split it into meal sized portions which I bag up and freeze so all I have to do is take out the following days food when we get back from our first walk of the day so it is able to defrost for the next day's meals.

The most important part of feeding raw, IMHO, is to research the diet thoroughly before embarking upon it. An advice group called BritBarf is an excellent source of knowledgeable, experienced raw feeders who are always more than willing to answer any questions you may have and has a huge archive section that you can trawl through at your leisure.

For my dog raw feeding suits him and I have no regrets at following this diet with him.

"Does anyone have any experience of these brands and how good they are?"

At the top of the forum page is a search facility that will allow you to find literally hundreds of posts on each and every one of these diets and peoples experiences of said food. At the end of the day, the food that suits your dog best is the one he will eat and looks good on.

There are just so many to choose from.
I suppose what I am asking is what content I should be looking for. Is the cost a relevant factor or are there some evpensive brands which are no better than some less expensive ones. You cannot keep chopping and changing what you feed a dog that much in order to find the food that suits them so I thought I could at least reduce the number of possibilities on the list and perhaps try a couple!?

>are there some evpensive brands which are no better than some less expensive ones.

Definitely. Please don't fall for the trap of thinking that expensive=better. Even with 'real' food, there's very little nutritional difference between expensive rump steak or cheap brisket!

Every single feeding method or food brand/variety will suit some dogs and not others.

Yes there are some expensive foods whose ingredients are not that good, and some slightly less expensive (but none of the cheap ones) that are better.

Ingredient wise you should be looking for an animal protein source as being the major ingredient.  Then you will want to preferably avoid artificial preservatives.  As for which grains, it is generally found that Whet and Corn/Maize cause more digestive intolerances than Rice or Oats, but this may be mainly to do with them having been used in commercial dogs foods (wet and dry) for longer.

I use Arden Grange as it is a high quality food produced in the UK, so I am paying for the food not for importation, or advertising.  Also my dogs look and act well on it.

I have also used Autarky which has beneficial herbs added (though I don't know whether the amount and presentation of these do any good).  This food really suited one of my oldies that used to get indigestion and throw up yellow bile some mornings.  I used to feed it half and half with the Arden grange for the younger dogs, but now that I have lost the two over 10 years I feed just the Arden Grange as I didn't think the protein levels sufficient for my younger dogs in the Autarky.

At one time when I had freezer space I fed the Autarky half and half with raw, and that worked very well.

No good looking for meat led recipes if it doesn't suit your dog :)  I have never had a dog yet that did not have some difficulty or other on these, grains seem to suit mine better.  Not do I think anyone needs to avoid artificial preservatives unless they have a dog sensitive to them as they are totally harmless in the permitted quantities and do actually do an excellent job of preserving the food of course :)
All in all, I would say just look for a food that suits your dog, fits your pocket and doesn't involve buying your own cargo ship enterprise to ensure you will have it available when you want it.  None of the UK pet foods will fail to meet all the usual requirements.

>At the end of the day, the food that suits your dog best is the one he will eat and looks good on.

And that suits your budget, Admin! ;) Driving oneself into debt doesn't help any dog! :D

I feed my 12 month old golden a raw diet so don't have much experience of 'dog foods' - however, I think if your dog's poo has changed colour and is a bit loose it could be the food isn't suiting him, or, you may have done the change over too quickly!

You mentioned your dog is from a working line and he is very active, but unless he is actually 'working' I don't think you have to feed him working dog formulas!

Working food is exempt from vat dont forget (a nice dodge, doesnt mean it cant be fed to non-working) at the end of the day what suits your dog may not suit the rest and its a tad superior attitude for people to say otherwise :rolleyes:

I can't see anyone being superior.  What I can see is someone advising that although a dog is from working lines this doesn't mean that giving completes not formulated for working dogs will do the dog any harm because the dog isn't working.   The OP is free to choose what she thinks is suitable for her dog, this might mean moving away from formulas for working dogs regardless of the VAT saving.

Not looking to raise arguments about which is the best dog food. Just a little bit of input from others experiences as I am concerned about the content of the foods and dont know what to look for and what to potentially avoid. To give my "little man" the best I can!

If you look at the past posts on this subject you will find they often end up in arguments (probably why Admin suggested you read them rather than continue this one).  This is because people have very differing ideas as to what is the best food for their dogs.  Some dogs will do very well and stay very healthy and look very good on foods that some owners would say are dreadful.  Other dogs can only tolerate particular diets. Some foods that owners think are superior to others can be detrimental to the health of some breeds.  At the end of the day what suits one dog will not suit another but some people will argue against that thinking their way is the best way.

At the end of the day the best judge of what's best for your dog is you.  You could pick what most people think is a superior food and find that it just doesn't suit your dog.

For what it's worth, my own experience is that my dog was on very 'popular' brands as a pup but I changed to JWB and this really suits her in that she looks good, poops look normal, behaviour is good and so this is what we'll stick with.  However, you are likely to find that there are owners feeding many different brands of food and will say exactly the same.

I know there are 100's of posts you can read through on food choice but since you asked about personal experience - I have a 23 month old golden that is fed arden grange for large breeds. He used to eat Royal Canin but I found it didn't take much for him to get the squits. The AG is just a little lower in fat and higher in fibre and it has suited him well for the last year. He gets a large variety of other stuff (eggs, fish, meat, soup, veg....) thrown on in small amounts but the AG is the bulk of his diet.

But as admin said, what suits my dog may not suit yours. I don't really obsess too much about what goes in; more interested in what comes out. (to be interpreted in any way that suits you! ;-)) I hope his gippy tummy is better soon as loose stools and long pants are not a nice combo! :-D

I would say, when chosing a food you need to be able to afford to always feed it, so pick a budget, then look for foods in that. Then, think about your own feelings towards added colours, sugars, preservatives, etc, the 'E' numbers if you like, are you happy to be eating then yourself in processed food, and see how you feel about feeding your dog them. Whilst some dogs don't have a reaction to them, some do with skin problems, hyper behaviour etc. Many people on here have 'cured' their dogs simply by feeding something that does not contain these, or lower portions of. Cereal based foods may well suit some dogs, but not others, and you are buying a cheaper bulking food rather than animal protien as the main source. Some feeds have 'animal deritives' which means its not just meat, but chicken heads, beaks etc. Do you want to pay for that? You also need to see if you want to feed natural or dry, or a mix of both. At the end of the day, its what suits your beliefs, (additives, unecessary colours sugars etc) your time (dry or natural) and your pocket. I prefere to feed a dry food that has meat (chicken, Lamb) as its main source, without all the other stuff, and my choice is Arden Grange. I also feed some meat or meaty bones occasionally.

On the other side of the coin, my old girl has been fed Eukanuba (when it was good) then Arden Grange (tried Burns -lost weight- JWB-didnt like it so settled on AG) for all her life. She now has a few problems age associated, and had some tummy pain after eating, for hours. Long story short, despite raw, cooked, various dry foods, she is happy and settled on Bakers chicken, and Chappie, which to be honest is not a food I'd recommend (the Bakers) because it is full of colours and sugar which personally I don't feed by choice to us or the dogs, and goodness knows what else I wouldn't normally touch.  But she is well on it, so there you go :) However, I would still, from personal choice, choose the best you can afford of the meat based foods. AG, JWB, Burns with extras, would be my choice. I think its good to feed growing dogs the best you can, food plays a huge part of how their health will be all their lives.

Good Luck........:)

We have one on gusto (i dont care what anyone says) he looks fantastic but one that doesnt do well on that and is on JWB we got a free trial of royal canine not one of them will touch it lol and it was made for great danes!! what suits some wont suit others and you have to find your own balance....

I know several dogs that do very well indeed on Gusto. :)

>What does this mean?

This means,that soft coats get even softer,shinier coats glisten even more,3 poops per day down to 1 or 2.Well,i'm sure you get the idea :)

>If you have a dog that you consider is doing very well on a food then you are unlikely to change it whether it is raw or Bakers

IMHO there's always room for improvement :) And i have never subscribed to feeding the same food,for every meal for a dogs entire life.So,as it happens i change foods regularly within the same line,or different brands altogether as i believe feeding a  variety of different foods with different nutrient values ensures my dogs get a variety of different nutrient levels,protein sources etc etc.Also,The better quality foods actually contain more useable nutrition, higher kcals, and require LESS to nourish your dog.

>I'd go for personal experience over theory every time too,

OK lets pretend that i have fed orijen and have had brilliant results with it.I really doubt it would make any difference to many of you.I would get "oh but my dogs dont do well on meat based foods,they thrive on grainy diets" or "feeding this food will send us all to environmental hell" or "just because it suits your dog and you think it's a super premium food,doesnt mean it will suit mine, so ner ner ner ner ner" ;) :D

No one will ever convince me that their dog thrives on nothing else but a food like Bakers,it just doesnt make biological sense Cereals, Meat and animal derivatives (minimum 4% chicken and minimum 4% fresh meat in the soft moist kernel), Vegetable protein extracts, Derivatives of vegetable origin (1.1% charcoal in the dark brown kernel), Oils and fats, Various sugars, Minerals, Yeasts, Vegetables (minimum 4% vegetables in the green kernel). Contains EC permitted colourants, antioxidants and preservatives. Sugars,yeast,derivatives colourants and preservatives aside,this food and ones like it,such as Gusto are so far removed from what a carnivore and dog should live on it's almost impossible to believe that foods like this exist.IMHO there will always be other options besides these.

I accept that some pet owners will believe their dogs will only do well on these types of foods,and these foods only,and maybe they do,do "well" who am i to say,i dont live with these dogs.But i have been involved with dog health and nutrition for more years than i care to count,i also have numerous contacts who are involved in pet nutrition and i also belong to many canine nutrition websites,all of whom contradict vehemently in every single way,shape and form foods like Bakers etc etc etc......

I really think this is a subject that we have to agree to disagree on. I think dogs should eat a diet of primarily meat,bones,organs,fresh foods,little to no grain and a wide variety of everything else,all of which can be achieved on a kibble diet if need be,although fresh food additions will bump the nutrition up hugely ;) . I dont believe dogs should have sugars,cereals,grains,colourings regularly and little to no meat products ,letta lone on a daily basis in each meal,i accept others may disagree and feel it is fine to feed these things to their dogs daily. This is just my opinion and am as entitled to it,and to air my concerns, just as you are to yours. :)

I've said everything i need to for this thread in this post ,i'm not up to debating the same ol cr**p with the same ol people for 2 pages,only for it to get locked or disappear altogether....

>I know several dogs that do very well indeed on Gusto.

And i know several who dont :rolleyes:

>OK lets pretend that i have fed orijen and have had brilliant results with it.

Then your opinion on it would be worthwhile. :)

>>I know several dogs that do very well indeed on Gusto.
>And i know several who dont.

See above. :)

>OK lets pretend that i have fed orijen and have had brilliant results with it.I really doubt it would make any difference to many of you.

No it wouldn't make any difference to me unless I was needing to change and your dogs sounded to have a similar constitution in which case I would be very pleased to hear your recommendation :) I would then just have to consider the finance, availability, carbon impact etc ;)

>This means,that soft coats get even softer,shinier coats glisten even more,3 poops per day down to 1 or 2.Well,i'm sure you get the idea

Adding some corn oil will have that effect for many.

>OK lets pretend that i have fed orijen and have had brilliant results with it

Interesting point because if the reviews are so brilliant that you are recommending it to someone then why aren't you feeding your dogs on it?

In answer to the OP, only you can decide which type of food suits your dog.

I have gone through the chopping and changing to find a food that suits my two BCs.  I have tried Burns and it just didnt suit them, went straight through them and they lost weight on it yet a friend of mine's dogs thrive on it.

I now feed CSJ which is not sold in pet shops and (as far as I am aware) is manufactured in the UK.  My dogs thrive on it and look the best they have in years.  I use CP24 during the summer months for when they are competing in agility and then CP21 during the winter months when they aren't competing. 

Carbon impact? Dohhhhhh, you'll have to explain what that has to do with dog food, or am I being exceptionally thick tonight?

All products have to reach their market but when the market is in another continent the impact may be a little larger :)

If it's (the dog food) imported from overseas via plane or ship to the UK then it will leave
a carbon impact.
The less number of miles it travels to it's destination = the least carbon impact.

Ok, see what you mean. I am all for buying British, and keeping food organic and natural as possible, thereby looking out for our country, our planet and resources. Keeping the earth clean is more than just carbon impact, but at least this goes a way to help :)

We won 2 x 15k bags of gusto at an obedience competition one year and thought well we'l just use it as a mixer with the raw meat.  All i'l say is that its well named Our dogs were to put it politely passing a lot of wind :D :D we got half way down one bag and binned it then gave the other bag to my friends dog club for their next raffle!!! We thought we would wait and see who won it so we would know not to sit next to the folk at the next show :D