What's Really In Your Dog Food??

Salmonella? Aflatoxin? Pieces of plastic? Traces of Chinese antibiotics? Mold?
     All of the above - and more -  have prompted dog food/treat recalls recently.

But only economy brands are involved, right?
     Nooo, even the pricey brands have problems.

Well the food I use is manufactured in the US so it's safe, isn't it?
     Not necessarily. "Manufacturing" simply involves combining and packaging the ingredients; it says nothing about the source of those ingredients.

So where do the ingredients come from?
     All over the world, including third world nations where "sanitation" means dumping the chamber pot out the window before it overflows onto the floor.

     I am currently involved in a "discussion" with the producer of several well-known brands of food re: a recall, and I can't tell you how angry I am. I have to wonder about the impact of small companies being bought out by conglomerates on the quality of the product. I don't remember ever seeing this frequency of recalls in the past; have procedures for contamination detection greatly improved, or are we feeding our beloved dogs toxic crap?

      There is a site, dogfoodadvisor.com, which not only does a good job of rating dog food, but also offers an email alert program to notify subscribers whenever there is a recall. I never would have known what was going on with the food I was using if I had not signed up for that (free) program. Check it out, it's a real eye-opener.

About Me

I  bred, trained and exhibited Chesapeake Bay retrievers in hunt tests, obedience trials, and conformation shows for over thirty-four years, and have been teaching others to train their pets and competition dogs for over twenty years. I have learned a lot over that time, and hope to share some of that learning via this blog, and of course also hope to learn stuff from y'all out there in Cyberville. I have incorporated some of shat I have learned in my first little manual, Puppy Primer - What You Should Know Before You Buy a Dog. Check out my website at spendthriftkennels.com for more information on the manual, and on me and what I do.

Feel free to share comments re: content, be they positive or negative (I have a really thick skin after all those years of showing a breed with a bad rep!). Don't be shy about posting what you really think, you will find that I often tend to be ummm, straightforward myself. You also need to know that I am a true Luddite, and extremely cyber-challanged, therefore I definitely welcome technical suggestions to improve my blog. This is my first one, be kind.

Here are some pics of the dogs I have owned and bred over the years:

The first three generations of my breeding, all shown and titled: Back left is Thunder, he started it all and was sent to me by a breeder friend in Colorado. Back right is his daughter Storm, my foundation bitch. In front of them  are Storm's daughters from her first breeding, Autumn left and and Sara right..

Windy's water entry; she is Autumn's daughter

Cirrus, Windy's son, pheasant hunting

That's all for now, and again, comments welcome.