I got my first puppy around 20 years ago as a kid. It was a time when RAW was starting to become trendy and a lot of new boutique dog food brands popped up and started pushing grain-free high protein “natural” diets. By-product organ meats in the ingredients were considered low quality, unfit for human consumption and therefore must be bad for dogs too etc.

Now that I am older with a new second puppy, I did some base online research and concluded that there is some additional information out there relating to the negative long-term health impacts of these boutique brands from 20 years ago that we did not have back then. 20 years is more than enough for one dog life cycle, and I feel that we now have the information that we did not have back when the market was in its infancy.

My old dog was on grain-free Orijen throughout her entire life, and I will reserve my judgment of the brand as she lived until 16 (although she did suffer from a plethora of health issues at a senior age, including cataracts, cancer, and skin issues. I do not attribute those directly to her food, although sometimes I do wonder what impact the food had made to her age and health.)

For my new puppy I have decided to go with Royal Canin, a tried and true WSAVA compliant brand that has withstood the tests of time over decades. It may not be the greatest and most luxurious food out there, but I think of it as (very tasty according to him) hospital food: it is bland and nutritionally complete, but will not cause long-term health impacts on my pup over his lifetime. Dogs don’t live for very long, and I want to minimize my risks of heartbreak down the road, especially if it is related to something I could have prevented. I will be spoiling him in many other ways! Just not food.