Stop treating your dog like a trashcan

Dogs have been sharing our lives – and our food – for centuries. Up to the 1960s, it was common practice to feed them our table scraps and leftovers.

Commercial dog food had long existed alongside this practice, first in the form of biscuits and, much later, canned food. But tin shortages in the Second World War halted canning, forcing manufacturers to focus instead on dried, shelf-stable formats and effectively laying the foundations of the modern pet food industry. Commercial pet food moved from the margins to the mainstream.

By the 1950s, the wartime solution had become the cornerstone of a highly organised industry and in 1958 the Pet Food Institute was formed. As part of a sustained and widespread sales campaign advocating for its new commercially prepared pet food, the PFI sought to change old behaviours by redefining table scraps as TRASH, with posters of various breeds of dogs in the form of trash cans (or should that be vice versa?), alongside the tagline “stop treating your dog as a trash can”.

At that stage, purely by implication, the stage was cleverly set for a somehow ‘superior’ food in the form of kibble. That’s where it all started.

The campaign did more than sell a product. It subtly changed the way owners thought about feeding dogs. Sharing food from the family kitchen gradually became the ‘wrong thing to do’, largely by insinuation. What had once been normal practice was recast as unreliable. The implication was clear: variation meant uncertainty, whereas a manufactured formulation represented consistency, precision and safety. Once that idea took hold, the concept of a single, nutritionally complete food was no longer just convenient; it became the benchmark against which every other way of feeding dogs would be judged.

However, there was no clear published scientific study offering controlled evidence that kibble was nutritionally superior, not least because formalised canine nutritional science and regulatory standards were still embryonic at that time. From the historical ingredient lists I’ve been able to locate, something like Purina Dog Chow recipes (pre-extrusion but relevant to early kibble composition) included meat, wheat germ meal, buttermilk, cod liver oil, barley malt, molasses, oat cereal, corn cereal and wheat bran.

The commercial success of kibble had created a new nutritional problem. If dogs were expected to eat a single manufactured product day after day, that product had to provide everything the animal required. Human diets could rely on balance emerging over days and weeks; commercial dog food had to promise balance in every bowl. That practical requirement gradually shifted canine nutrition away from foods and dietary patterns towards nutrients, formulation and numerical targets, laying the groundwork for the idea of a “complete and balanced” diet. Perhaps completeness wasn’t so much a nutritional discovery as the logical extension of mono-diet requirements.

Since then, organisations and national trade associations representing pet food manufacturers, like the PFI, which described itself as the industry’s public education and media resource, have played a major role in shaping public and regulatory communication about pet feeding.

To the point where it is regarded not just as convenient, but the ‘gold standard’; in the early noughties research was used to emphasise the risk of home cooked diets. However, as this article highlights, the formulation era inevitably has its own problems. Synthetic overages and inorganic minerals are chosen for shelf stability rather than biological utility. And more recent research has shown that home cooked diets are as good as – and even, in some instances, better than – dried food.

Because where the formulation approach treats the dog as a machine that needs fuel, the variety approach treats the dog as a garden that needs diverse inputs to thrive.

And definitely NOT a trash can.

 

Important Considerations:

  • Always consult your veterinarian before making any significant dietary changes, particularly where there are pre-existing health conditions or dietary restrictions.
  • If you are feeding commercial food, check the label for ingredients before giving more. Excessive intake of any foods can have adverse effects.
  • Ensure (where possible) that you use high-quality, organic products specifically formulated for pets (or better still, human grade ingredients) to avoid any potential adverse effects.
  • Introduce new foods gradually to avoid adverse effects such as gastrointestinal upset or diarrhoea.
  • I provide nutritional information purely as a helpful guide. Nutritional information on ingredients is obtained from the US Department of Agriculture’s FoodData Central site (https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/index.html) and any nutritional information provided in recipes is based on an online calculator: calories and other information will vary based on brands, ingredients and other factors.
  • Check nutrient levels and recommendations for your dog’s weight, age and activity. For example this nutritional guideline produced by FEDIAF.
  • I am not a professional canine nutritionist but supporting research is cited.
  • The recipes shared were created by me and tested in my kitchen – and tasted and approved by our doggy friends!