Quote Tracker 2 Feathers
"I HAVE NOT EVER seen to many dogs dive into a bowl of corn"
You must not live on a farm or deal with live stock. They will eat corn. Hog feed is one of their favorites next to road apples from horses. Not that the grain is good for them. Also, with the poor conditions last fall and with the introduction of ethanol. There is more competition for quality corn then ever. Lots of moldy corn last year right on the stalk. Some Dog foods receive some of the poorest quality corn out there. No animal does well on a product with mold in it.
All our dogs have lived to be 10-13 plus years old. We have always fed a medium priced food. Affording dog food that costs more then the food we feed our own family just isn't happening.
Also, just because it cost the most it's the best, Isn't always true. Good exercise, a warm, dry environment and family attention goes a long way to a healthy life for your dog. Years of being in a outdoor kennel in the cold with not much family time...like it or not. IMO does shorten a dogs life.
For the one dog person/family. Ya, maybe you can afford to feed $40.00 a bag food(not me). In the end..it may make you feel better but I doubt you have extended the years in the field in most cases but not all. Most of the allergies and heath troubles associated with some of today's dogs can be traced back to the close line breeding of the show and field trial people. It has bred in weakness to the dogs immune system and over all health. That kind of breeding will effect the breed/dog for many generations, even if close breeding is no longer part of the program.
Here is a example in the wild. This isolated island provides a environment that shows what close breeding does
Quote
"Video
http://kstp.com/article/stories/S1025936.shtml?cat=1
N. Minn. Researchers Find Arthritis Killing Wolves
Something is killing the wolves on Isle Royale in Lake Superior, and it could be a condition that many humans suffer from.
About 60 years ago, hungry wolves from Minnesota went looking for new territory and fresh meat across the 20 miles of ice and snow on the lake during a very cold winter.
They found an island teeming with moose that, until then, only had to fear men with guns.
"It's not just a world full of people, it's a world full of millions of other creatures and two of the major ones in this area are moose and wolves," explained researcher Rolf Peterson with the Michigan Technological Institute.
Peterson and his wife Carolyn have been studying the relationship between the wolf and the moose here for nearly 40 years. They organize volunteers from all over the world who come here to comb the island for bones of mammals, predator, and prey.
After a week in the wilderness the volunteers are loaded down with skulls, leg bones and vertebrae and it doesn't take an expert to see the wolves are in big trouble.
A deformity of the animals spine caused by inbreeding pinches nerves, which must be painful and disabling. What they discovered is arthritis is devastating the wild creatures.
The wolves are crippled so badly they can't dodge the flailing hooves of a cornered moose, and every single wolf on the island has the same defect.
"In the last 10 years, we have not found a normal wolf," said researcher John Vucetich.
Peterson says inbreeding is probably the cause and nothing can be done to prevent the inevitable.
"Wolves will decline, possibly to the point where their population in is jeopardy," he said.
So all is not well in this northern paradise where the wolves roam freely, but face extinction. Dedicated scientists like Vucetich and the Petersons can only helplessly document the end of their own research.
Onpoint
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eek:Ouch!!!!! very $$$$$$ though) due to some abdominal issues with one of our dogs.
