Dog food info

[jlm]

So what is the deal with IAMS these days, are they still in bed with the Anti's or have they changed their tune? I have heard they have ended their partnership with the Humane Society (not the local one, the other...bad one). I specifically avoided IAMS for this reason. My lab is eating Pro Plan, beef and rice. Seems to love it!

[irvingdog]

I'm the one who stirred that pot, and I thought I posted a follow-up. Iams sent me a letter recently. It was rather vague.

They did not say if they dropped the HSUS or the other way around. Either way, the co-operative between the two is through. In my eyes however, they took a managed risk, and have lost at least a few loyal customers, myself included. They should have known they were trying to play both sides of the coin.

Lay down with the dogs, come up with the fleas.

[French Spaniel]

I am the newsletter editor for our Southern MN NAVHDA (North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association). In last month's letter I addressed the issue of Iams and Eukanuba foods and how they backed down from some of its sponcership plans.

Hunters Do Make A Difference

Next time you think that the little guy doesn’t make a difference …think again. After getting deluged with calls and letters from outdoors folks and hunters, Iams and Eukanuba foods backed down from some of its sponcership plans. I won’t explain further because Steve Smith’s letter below (editor of Pointing Dog Journal) will explain the situation as it was. I have to applaud PDJ for the stand they took.

Pointing Dog Journal Letter

Magazine advertising is a funny thing. It ebbs and flows with the seasons and the economy. A lot of it and the big, general-interest magazines get rich, not enough and they close their doors. But there isn’t a publication that solicits and accepts ads that doesn’t recognize their value. In short, our advertising – and our advertisers – are important to us, many of them close friends.

But sometimes things don’t work out. In the last year, there has been a controversy involving The Iams Company, owned by Proctor & Gamble, which makes Iams and Eukanuba dog food. They make good products and have a long history of sponsorship of events in the sporting dog industry. The controversy surrounds the sponsorship by Iams of six events called Pet Fest America and put on by the Humane Society of the United States, an animal rights and anti-hunting group.

According to the HSUS HSOforum, "Iams has agreed to sponsor six Pet Fest events around the nation, allowing us to deliver a basic humane message to tens of thousands of Americans, provide literature on a range of animal cruelty issues to them, and draw them into the animal protection movement."

A thousand angry phone calls and e-mails and letters from sporting dog people resulted only in Iams’ position that the company is "not anti-hunting, we’re pro dog." Further, in our investigations, we found that there is an animal research advisory board at Iams that oversees the treatment of dogs when they are being tested to ascertain their nutritional needs. One of the members is the Chief of Staff of HSUS. There is not any pro-hunting voice on this board, and we had no luck when we offered a qualified, pro-hunting veterinarian as an offsetting member. Iams did not want to address the vet issue because they didn’t consider it a present problem, only the Pet Fest issue. We thought they should be addressed together.

Over the course of many hours of negotiations and position papers and a whole lot of other stuff, it became obvious that the company was not going to change its position, which is essentially that they do a lot for the sporting community, we should appreciate it and pretty much accept the circumstances because they didn’t really mean us any harm.

It’s a free country. The Marines put the flag up on that island in 1945 so that Iams could have the freedom to do what it wants. But we have freedoms, too, and more importantly, we have solid, loyal readers who think the same way we do. Likewise, we have a host of solid, loyal advertisers, a number of which, in a show of support for us, placed ads in this issue, one that, because of the time of year, they would not normally appear in.

So, that is why you will no longer see Iams or Eukanuba advertising in this magazine or its sister publications The Retriever Journal and Just Labs. I have refused to carry their ads until such time as they recognize that the sporting community is at least as important to them as the opposition.

Until next time,

Steve Smith
Editor Pointing Dog Journal

[irvingdog]

So, I get the feeling I was right. They parted ways with the HSUS, but not to far. Bah! I feed Nutrisource. They bend over backwards for sportsmen. I started on it after Iams pulled this nonsense, and I won't be going back. Clearly, it sounds like the battle is not over. Who is this vet on their board? Sounds to me like maybe WE should start to place demands of our own. "Can this clown".

[gspman]

fyi, Iam's did pull their heads out of their a$$es and reversed their support of the hsus events. We hunters and trialers can wield some power when we want to.

This dog food topic is on practically every birddog message board out there. Some have very detailed info so I'd encourage you to look at those boards as well. There are many trainers/kennel operators that have posted their opinions on the subject on the other boards.

I second the info that any type of corn is a filler. Although some will argue that if the corn is properly cooked it can be "used" more by the dog than if uncooked.

A couple other feeds to think about are National which has been mentioned and Diamond Premium. The GSP kennel that has trained/handled more national field champions than probably anyone feeds National if I'm not mistaken. My dogs didn't do well on Diamond but many do swear by it.

There are so many different types of food for each brand it's hard to determine which will work the best. It's kind of a trial and error thing.

I'd ping the larger bird dog training operations in the area and see what they use. Generally their dogs need to perform and they don't like excessive [PoorWordUsage] when there's 20+ dogs in their string so they usually feed something that's decent in quality. [PoorWordUsage] volume may not matter when you only have 1 or 2 dogs but it sure does when you have a bunch of dogs to clean up behind.

Also your dog can only use so much protein per feeding. So just because it's 30+% protein don't think it's all high quality protein and don't think that it's all getting used by your dog. Off hand, I don't know how much protein a dog can use in a feeding, but any excess just passes through with everything else.

I've used Eukanuba in the past and currently feed Iam's. Both have worked well for me.

gspman