Dog Food Review

How reviewers judge dog food

The top reviews and information on the best dog food come from owners and others who are motivated by their love of dogs rather than their desire to sell something. The most credible advice and test reports we could find are from humane societies, veterinarians, breeders, discussion boards, dog clubs, trainers and pet owners.

In 1998, Consumer Reports magazine tested dog and cat foods, but the results caused an uproar when it was discovered that the testing methods weren't scientific and the results weren't accurate. In response to manufacturers refuting these findings, Consumer Reports published a correction, stating that it had incorrectly measured some minerals and fatty acids in pet food, and editors promised to redo the test. However, Consumer Reports hasn't published a dog food comparison since 1998.

The dog lover sites and articles generally fall into two categories: sites that tout an alternative idea, such as feeding raw or homemade dog food, and sites that make an honest attempt to review and rate commercial dog foods, primarily relying on an analysis of the ingredients. An example of the first type is NJBoxers.com, which has tons of information about a raw dog food diet known as BARF, which stands for "bones and raw food."

Websites that rate foods by the quality of their ingredients include DogFoodAnalysis.com, PetFoodRatings.com and the website Ask Susan Peters. Dog Food Review does the same, and also has an active community of users who add their own ratings and opinions. Whole Dog Journal publishes up-to-date lists of top-quality foods that are free of questionable ingredients, but does not rank those foods, and the lists are only available to subscribers. Several sites don't recommend specific foods, but go into great detail about ingredients and how to read a dog food label to find the best quality diet for your dog. Examples include AnimalArk.com and The Dog Food Project. About.com has an extensive ingredient database, but makes no recommendations.

The pet food recalls of 2007 served as a wake-up call to millions of pet owners, as well as some -- but not all -- pet food makers. Though the panic has largely subsided, owners are still casting wary eyes on pet food labels, and many makers have become more willing to discuss where their foods are made, where their ingredients come from, and what kind of testing is being done. For example, while not every expert is completely in love with the ingredients in Natural Balance foods, its program of testing every date-coded batch of its foods and making those results available to consumers draws kudos. Others, however, including some makers that previously were considered to be beyond reproach, still prefer to keep some or all of that information under wraps. Those decisions led Whole Dog Journal to drop several otherwise well-regarded dog food brands from their lists of approved dog foods for 2009.

In creating this report, we found a great deal of information on dog food ingredients, including details on the manufacturing process and exposes about the origins of dog food components. While most reviews stop short of declaring any best dog food, reviews are remarkably consistent about ingredient lists and what pet owners should look for when reading dog food labels. We used these guidelines in part to name the Best Reviewed dog foods. However, armed with the dog food information in our Full Report, you'll be able to identify other high-quality foods for your pet as well.