I recently came across this food and was reading the ingredients and it seems to be pretty good to me. No artificial ingredients, mostly composed of bison and chicken. Has anyone heard of it? Is it good for an imported 6 months old GSD? Thanks.

Is this a food from the Solid Gold company? If so, they are generally considered to have excellent products, for manufactured dog food.

Matthew - in over 45 years of owning and feeing dogs I have never found a dog food manufacturer that did not claim their dog food was the best dog food. Go read purina or Eucanuba or Eagle etc etc etc.

There is a list of all-natural kibbles on my web site ( in the list of training articles http://leerburg.com/articles.htm) This WOLF dog food is not on that list.

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I recently came across this food and was reading the ingredients and it seems to be pretty good to me. No artificial ingredients, mostly composed of bison and chicken. Has anyone heard of it? Is it good for an imported 6 months old GSD? Thanks.

I count SIX grains in the ingredient list. <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" />

Some things I have read with regard to food and the experiences of others:
-Some dogs will end up better tolerating lower quality food than higher quality food (not that I really understand why but some people have GSDs that fall apart on the very high quality foods but do wonderful on foods like Eukanuba or Pro Plan)
-You generally do not want a food with a bunch of different protein sources because you want to keep a few protein sources available in case your dog develops an allergy to a protein source.
-Find the highest quality food that your dog thrives on, be it kibble or a raw diet.

Again, those are the experiences of others I've come in contact with, not my own. Many people have lamented on their GSDs' health issues with regard to digestive and allergy problems so I feel this is worthy to toss out. Maybe all those digestive issues are problems in certain lines of GSDs or in poorly bred ones, but it's worth keeping in mind. Has anyone here had experiences similar to the above?

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.....-Some dogs will end up better tolerating lower quality food than higher quality food (not that I really understand why but some people have GSDs that fall apart on the very high quality foods but do wonderful on foods like Eukanuba or Pro Plan)......-You generally do not want a food with a bunch of different protein sources because you want to keep a few protein sources available in case your dog develops an allergy to a protein source......-Find the highest quality food that your dog thrives on, be it kibble or a raw diet. ....

1. This is just my take on the inappropriate-food thing. Two folks in our training club had this experience with switching their dogs to a low-grain, good-quality food after a long time on a grain-heavy national brand.

Turned out that they had both made a rapid switch and then had a dog with diarrhea.

I see this as something that happens with any mammal who has become accustomed to one diet, every day, and switches to a brand-new one with more protein in general and more meat in particular.

I really do not see it as thriving on a grain-heavy, corn-laden diet, but as not enough time spent on the switch to more appropriate food. The system can become accustomed to (but not thrive on) the worst diet, and protest at any big change that's made too fast. JMO. <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

2. If the dog has no food sensitivities or allergies, then I believe that variety is the best way to cover all nutritional bases. It's just not possible for one macronutrient source to supply all the beneficial micronutrients.

I do indeed do what you suggest about reserving novel (never fed) proteins for "just in case," because food allergies are generally to a protein. To make it simple, I reserve venison and buffalo. It could be any sources like that, that (if you feed kibble) you are less likely to find in commercial foods. Again, JMO.

3. Yep! <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I really do agree with all you've said. To me it doesn't make sense, but according to what those people said, they really gave it a good effort, doing a slow switch and giving it time, and their dogs still fell apart on higher quality diets. That's why I brought up the possibility that some lines may be a lot more sensitive than others. If it is a real issue and not an issue of proper switch times, then at least the OP was made aware of it. I'm definitely of the party "less grains the better, raw is best."

You know what's scary though, a lot of people on a GSD forum I'm on have dogs with disasters in place of their digestive tracts. <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> There isn't much mention of that on here, it seems. I wonder what's up with that. Now I'm leaning towards an improper switch was executed.

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..........You know what's scary though, a lot of people on a GSD forum I'm on have dogs with disasters in place of their digestive tracts. <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> There isn't much mention of that on here, it seems. I wonder what's up with that. Now I'm leaning towards an improper switch was executed.

I betcha I know the forum you mean. <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Here's what I think is up with that: the Leerburg feeding recommendations are (IMO) right in line with the most authoritative research, without deferring to "research" done by companies with a vested interest in the outcome. If people find this board by reading something on Leerburg.com, then there's a very good chance they have seen Ed Frawley's and Cindy Easton Rhodes's feeding recommendations.

And if they have been reading this board for any length of time, there's an almost zero chance that they've missed all the threads about feeding food that's appropriate for the species. <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Again, JMHO!

No such thing in place on the "other" GSD forum you mentioned.

I'm kidding around a little, but there's a big nugget of truth in it.

Indeed. If only everyone would read this site. Good points, thanks! <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />