Studies Can Be Misleading
It's exciting to see the growing interest in dog health, nutrition, and longevity. Whenever a new study is released, I have hope that we'll soon see a change in the pet food industry, the veterinary community, and the FDA.
In the meantime, I've developed the habit of reading the studies shared on social media. In the past, I made the mistake of trusting other people's interpretation of the study instead of reading the information. I do this to gain a better understanding of raising healthy dogs, and I'm finding that some of the
studies are misleading.
Here are a few examples...
95% of homemade pet diets are nutrient deficient - a lot of people are quoting a 2013 study and many haven't read the information. I don't blame them because tracking down the study isn't easy.
People don't tell you that only 200 recipes were reviewed - some found online and others found in books. The study doesn't take into account how many of these recipes are prepared as a treat for a dog and not their full diet. The study appears to assume that people don't feed a variety of meals to their dog. And, when you read
the study, you'll learn that 95% of the recipes are missing a handful of key nutrients based on AAFCO's determination of what our dogs need - nutrients that can be obtained through minor tweaks in the meal.
Instead of using this information to educate pet parents, people are using this information to scare us away from homemade diets and sell their products.
softening kibble with water may cause stress and negatively impact gut health - the problem I have with this study is that the sample size is too
small, they tested 5 month old puppies (immune system may not be fully developed), and this test was conducted in a laboratory environment. The test also doesn't tell us what brand of food was feed, what type of water was used, and how long they soaked the kibble before feeding the dogs.
There are many things that could lead to stress and gut problems. The food, the environment, any health issues with the puppies, and more. I think it's shortsighted to believe the conclusions of this limited study.
UK study shows the decline in life expectancy of many popular breeds - I don't doubt that the life span of our dogs has declined. Processed diets, over vaccination, poor breeding, and exposure to stress/toxins will do this - but I'm not convinced that this study has proven this conclusively.
The study fails to tell us anything about the dogs included in the study that would point to a reason for the decline in life expectancy. Without that information, it's easy to wonder if the data was cherry picked to form this conclusion.
I want to know the average age of the dogs, when they were de-sexed, how often they were vaccinated (and type of vaccines), the diet, any exposure to toxins, and how
much exercise the dogs received.
More dogs need to be included in this study and it needs to span more countries. This
is a great start, but it's not enough.
