Food

1. Nature's Variety had revenue in 2015 of $126.7 million. 2. The company has two production facilities in Lincoln and three warehouse facilities, including frozen. In 2008, Catterton, an international private equity firm, invested in Nature's Variety and CEO Reed Howlett came on board. In 2009, the company headquarters was moved from Nebraska to St. Louis, though manufacturing and warehouse operations remain in Lincoln. …

Every aspect of an AAFCO feeding trial is meant to ensure that a food is capable of maintaining a population of a minimum number of dogs for a minimum period of time (26 weeks for a maintenance" claim; 23 weeks for a "growth" claim). At a minimum

Thanks to dogs' industrial-strength digestive systems, their strong stomach acids usually disarm the Salmonella bacteria before they can cause illness. And even if enough of the bacteria survive and manage to take up residence in the dog's digestive tract, he may well be completely asymptomatic; not all canine carriers of Salmonella become ill. This makes it difficult to know how widespread Salmonella infections are in the canine population.

Free feeding is the practice of making food available to your dog at all times. Convenience is typically cited as the reason why owners choose free-feeding. Being a responsible dog owner means doing what's best for your dog not what is convenient.

Be honest: The main reason that many of you are reading this right now - the reason that many of you have subscribed to...

What follows is a list of foods that meet all of our selection criteria. Whether or not you have seen them before, or can get them, may depend on where you live and where you shop – although, remember, many of these products are increasingly available through online pet supply retailers.

How many of you feed canned food to your dog every day? Or maybe I should ask, how many of you feed only canned food to your dog every day? While we'd like our annual canned dog food review to be of use to owners who feed any amount of canned food to their dogs, it should be most relevant to people who rely solely on canned products to provide complete and balanced nutrition" to their dogs

When we review dog foods, we generally ask the makers of those that meet our selection criteria some questions. This year, we asked this: Do you have a complete nutrient analysis for each of your products? And if so

When WDJ first reviewed dog food, back in 1998, there was but a handful of companies making what we considered good foods. Seriously, I stretched to find five companies that had products that contained only good-quality ingredients - and more importantly, didn't contain unnamed animal fats and meat by-products. And just about every question I asked a pet food company was answered with, "I'm sorry that's proprietary information!"

The long-term goal of this column is to teach interested dog owners how to formulate safe and wholesome complete and balanced" home-prepared diets for their dogs. We will eventually cover raw and cooked diets

I will occasionally use a bowl, but increasingly my dogs' meals are experiences! One option is a kibble-dispensing ball for each dog, with a closed baby-gate between them to prevent my Cocker Spaniel from stealing the Shepherd-mix's ball when she's done with hers.

Like us, our dogs need both physical exercise and mental stimulation. As a trainer, I see many clients who focus on physical exercise, but don't always consider the benefits of mental stimulation—what I call brain-work. One easy way to add in a bit of brain-work is to get rid of your dog's food bowl and replace it with other fun feeding options. I'm always so excited to share with my clients how fun and effective it can be to ditch the dish! Yes, that's right: Throw that traditional food bowl into the trash and get going with creative feeding.