Rebuild the Pet Food Industry One Kibble at a Time
Watchdog Labs uses science to help you choose the best food for your pet. We analyze ingredients, recalls and company transparency. The result are simple ratings that help you choose the best food for your dog.
We review a wide variety of foods to help dogs of all breeds and sizes and owners with different budgets. We select products that include bestsellers as well as lesser known products, from both large and small brands.
Our selections are independent and we never accept any payments, sponsorships, free samples or ads from manufacturers.
We purchase our dog food samples the same way you would buy it - real products from real online stores. These products are then shipped to our lab partners, just like you would receive them when ordering online.
Stores and brands don’t know when and where we buy our samples. We always pay full retail prices and we never accept free samples from manufacturers.
We test some foods in ISO-accredited labs in the United States. The testing involves strict guidelines and quality standards. Our tests are performed with blind samples to prevent bias and use all AAFCO recommended best practices and AOAC methods.
In short, this means we have top scientists using the best equipment and testing methods to produce fair and reliable results. Also, very importantly, we pay for all testing ourselves and never accept manufacturer sponsorships. We are constantly expanding the list of foods we lab test to eventually cover all of our reviews. Please note that not all of our lab test results have been published yet.
We research and analyze hundreds of ingredients found in dog foods and show you which ones are controversial. These ingredients are not necessarily bad, they are just not universally agreed upon as good. Some may want to avoid controversial ingredients altogether.
We track reports of recalls from the company, FDA and other sources.
Recalls can be issued for many reasons, including contaminants and labelling issues. Keep in mind that recalls can be voluntary and that they can include non-dangerous product recalls.
To get fair and unbiased answers we anonymously contact dog food brands and ask them detailed questions about their manufacturing practices and quality standards.
We then evaluate how transparent manufacturers were in answering these important questions and how difficult it was to get in touch with them.
We are 100% independent - we never accept payments, free product or sponsorships from pet food manufacturers. All of our content is published for free. Our ongoing research to protect pets is funded by a small commission earned when you buy products from links on our site.
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