[Michael Romanos]

You'll find that there is a universal acceptance to feed puppy food to puppies and adult food to adults and over the last dozen years or so there has been the realisation that senior dogs also have and need different requirements. This is accepted by AAFCO and all the leading international dog food manufacturers and so AAFCO put out standards for all three stages of a dog's life. Vets in general are in support of this feeding programme and the leading international manufactures designate in their material output the normal periods of time that a dog should move through the food segments - eg up to 12 months of age for puppy food, one to six years for adult food and over seven, senior. There are some variations on this according to breed type and size and whether there exists a normal situation or not, and some manufacturers have even gone further of late and produce junior food as a stage between puppy and adult. It is getting very scentific and quite exacting and it is exciting and confusing for dog owners, knowing that our dogs have never had it so good. I cringe at the type of food that my first four Corgis got in comparison to what is available today and what i have adopted from great advice I have received from various quarters. At the time I thought I was doing a great job in feeding my dogs.
A dog in New Zealand lived til he was 26 (probably the world's third oldest lived dog) and he most probably was not properly fed by todays standards. It proves nothing. If he was a pup today, he may live until he was 30 and have a excellent quality of life right through.