Dog Food & Dog Treats History & Marketing Facts

[Jen]

As quoted from "Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Dog Lover's Companion" (c) 2007 Portable Press. I take no responsibility for the statistics or historical information represented as accurate.

That being said, I thought you'd find this interesting & want to share it. I like marketing trivia & the history of the advancement of lots of types of products, but being a dog lover, I found this set of info particularly interesting. Of course, next time I'll scan the pages & post images, not type the entire thing. ~Jen

Chow Down

Ever wonder what your pooch would have eaten 200 years ago? Here's the history of the multi-billion-dollar dog food industry.

Kibble: The Early Years

For centuries, dog owners have been offered advice on feeding their pets. More than 2,00 years ago, Roman poet and philosopher Marcus Terentius Varro wrote the first farming manual. In it, he advised farmers to give their dogs barley bread soaked in milk and  bones from dead sheep. During the Middle Ages, European royals hired kennel cooks to make huge stews for their hounds. The stews were made mostly from grains and vegetables with some meat or meat by-products- the hearts, livers, and lungs of various livestock.

Dogs in common households, though, had meager diets. They were fed only what their owners could spare. A typical diet consisted of crusts of bread, bare bones, potatoes, cabbage, or whatever they could scrounge on their own.

Things started to change in the mid-1800s, when the Industrial Revolution created a middle class that had more money and more leisure time than their ancestors. Pets began to be regarded as luxury items by everyday folk, and as a result, pet food was closely scrutinized. Many people argued that dogs needed to be "civilized." Since wild dogs ate raw meat, domesticated dogs shouldn't. (That advice influenced the pet industry for decades after.)

Dog Cakes 

In the late 1859s, James Spratt- a young electrician from Cincinnati, Ohio- got an ida when he sailed to London to sell lightning rods. When his ship arrived, crewman threw the leftover "ship's biscuits" (or hardtack) onto the dock, where they were devoured by hordes of waiting dogs. Ship's biscuits were made with flour, water, and salt that was mixed into a stiff dough, baked, and left to harden and dry. The biscuits were easily stored and had a long shelf life, which was important in the days before refrigeration. They also looked a lot like today's dog biscuits.

Spratt had the idea that he could make cheap, easy-to-serve biscuits and sell them to the growing number of urban dog owners. His recipe: a baked mixture of wheat, beetroot, and vegetables bound together with beef blood. When Spratt's Patent Meal Fibrine Dog Cakes came onto the market in England in 1860, they were a success. Ten years later, he took the business to New York, and the American pet food industry was born.

A Growing Trend

Others followed Spratt's footsteps:

* The F.H. Bennett Company opened in 1908, making biscuits shaped like bones. Bennett also made the first puppy food and was the first to package different-sized kibble for different breeds.

* In 1931, Nabisco bough Bennett's company and renamed the biscuits Milk-Bones. Then the company hired 3,000 salesmen to get Milk-Bones into food stores.

* In 1922, Chappel Brothers of Rockford, Illinois, introduced Ken-L Ration, the first canned dog food in the United States. In 1930, they started sponsoring a popular radio show, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin.

Aw, Dry Up

By 1941, 90 percent of dog food in the United States was canned. But then the United States entered World War II, and the government started rationing tin and meat. Shortly thereafter, dry dog food became popular begin.

In 1950, the Ralston Purina Company started using a new machine to make its Chex cereal. Here's how it worked: ingredients were pushed through a tube, cooked under high pressure, and puffed with air. This allowed Chex to stay crisp when milk was added.At about the same time, manufacturers were getting complaints about the appearance, texture, and digestibility of dry dog food. Purina's pet food division borrowed one of the machines from the cereal division and experimented with it in secret for three years. The result: Purina Dog Chow. Dogs loved it, it digested well, and it quickly became (and remains) the number-one dog food in the nation.

No People Food for You

In 1964, the Pet Food Institute- a lobbying group for the now-gigantic pet food industry- began a campaign to get people to stop feeding their dogs anything but packaged dog food. They funded reports that appeared in magazines and detailed the benefits of processed dog food. The institute even produced a radio spot about "the dangers of table scraps." Soon, the dog food industry was spending an incredible $50 million a year on advertinsing. Commercials centered around the "beef wars," with competing companies all claiming to have the most pure beef. (Bonanza star Lorne Greene even did a TV commercial for Alpo.... holding  sirloin steak.) As a result, processed dog food replaced table scraps as the most popular way to feed America's canine population.

In the 1960s and 1970s, increasing numbers of dog breeds and rising crime rates made dog ownership sky-rocket. By 1975, there were more than 1,500 dog foods on the market. Today, more than 1,600 square miles of soybeans, 2,100 square miles of corn, and 1.7 million tons of meat and poultry products are made into pet food every year. There are more than 70 million dogs in the United States, and pet food is an $11 billion industry... and it's still growing.

Treat Your Dog Right

Here's how that story led tot he creation of doggy treats and snacks.

No Bones About It

In 1908, the F.H. Bennett Company created bone-shaped biscuits for dogs, the first dog food sold in the United States. The biscuits came in individual packets to preserve their freshness in various sizes for different breeds. Later called Milk-Bones, the biscuits were made from meat, grains, and cow's milk and were fortified with liver oil, wheat germ, and yeast. Despite their packaging, the high fat content in Milk-Bones often made them turn rancid on store shelves waiting for consumers to buy them. But in 1931, Nabisco bought Bennett's company and used its marketing powers to sell Milk-Bones to more customers.

By the early 1930s, several dog-specific foods had hit the market, so Nabisco advertised Milk-Bones as "a dog's dessert." That way, consumers would buy Milk-Bones in addition to other types of dog food. Thanks to that advertising machine, dog biscuits were no longer a type of food- they were treats.

Healthy Dogs, Healthy Profits

In the years after World War II, many Americans (and their dogs) moved to large cities and suburbs, away from farms and open spaces. Partly as a result of this urban growth, the practice of veterinary medicine became more widespread. Dog owners no longer had the time- or knowledge- to care for every aspect of their pet's health; this task was handed over to licensed veterinarians. And as the well-being of America's furry companions became more widespread concern for pet owners, several companies were quick to capitalize.

In 1955, Nylabone introduced its first product, a nonedible bone-shaped chew toy designed to sAtisfy a dog's chewing needs (in place of, say, a pair of designer shoes); the company's product line later expanded to include edible chews and treats. In the early 1960s, Hartz, a leading supplier of bird and fish products, introduced its line of dog supplies, which included snacks like rawhide chews and bones designed to promote good doggy dental health. By the early 1980s, Hartz products could be found in more than 40,000 U.S. stores.

Treats Go Gourmet

Manufacturers continued to expand the range of products. In the late 1970s, William Tyznik, a professor of animal science at Ohio State University, saw some women at Dairy Queen give a sundae to their dogs. Realizing that ice cream was not good nutrition for dogs (because most dogs are lactose-intolerant), Tyznik whipped up a frozen treat made of soy protein, whey (with lactose removed), and several vitamins and minerals, and used his own dogs, as his first taste testers. he dogs loved the treat, and Frosty Paws, which was later acquired by Nestle', can now be found in supermarkets across the country.

At any major pet store today, customers in search of dog biscuits no longer have to choose solely between large Milk-Bones and small Milk-Bones. Options now include organic, vegetarian (contradictory as that may seem), prepared mixes for treats to be baked at home, and treats that look like cookies. (Smaller pet stores and specialized bakeries even offer dog cookies made to order.) Today's top-selling dog treats are Greenies chews, which were introduced in 1998 and are designed to promote dental health and fresh breath. With so many choices on the market, no pooch is ever far from a little something special that will set his tail a-waggin'.