Before commerical food was on the shelves, what did people feed their pet dogs?
Posted on May 9th, 2010 by admin
Pet dogs have been around a lot longer than commericial food.
Did people feed raw (consistent with the prey model/BARF model or just random raw meat/organs?)?
Table scraps?
Depended on the owner. City folks fed table scraps or cooked even. Some country folks fed table scraps and whatever the dog caught he ate. True country folk would take their dogs hunting and feed them the entrails and sinews and bones they didn’t want as well as what the dogs caught and table scraps. Some of the lines my dogs come from were eating fresh from the butcher daily. 
May 9th, 2010 at 5:51 am
Probably table scraps. Whatever they didn’t finish eating. That and whatever the dog found to eat on his own (outside in the country or something)
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May 9th, 2010 at 6:38 am
Table scraps and raw.
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May 9th, 2010 at 6:49 am
Probably both!
Table scraps, and what the dogs could hunt themselves. <<< MOSTLY THIS CHOICE. (hence the expression fit as a butchers dog)
A raw diet was also fed. A raw diet is raw meat such as beef, chicken, basically any meat, with bone and organs still there. Many people (including myself) still feed raw. There is a lot of research and testimonies to back up the amazing effects on it. My dog is so much healthier, clean teeth, shiny coat. It’s a lot of work, but its so good for the dogs health and longevity.
#
TD fairy you are very immature. =)
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Raw Feeder
Prong Collar User
Dog Owner
May 9th, 2010 at 7:35 am
Mostly table scraps, as well as marginally spoiled food. Dogs are built (at least historically) to "dine" on spoiled "cuisine" like vultures.
Dog food today is mostly soy and grain. This is not what dogs ate and we’re probably killing them ;/ Poor rover.
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May 9th, 2010 at 7:52 am
Most likely just table scraps and bread. (=
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May 9th, 2010 at 8:31 am
Table scraps. Leftovers. Anything that they themselves wouldn’t eat.
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May 9th, 2010 at 8:44 am
Likely they were fed mostly table scraps..and healthier then too..of course table scraps used to come from all natural sources back then too..not a bunch of processed crap food that people eat today..I bet most of the garbage food people buy and consume today isn’t much better or safer than the garbage dog/cat food that people buy for their pets..
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May 9th, 2010 at 9:00 am
Table scraps and raw. We would throw them out some hush puppies if thy ran off a law man or revenuer.
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May 9th, 2010 at 9:21 am
I’m pretty sure that dogs were kind of one their own. Originally, most dogs were used for some sort of hunting or vermin catching, so they could get their own food. Dogs that were used for herding or sledding probably got the raw extras from the human’s dinner or table scraps.
All I know is in the book, White Fang, they feed their sled dogs raw fish. Haha, it amuses me that I am basing my answer on White Fang…. I’m pretty sure they feed them "table scraps" in Call of the Wild though.
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May 9th, 2010 at 9:27 am
According to my Grandfather his dogs ate leftovers, they had a feast when they slaughtered something and they ate allot of cornbread. That was during the depression.
ADD: Hey TD fairy were you around back then? If so you are older than dirt.
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May 9th, 2010 at 9:36 am
Mostly table scraps, because raw meat was at a premium and some families did not have enough meat to feed them selves let alone the dogs. About the only time they even got meat was when a cow or pig was butchered so there was nothing called a barf diet. People fed dogs scraps till about 50-60 years ago.
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May 9th, 2010 at 10:17 am
My Grandma told me that years ago she had a neighbour who fed her mongrel dog on nothing but bread, oxo and water. It was 17 when it died.
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May 9th, 2010 at 10:53 am
Yes, table scraps and leftover food, that is obvious. But people would also go to the butcher shop and get soup bones along with their other meats. A big bone would keep the dog busy for days and if they could crack it they would eat the marrow. The butcher shop always had scraps and bones that they couldn’t really sell and sometimes they would just give them to you or charge a few cents for them. if you go way back in time when people butchered their own animals I am sure the dogs would get some of the unwanted organ meat and even hides, ears, hooves, horns to chew on. I imagined even the cave people threw bones to the wolves that hung around the cave and in exchange they got the first watch dogs.
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Clan of the Cave Bear series, Dances With Wolves, The Butcher’s Wife, movies and books.
May 9th, 2010 at 11:20 am
My mum is 50, and she told me even when she was a child her parents fed their dogs table scraps, left overs, food that was going to go off. Occasionally cheap canned food but, hardly ever.
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May 9th, 2010 at 11:27 am
table scraps
did em no harm
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May 9th, 2010 at 11:48 am
I think it was pretty much a table scrap kindof diet.
Thats what my great grandmother did/does. Leftovers from every meal are put in a container and at the end of the day mix up and divided for each dog with some dry kibble. All her dogs have lived for a long time other than the ones with that had conditions that they were born with.
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May 9th, 2010 at 12:18 pm
Depended on the owner. City folks fed table scraps or cooked even. Some country folks fed table scraps and whatever the dog caught he ate. True country folk would take their dogs hunting and feed them the entrails and sinews and bones they didn’t want as well as what the dogs caught and table scraps. Some of the lines my dogs come from were eating fresh from the butcher daily.
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May 9th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
Table scraps, food from hunters kills…….
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May 9th, 2010 at 12:42 pm
Left overs from butchering – offcuts, organs, tails, feet etc, and table scraps. I remember as a kid watching my pop’s dogs get excited when the water was put on the boil before a pig was butchered. They knew they’d be getting some fresh offal soon.
A bit like how my dogs get fed now.
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May 9th, 2010 at 12:53 pm
Growing up we got bones and fat cut off meat from the butcher to feed my dogs~
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May 9th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
My grandparents fed the dogs table scraps and offal. Most of the table scraps was vegetable matter as meat was a luxury in most cases. Milk and potatoes were a common food as was oatmeal. During bad years when there was little food sometimes the dogs became the food. Mind you my grandparents came to the US in the 1900’s as adults. They had many dogs through the years. One thing about it, those dogs were a lot tougher and shorter lived then our house pets now.
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May 9th, 2010 at 1:39 pm
We always fed our dogs table scraps. If we were butchering, then the dogs got scraps that were not going to be used.
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May 9th, 2010 at 2:11 pm
They just ate table scraps/leftovers from family meals along with carcasses of dead livestock etc. That is what my grandpa said the dogs ate when he was a child.
We had a dog from Russia…a gorgeous Dobie, come to the vet clinic. In Russia apparently they aren’t big on dog food or possibly not many can afford it and the dogs live on oatmeal and liver? This particular dog looked terrible on his diet. After some time he was adjusted to commercial dog food and put on weight along with a nice gleam to his coat.
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May 9th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Random meat/table scraps, whatever they hunted and killed for themselves. Whatever owners through thim (remaining carcasses and such). And to think that people actually took the time to COOK the scraps is just a little naive…
Dogs have been around for 15,000 years… dog food has only been around 80 years or so…
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