# Enhance dog food



## MSDOGS1976 (Mar 7, 2009)

I see where we now have a distributor in my area for the Enhance line. Anyone feeding this brand? What does it cost roughly per bag?


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## laduckdogman (Dec 30, 2007)

We been feeding enhance brand professional athlete and endurance blend to the dogs in training at our facility for the past three years, i must say that it is a wonderful product and we will continue to feed it to the dogs at our training facility. The cost is $23.00 per 40# bag of endurance, and $29.00 per 40# bag of pro athlete now this is in bulk because we purchase 30 bags of each at a time and have it delivered to the kennels. www.stdtkennels.com

J.Moll
STDT Kennels
Laplace,La.


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## mlp (Feb 20, 2009)

I'm thinking of switching to enhance due to my regular brand changed there formula, you can find it at alot of places around where I live. I'm thinking of going with the hunters edge or the endurance formula.


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## Chris Miller (Dec 16, 2005)

I have had the dogs on the Enhanced food for a little over a months still the same bag 50lb @ 26$! I was feeding two 37lb bags @ $43 of PP at 4cups a night to both dogs. My old girl is getting 2 cups a night and her horrible gas is gone since we switched. The family thanks Arkat.  My working dog is getting 2 1/4 cups and is doing very well also.
This is a savings of about 60 dollars a month!!

There stools are firm but instead of one large pile I get about 3 small piles from each dog each day. I can't say that the out put is anymore or less then while on PP but I must say that there are more piles? Lucky they use one part of the yard but it is a pain to get it all.


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## Gary Sheets (Aug 2, 2008)

Chris and Jerry if your ever looking for a job, give me a call. 

Arkat appreciates your kind words and spreading the news about our products. You all have a Great Christmas and even Better New Year. 

MSDOGS & MLP, If you have any questions in particular feel free to contact me by PM, Phone or Email...

The best of luck to you this Season....

Gary
724-316-7598
[email protected]


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## laker (Sep 12, 2008)

My pup just finished his first bag of Enhance Hunters Edge.
I'm very happy with it. He eats it very good. No more gas. His coat looks great and his energy level is great.
....And best of all, I only paid $26 for 50lbs. 
I plan on sticking with Hunters Edge until spring then I might try him on Enhance Endurance.


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## Gary Sheets (Aug 2, 2008)

Glad your pup is doing good on the Hunters. Hard to beat quality and price. 

Keep me up on how your doing on it and let me know come spring. 


Gary


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## mlp (Feb 20, 2009)

I have began the switch to the hunters edge formula. I should see how it does in a few weeks. If it does good I hope they don't change the formula.


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## Gary Sheets (Aug 2, 2008)

You know the old saying.. "if it ain't broke don't fix it" 

No plans to do so that I know of....


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## kaneblunck (Sep 17, 2008)

I have had our dogs on the professional athlete for the last 6mo. They are doing better then they ever have (stools are normal,and my picky eater is eating like a normal lab). ARKAT has a great product at a price that won't break the bank . Based on the people I have talked with, they also have a excellent staff and at least here in Arizona a distributor that would be hard to beat.


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## Huff (Feb 11, 2008)

I am in the process of switching my dog to endurance at this time. Can't beat the price and the ingredients list looks good also.

Russell


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## laker (Sep 12, 2008)

Huff said:


> I am in the process of switching my dog to endurance at this time. Can't beat the price and the ingredients list looks good also.
> 
> Russell


Let us know how your dog does on it.
I think I'm going to try it in the spring.


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## Huff (Feb 11, 2008)

I will keep you posted.

Russell


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## MSDOGS1976 (Mar 7, 2009)

I'm going to give it a shot to as soon as I finish what I have. Might be February before I need any. The calorie content is pretty impressive. The Professional line has 635 calories/cup and all the others are over 500, with the exception of one. So shouldn't take as much to feed as my current brand. 

So we will see how it goes.


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## laker (Sep 12, 2008)

MSDOGS1976 said:


> I'm going to give it a shot to as soon as I finish what I have. Might be February before I need any. The calorie content is pretty impressive. The Professional line has 635 calories/cup and all the others are over 500, with the exception of one. So shouldn't take as much to feed as my current brand.
> 
> So we will see how it goes.


Where did you find those numbers? I've looked on the website but couldn't find calories/cup. 
I'm very happy with Hunters Edge, but I've always wondered about the cal. count.


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## nikdob (Nov 26, 2009)

I have looked over several reviews on this food and some sites give it bad marks for using "Chicken Meal" ... What are your thoughts on this? Some say Meal is just the garbage meat???


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## Rick Hall (Jan 21, 2003)

What such sites I've seen look down on would be "chicken *by-product* meal," which the real experts, certified canine nutritionist, seem to think an unfounded prejudice.


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## nikdob (Nov 26, 2009)

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=985&cat=all

Editors 

Registered: October 2005
Posts: 3953 Review Date: Sun December 31, 2006 Would you recommend the product? No | Price you paid?: Not Indicated | Rating: 0 

Pros: 
Cons: Insufficient meat content, use of by-products, low quality grains, other controversial filler. 


The first ingredient is by-products. It is impossible to ascertain the quality of by-products and these are usually products that are of such low quality as to be rejected for use in the human food chain, or else are those parts that have so little value that they cannot be used elsewhere in either the human or pet food industries. We recommend avoiding any pet food using such ingredients. The AAFCO definition of chicken by-product meal is “consists of the ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered chicken, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs and intestines, exclusive of feathers, except in such amounts as might occur unavoidable in good processing practice.”


The main grain in the food is rice. Brewers rice is a low quality waste product, while rice flour is a fragment. This is followed by corn, which is difficult for dogs to digest and thought to be the cause of a great many allergy and yeast infection problems. 


Beet pulp is another controversial ingredient – it is a by-product, being dried residue from sugar beets which has been cleaned and extracted in the process of manufacturing sugar. It is a controversial ingredient in dog food, claimed by some manufacturers to be a good source of fibre, and derided by others as an ingredient added to slow down the transition of rancid animal fats and causing stress to kidney and liver in the process. We note that beet pulp is an ingredient that commonly causes problems for dogs, including allergies and ear infections, and prefer not to see it used in dog food. There are less controversial products around if additional fibre is required. 


Fish meal is the sole named meat ingredient in the food, but at 6th on the ingredient list does little to raise the overall meat content of the food. We can find no sign of a guarantee on the manufacturers site that this ingredient is ethoxyquin-free (ethoxyquin is a chemical preservative commonly added to fish meals and that is banned from use in human food because it is believed to be carcinogenic).


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## MSDOGS1976 (Mar 7, 2009)

laker said:


> Where did you find those numbers? I've looked on the website but couldn't find calories/cup.
> I'm very happy with Hunters Edge, but I've always wondered about the cal. count.


I emailed Gary Sheets(Arkat) who posted earlier in this thread. He sent me a break down on each. Hunter's Edge has 570 calories.


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## laker (Sep 12, 2008)

MSDOGS1976 said:


> I emailed Gary Sheets(Arkat) who posted earlier in this thread. He sent me a break down on each. Hunter's Edge has 570 calories.


Thank you...


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## MSDOGS1976 (Mar 7, 2009)

nikdob said:


> http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=985&cat=all.



This website has a bias against grains. Unless you believe in the grain free philosophy, I wouldn't put much in their ratings.


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## Rick Hall (Jan 21, 2003)

Aside from unfounded biases, that site also only rates the formula ingredients in terms of the worst case allowed by labeling law, rather than the maker's actual practices. A company may choose to list what technically qualifies for labeling as a "meal" (which the site likes) as a "meat" (which the site doesn't) simply because it sounds better to most consumers.


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## Scott Krueger (Jan 25, 2008)

Just switched to Hunter's Edge, just finishing first bag. We went through a bunch of foods because her coat is not very thick and throught it might be all the corn and junk...... was on alot of the expensive stuff(native, core, etc..) and it did well but the energy wasn't there and her gas was brutal. on trips to the UP and out west she would clear a car out with gas, this year NOT ONCE..... just finished up a 3 day pheasant hunt in SD and she did not get fatigued as in previous years and hesitate to go out in the afternoon, energy was there all day each day.......i really like the product and price to hard to beat and cannot wait to really test it on a full duck season next year.......
scott


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## Scott Krueger (Jan 25, 2008)

nikdob said:


> http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=985&cat=all
> QUOTE]
> 
> i used that site before, they HATE food with corn and grains......the only foods that get a good rating are NY Strips and Sirloin........also the foods that $60-70 for a 30lb. bag..
> ...


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## Gary Sheets (Aug 2, 2008)

To each his own on reviews. 

The questions one must ask themselves when reading reviews are who is doing the reviews and what are the qualifications. 

On numerous occasions I have requested information from the linked site asking for the credentials of those conducting the reviews. I have yet in 5 years to get a reply with the answer. They will respond with this is how we review and these are our standards. 
The only issue is, who really says that those benchmarks are trully the best diet for the canine? 
If the credentials of those individuals are nothing more than internet research of bias websites and what others have told them. That's not much for credentials. 
Some of the most important information to make a unbias, equal, well educated decision is unknown to those that review. Without questions to the manufacturer they have no knowledge of it. 

It's best for you to take what you know and see in your dog, eliminate what you want and pay what you feel is fair.

There are those foods out there that have equal or greater quality and performance but if you can save $10.00 a bag, in my mind that's is what I'm looking for.


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## Ed Farmer (Dec 23, 2008)

Switched from Pro Plan to Enhance 30-22 when it was recommended by the breeder I bought my latest lab from ... Cresthill Kennels. I couldn't be happier with with it. Excellent coat, eyes and stool is solid. My dogs have more energy than I care for them to have at times. Cost is less than Pro Plan which was absolutely NOT a deciding factor for me. Health of my labs and how they responded to it was most important. 

They have the best coat and eyes I've seen on them. They stay healthier and fit on 1/2 the amount of food it took to feed them when I was using Pro Plan. Finding a distributor/dealer may be the only limitation at the moment for anyone wishing to change but it's well worth trying to find one if you can. Sorry if I seem a bit "exuberant" over dog food. I just happen to think as much of my labs as if they were my children so when I saw the difference with Enhance I recommend it any time I can. Can't say enough good about it. Terrific product and all of the labs I buy it for eat it like a machine when it's put in front of them.

If I felt another brand was better I would be using it. After using Enhance I would be looking for another dealer if I wasn't fortunate enough to have one close by. Even if it meant have to drive to get it and buy in bulk. I feel it makes that much of a difference in my labs.

Hope that helps.

Ed


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## MSDOGS1976 (Mar 7, 2009)

Ed Farmer said:


> Switched from Pro Plan to Enhance 30-22 when it was recommended by the breeder I bought my latest lab from ... Cresthill Kennels. I couldn't be happier with with it. Excellent coat, eyes and stool is solid. My dogs have more energy than I care for them to have at times. Cost is less than Pro Plan which was absolutely NOT a deciding factor for me. Health of my labs and how they responded to it was most important.
> 
> They have the best coat and eyes I've seen on them. They stay healthier and fit on 1/2 the amount of food it took to feed them when I was using Pro Plan. Finding a distributor/dealer may be the only limitation at the moment for anyone wishing to change but it's well worth trying to find one if you can. Sorry if I seem a bit "exuberant" over dog food. I just happen to think as much of my labs as if they were my children so when I saw the difference with Enhance I recommend it any time I can. Can't say enough good about it. Terrific product and all of the labs I buy it for eat it like a machine when it's put in front of them.
> 
> ...


A cousin to Gary? Just kidding. Thanks for the review. I plan to give it a try soon. Fortunately for me, there is a feed store that sells it just a few miles from my house.


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## Ed Farmer (Dec 23, 2008)

Very funny ... no ... not a cousin.  

I was skeptical about it at first because I was SOLD on Purina for years and very happy with it. I had both a breeder and a trainer that I had come to trust both recommend it. 

After using it the first month I was totally surprised at the difference. It was that visible in the clarity of my youngest dogs eyes and coat. All while cutting food consumption in half. Being totally serious, it really is the best food I've used. That's why I recommend it whenever possible. The not only have the best product, they also have it a terrific price.

The only caution I have is to make sure you don't "overfeed" with it. It's very easy to do since it only takes about 1/2 the amount of food to keep your dog well-fed and healthy. You'll notice a slight weight gain quickly if you don't. 

Ed


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