I think it is truely a sad, sad day when all of us dog owners can not be free to take differing approaches to teaching/training our dogs, or to feed our dogs something that others do not approve of! When those people objecting are the ones living the daily life of training/teaching, and feeding, and paying the feed bills for my animals, then fine, they can have their say, but what some of you consider to be "ABUSE" is seeming very close to the same mindset of PETA! In my opinion, it is getting WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY out of hand!!
Yes, I discipline my dogs, just as I discipline my horses, as have I disciplined my children and even grandchildren. When used accordingly, and not out of control, it does help to teach! I grew up with a few spankings and swats, and getting grounded when needed, and believe me, we learned from it...learned RESPECT, which is far more than many chidren these days show! I feel that our pets can be the same....they need to know their boundaries, and who is boss...one does not have to be mean in order to teach that, but a scolding or light form of punishment will not cause a mental breakdown on a "normal" minded dog. Sure, there always are exceptrions to the rules, but overall, they learn what is acceptable and what is not.
If I am being accused of abuse because of it, then so be it, but I'll be darned if I will hide here (on this forum) too scared to say that I do or what I feed! If my dog needs a scolding or a shake of the neck, or if my horse needs a jerk on the lead or is being forced to "back", or if my child or grandchild gets a swat on the butt, it's because they need a reminder of what is appropriate and what is not!
I feed Pedigree
...have done so for years, always with healthy results. I did take the advice from some on the Forum and switched at one point to Nutro...now that was a bad experience! My shiny, healthy coated dogs became dull and flakey. There was no decrease to the volume of stool. The smell was out of this world, and was not properly formed. After about 4 huge bags of it, I changed back over, and am now happy to see the healthy, shiny coats again. I have also in the past fed canned Pedigree (chicken) in with the dry and I also feed Pedigree DentaStix and Pedigree Jumbone as treats. My dogs LOVE it all, the food and the treats! So sure, maybe I can switch to something different, and just as you said, maybe I can also change my own eating habits to something better, but until you are the one footing the bills for my family and my dogs, you have no say in the matter, and have no right to belittle people here for making the choices they do in what they feed. I am tired of hiding and of being too scared to type something here because of those of you that disapprove. I will not be shamed into doing so any further!
My dogs are very well cared for, very well loved, recieve nutritional food, and wonderful vet care. If I truely felt the food I was feeding was harming them, I would not be feeding it.