At Old Guard Pet Company, we have a straightforward but significant priority: to provide your dog with nutritious diets that are backed by scientific research, promoting their optimal health and well-being. We take this responsibility seriously. Our company was founded by a Ph.D. expert in canine nutrition, who has over ten years of experience in research and development for leading pet food brands. As an independent, family-owned small business, we combine our independence and expertise to create recipes that focus solely on delivering the premium nutrition your dog deserves, using the power of science.
Dogs hold a special place in American society, being an integral part of our lives, from our homes to even serving on the frontlines. We acknowledge and celebrate this unique bond by providing your dog with honest and high-quality nutrition, supported by decades of scientific knowledge that can enhance their health.
1. Our Priority is Your Dogs’ Health: We accomplish this through honest formulation strategies and specific science-backed ingredients.
We believe the best way to support your dog’s health is to leverage science-backed ingredients and nutrients with a history of proven health benefits. While many companies will formulate their recipes to be “complete and balanced” for your dog, we go beyond this by delivering additional nutrition where it has been proven to be beneficial to your dog, including:
- Higher Vitamin E levels for a robust immune system
- Fish oil provides higher levels of Omega-3s, including DHA, for improved skin and coat and cognitive support
- A combination of fibers, prebiotics, and probiotics for a healthy microbiome, digestion, and resilience
- Chicken cartilage, rich in collagen, for joint health and mobility
- High-quality animal-based proteins, like fresh chicken, for strong muscles
- A mix of ancient grains for energy, natural nutrients like antioxidants and vitamins
Including these ingredients eliminates the need to supplement recipes with expensive treats, supplements, home cooked/raw table scraps, or toppers, which can make your recipe much more costly, and risk causing nutritional imbalances and excess calorie intake. Only a tiny percentage of dogs need supplementation, which will usually be at the direction of a veterinarian. We will never recommend supplementing our recipes as it is costly and unnecessary for most healthy dogs.
Similarly, at Old Guard, we avoid popular marketing gimmicks, which started the popular grain-free trend with no nutritional rationale for most healthy dogs or following human trends without scientific justification for the dog’s health, such as adding “garnishes of fruits and vegetables,” or ingredients like CBD with limited testing. Ingredients in our recipes are backed by decades of research and proven benefits for your dog’s health and well-being.
A dollar spent on gimmicks is a dollar less spent on science-backed ingredients that can truly impact your dog’s health.
2. Each custom recipe includes the right balance of nutrients and ingredients for dog-specific nutrition and needs.
Balance is essential for your dog’s health. Certain ingredients and nutrients can work in a complementary or even a competitive manner. With our nutritional expertise, we customize each recipe for specific dog sizes, life stages, and lifestyles of dogs to ensure they are getting the appropriate nutrition. Examples of how we balance our recipes include:
- Balancing omega fatty acids to ensure the omega six and omega three fatty acids work together synergistically.
- Leveraging animal-based protein sources in each diet to ensure a more balanced amino acid profile versus vegetable-based proteins limiting in certain amino acids.
- Wholesome grains are included to provide balanced glycemic profiles and sustained energy availability for critical health functions, including in the brain.
- I will NOT add pieces to the kibble that are nutritionally imbalanced.
We believe in ensuring that each bite is balanced with the complete nutrition your pet needs; therefore, we do not add “supplemental” pieces or chunks of raw/freeze-dried/shredded/bits/fruit or veggie pieces to our kibble. Why? It is difficult to control how much of these pieces are in each meal and how much your dog eats, which can create an imbalanced meal leading to nutritional deficiencies.
At Old Guard, we ensure each bite is perfectly balanced, slow-cooked to maximize nutrient retention, and highly digestible so your dog gets the balanced nutrition he needs to thrive with each bite.
3. Old Guard, founded and owned by a PhD in Canine Nutrition, is a small, independent, family-owned business.
While you may think your pet food is independent, check again. The top 5 pet food companies own most pet foods. This means Old Guard competes with some pet food industry goliaths. Our founder has a Ph.D. in companion animal nutrition and, after spending over a decade working on some of the largest pet food brands, decided to leave and start Old Guard to build the best products for your dog’s health, educate pet owners about canine nutrition and offer an alternative for pet owners looking for a food that isn’t pushing agendas or marketing misconceptions on what is healthy. At Old Guard, we don’t hire “expert consultants”; we have one leading the company so you can be sure your dog is getting an expertly crafted, high-quality diet.
Old Guard is entirely independent. We have not received any outside financing, and no one has any influence on either our messaging, recipe designs or quality standards.
4. America First Mentality: This means being honest, innovative, and independent.
We are transparent in our values. America is the greatest nation in the world, and dogs are core to our way of life. They are in our homes, on the frontlines, and undoubtedly “man’s best friend.” We celebrate this unique bond by giving back to working dogs that serve our great nation, from Police K-9s, Military Working Dogs, Service dogs, and Search and Rescue K9s.
All of our products are made right here in the United States. Unlike larger corporations with operations across the globe, we are only focused on America and supporting the American economy.
This message is consistent in our marketing and communications strategy, where you will undoubtedly see a celebration of everything American. We have even selected the dogs we feature in large part because each has played essential roles in American history and the American way of life. We proudly share these histories as an homage to American greatness and the role of dogs in our culture.
We celebrate America. We support traditional American values and won’t yield to progressive calls for action, like many large corporations in America have, pet food included. We are honest about the nutrition in our products and what will benefit your pet’s health, and we will innovate as quality science evolves.
5. Trust the History of Science: Do the best for your dog, and feed Old Guard while upholding your values.
The pet food industry is massive, there is no shortage of options for you and your dog, and companies are becoming increasingly competitive, trying to stand out by leveraging unsubstantiated marketing gimmicks to attract buyers. Our goal at Old Guard is to do what is honest and the best for your dog. We will not yield to trends that don’t benefit our dog’s health. We will continue to help provide you with the knowledge to make the best decisions for your dog by giving educational articles on canine nutrition, the pet food industry, and dog training and behavior.
Lastly, supporting a company that shares your values has become increasingly important for many people. If you love America and the values that built this nation, then your values are aligned with those of Old Guard Pet Company.
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Five Dog Food Nutrition Secrets From a PhD
With so much information floating around out there on dog nutrition, how can you be sure you have the facts? In this guide, Founder Maggie Gooding, PhD, in Animal Nutrition and Behavior, with over a decade experience in R&D working on some of the largest pet food brands share five nutrition secrets to help your dog live a longer healthier life.
Get the inside scoop on:
- Nutrients
- Energy Balance
- Weight Control
- Dog Eating Habits
- Fibers and Fillers
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