300 bags of dog food tested. Thousands of hours of research. Independent reviews you can trust.
Lead Product Tester
Sarah has been researching dog nutrition for over 12 years, ever since her golden retriever developed severe food allergies. She spent years working with a board-certified veterinary nutritionist to create a home-cooked diet. Now she tests every kibble and canned food we review. Sarah lives in Oregon with two rescue dogs and a habit of reading ingredient labels for fun.
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Consumer Advocacy Editor
Mark spent 10 years in pet retail management before joining Dog Food Nerd. He knows the industry side of dog food—how marketing works, which brands push expensive ingredients that don't matter, and which companies have great customer service. He handles our brand comparison guides and price analysis. Mark owns a 14-year-old beagle and a labrador puppy.
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Nutrition Research Associate
Lena has a background in animal science and has completed courses in companion animal nutrition through the University of Illinois. She is our fact-checker, making sure every claim in our reviews lines up with current research. She joined our team because she wanted reliable dog food information for her own senior pit bull who has kidney issues.
View profile →We buy every bag of dog food ourselves. No free samples, no sponsored reviews, no affiliate influence on ratings. Each food gets fed to at least one of our own dogs for a minimum of two weeks. We track stool quality, coat condition, energy levels, palatability, and how willing the dog is to eat the same food on day fourteen as on day one.
We check ingredient lists against AAFCO standards, look at guaranteed analysis, and call manufacturers to ask about sourcing, manufacturing standards, and recall history. If a brand won't share those details, we say so.