I looked on the interwebs for an answer. The answer was …
Grain free may or may-not be linked to a heart condition. don’t ask us, talk to your vet.
For what, exactly?? This was PetMD and AKC. You guys consult with vets, right? I am not going to order x-rays, blood tests and have an exam just for a diet recommendation. So I am just supposed to ask an opinion I have to pay for?
No, for I am cheap. So I ask you for your free opinion.
Both my dogs are about 5 years old, active and healthy. Both are large breed pit bull mixes. One part lab, one part french bull dog. I got both from the pound 4 years ago. The pound person said grain free. They have been eating Kirkland Grain Free for years but they seem to have lost interest in it. What say you?
**** me, this was NOT supposed to go in the pit. 
Okay, I actually have some legit insight into this, because one of my dogs participated in a study of grain free diets and dilated cardiomyopathy. Would have been two of my dogs but the old man doesn’t handle strangers messing with him much and due to COVID no outsiders were allowed in the building.
The suspected culprit in the grain free diets isn’t grain or the lack thereof, per se, but what’s used to replace grains as the filler and if that filler is mostly legumes, that’s what seems to be causing the problem. My younger doggo, who was four at the time of the study, has a very slight tendency to not pump as much blood out of the heart as one would expect from a young healthy dog who leads an incredibly active life. She’s just barely outside of normal range so it’s possible this is just normal for her and not the beginning of DCM but I prefer to be more safe than sorry. The vet in charge of the study suggested I change up her diet from the salmon/legume formula she’d been on to something without the legumes so I changed them over to a chicken/brown rice formula with no peas or other legumes (Kirkland Signature Adult Formula) and began supplementing all the dogs with 1gm of powdered taurine per meal (taurine is very good for heart health as well as helping to prevent retinopathy in older dogs) and he suggested I have her tested again to see if anything has changed–which I do plan on doing this summer even though an echocardiogram is spendy AF when it’s not covered by a study!
I went down this rabbit hole when it was headline-making news (in some quarters). Here’s where I landed:
Feel free to skip to the Conclusions section. There really is no definitive, one-size-fits-all answer.
At the time, I switched my dog over to a brand of kibble that has some grain in it. I also rotate various supplements, sardines, eggs, and fresh meat into his diet. It’s a bit of a shotgun approach, but that’s what we felt was best at the time.
I think much of the science – as alluded to in the linked article – has been weak, and much of the ‘publicity’ has had que$tionable motivations behind it.
My $0.02.
I feed our dogs Merrick dry (grain free) along with a bit of their canned food, but they also get some treats. They are doing well.
I do have some concerns regarding dogs having lost interest in their food. In my opinion the worst thing you can do is to change their diet based on their “interest”. Feed what you feel is the best diet for them. Catering to their whims will, in the long run, train them to be finicky.
The main trouble with grain-free diets for dogs is that there is little evidence of their efficacy. There’s nothing wrong with feeding grains, it is a fad like so many. Dogs are not obligate carnivores, they can digest all sorts of stuff.
The problem with commercial grain-based dog kibble is not that it has grain in it, but that it has so little good-quality protein. Making up your protein quota with soy and ground up chicken feathers will put a crimp in any dog’s health.
Kibble should have a named meat (not “meal meal” or “meat byproducts”) as the first and the second ingredient. Corn and soy are both best avoided or be farther down the ingredient list, as dogs don’t do all that well on them. Look for other grains being the major ingredient after the meat.
I’ve been shopping dog kibble that way for forty years. My go-to for the past fifteen has been Canidae All Ages, a mix of several meats. Has grain in it. It’s a premium but not a super-premium food. Works for me.
Or maybe it is a sign your dogs aren’t getting what they need from the food you are feeding them. Companies change their formulations and ingredient sources all the time. Sometimes in a negative direction.
The podcast “Science Vs” by Wendy Zukerman just had an episode on exactly this topic. I suggest checking it out. All of their episodes are very highly researched.
J.
I can only tell you of my experience. In the last 50 years, I had several dogs live healthy lives to advanced ages, for their breeds. I fed 'em Iams Eukanuba, and later the Iams old-dog food. They didn’t get fat, and the vet said they had no nutritional troubles. They got no canned food, and they didn’t get people food. My only nutritional regret is giving in to my Lhasa Apso’s fondness for ice cubes. It cost her several teeth. My vet warned me, but I didn’t listen.
I also had a succession of healthy, long-lived cats. They ate Purina Cat Chow and Meow Mix from a continuous-feeder. No canned food, and the only people food they got was what they could steal from the kitchen counter when we were careless enough to leave it out.