Dogs who thrive on 'bad' foods...?

Do any of you watch with bemusement as dogs you know seem to thrive on the really 'bad' foods...?

I just ask because a friend has a 9 yr old Lab. He gets four tins of Pedigree a day; two in the morning, two late afternoon. He also gets various treats, usually full of artificial colours etc.

He gets some odd bits from the table when my friend eats but not that much. This Lab is the most energetic dog in the park usually! He is always lively, doesn't seem to suffer skin irritations or a sensitive stomach.

He is from a supposedly very good breeder but occasionally, as I watch him, and then reflect on the various foods I've tried with Dexter (all of them 'good' quality) I do feel a bit bemused My friend's 9 yr old Lab has more energy than my 2 yr old Lab!!

Is it just a case sometimes of good breeding outweighing diet? Are some dogs simply more energetic than others?

No different to people who appear to "thrive" on fast food, alcohol and fags.........

Yes but I bet you wouldn't want to poop-scoop a dog fed on such a rubbish diet!

Its probably just as nornal as a dog fed a dry kibble. Katie is fed tinned (renal) wet food & theres no difference in her nice firm pooh to Harveys bigger firm pooh & he gets dry kibble with occasional fresh tripe or tinned (Butchers) tripe

I certainly agree that different dogs thrive on different foods. In the past I have changed my lot from Iams (not too bad, but probably not the best) to "better" foods such as James Wellbeloved and also CSJ. As soon as I changed them over their coats became dull and started to fall out. So I put them back on Iams and they went back to their lovely gleaming coats. Lots of people ask what we feed them on as they look so healthy.
However Poppy is the only one of my 5 who doesn't suit Iams. I changed her to Veterinary Advanced Nutrition Sensitive by Pets At Home and now she's gleaming and has gained weight and is really healthy looking.
When Bessie (RIP) was alive she was fed on Chappie tinned and kibble and her overall health improved dramatically.
I think if it suits why change it.

I personally believe that a thoroughly bad diet will catch up with us all - whether we be dog or human - eventually.

I think certainly as far as us humans as concerned we can get away pretty much with murder if we have an immaculate diet. I know of so many people - my parents, an old lady we look after to name just 3 - who drink, or drank, like fishes, for decade after decade, smoked themselves stupid, but had an amazingly healthy diet of meat, fish, home grown vegetables, fruit and lashings of exercise every day, and got away with it. My parents are in their 90's in the case of my father, and not far off that for my mother, and for 60 odd years they have shared at least a bottle of wine every night, plus aperatifs before dinner and sometimes a liqueur or port afterwards. They are slim as reeds, fit as fiddles and put many youngsters half their age to absolute shame.

He's probably got worms keeping him slim

I know of a 18 year Collie that has been brought up on scraps off the plate mixed with either bread or mixer dog biscuits, he is the most young looking 18 year old plus he has never had any illnesses, only time he visits the vet is for boosters, and he can certainly walk miles.
Then there is the case of the two dogs who live nearby one a springer another a heinz 57, the guy that owes them feeds them whatever he lays his hands one, be it a tin of meat or scraps, the springer is 13 and the other is 12, they both spend every day without fail walking miles.
So many people round here have had the RSPCA out to the guy as unfortunatly he has mental health issues after a bad accident, but they can not find a reason to take them from him, both are healthy and fit dogs, the only thing they can pin on him is flea probs which they see to periodically for him and an RSPCA inspector comes every 6 months to him to get them checked by a vet.
Ours are fed Chappie/tripe with Chappie mix, not exactly a dear food, but they never have problems, yet my sister's dog has the best quality food, she spends most of her time researching whats best, even takes the vets advice, all food measured out to the right quantity etc etc and her dog suffers extreme skin allergies and stomache intolerences towards certain foods.
Maybe some dogs are like humans and do thrive better on rubbish

I know of a small cross breed who lived to be 15/16, he was rescued by his owners from abroad , he was fed Winalot (sp?).

the dogs we had as kids ate all sorts of crap. Chocolate, cakes, crisps, biscuits, Bakers, Pedigree/Winalot, Wagg, the list is endless. Neither of them ever got the squits, skin issues/silly over all the e numbers

We also used to tie Bracken up outside shops, walk them alongside the road off lead, and walked them for miles before they were "fully grown"

Bracken died age 13, and Sheena (his mum) was nearly 15. But would I treat my current or future dogs in the same way? Nope!