My Mom's side of the family are all long lived (thankfully I take after that side). My grandmother was nearly 90 when she died and ate meat everyday. My great aunt is 95 and when I visited two years ago, she was still eating bacon and eggs, and still able to drive. My uncle, 85 eats the same diet with added candy, and is still strong as a ox. Which is why I just smile when someone talks about “Extending my life” by becoming a vegan
That is the current speculation.
I think the problem there is more ridiculous people who feed omnivores in a very regimented and restricted fashion. That's ridiculous and completely bassackwards from how dogs were fed prior to Purina et al. creating highly processed convenience food. They should be out hunting and scavenging too. My little B ran off a lion from a kill a couple months ago and ended up with days of utmost joy as a result.
At any rate, the point of the post is that shifting significant amounts of a diet to any sort of single food is a problem, but most especially when it is a refined product.
I think one of the issues at play here is the effect that the intensive breeding that occurs in the pure breed industry has on their robustness. The resulting prevalence of allergies does tend to necessitate trying to find a limited ingredient diet. I do not mean this as a defense of these diets, and more a comment on the short sightedness of the drive to selectively breed new dogs into existence based on cute aesthetics (all said as an owner of a "cute" pure breed).
Thats a brave dog!
While I can clam no credentials regarding dog nutrition... I do have observations.
My daughter adopted an oldish (unknown) Yorkie. (Mookles)
The dog has no teeth and went blind within a couple months of adoption (inoperable).
The dog had severe stomach distress, making stomach noises hard to believe for a 6.5 pound dog.
This was often accompanied by lack of appetite, and lack of bowel movements.
I make my own bone broth (chicken) and began giving my daughter frozen cubes of the stuff.
That was mixed with the dog's canned food. Mookles loved it and been eating it for over a year.
Prior to this the stomach growling was near constant... afterward it did on not return.
Mookles did not start out very healthy, but she seems healthy now.
Later, I started making Stan Efferding's "monster mash", there is a hilarious video of Mookles destroying about two cups of it.
Which, obviously was way too much. But the usually picky eater ate ferociously. No ill effects despite the ill advised quantity.
I'd recommend making mash for yourself, and if it is getting toward expiration... let your dog have some.
I usually make my own broth, which produces a lot of usable chicken meat, so I make a chicken version (Stan might frown on this).
Mookles did not frown on the chicken version.
I make my rice with bone broth.
I cook the chicken in water in a crock pot, then strip the meat, cut the bones and cook on low over night.
Saves a ton of money making your own broth.
BTW, eating the mash myself really straightened out my macros. I feel much better. My lifts have been stronger.
My neighbors were dog rescue fosters. They made their own dog food with looked suspiciously like the mash. There were a couple of ingredients
they put in that were designed for dogs, (like egg shells and pumpkin). They claimed all sorts of health benefits, some of which I could see myself.