Husse Senior (Working Dog) review

Our scale places this in the Average band, below the Good band where the everyday adult dry food sits, with protein and processing, nutritional balance and transparency all reading Poor. The label prints the reasons, and nothing about them is hidden. The headline protein source is unnamed, wheat appears three times before the named chicken, carbohydrate is estimated at 55.9% of dry matter against the 46.2% typical, and ash runs to 7.6%. What the bag does deliver is a complete, fully fortified maintenance ration in a large format, and for a household feeding several dogs at once that is a real thing to offer.

Ingredients, as declared: dried animal proteins, wheat, wheat meal, wheat bran, maize, rice, dried peas, dried chicken, animal fat, vegetable fibres (3%), linseed, hydrolysed animal protein, minerals, glucosamine (250 mg/kg), chondroitin sulphate (250 mg/kg).

Dried animal proteins is the entry that shapes everything else. Dried is good news in itself, since that weight has already given up its water, but the plural noun could cover a range of species and the label never says which. Dried chicken does appear further down in eighth place, which is why chicken shows up as a declared allergen even though it is not the main protein source in the recipe.

Wheat, wheat meal and wheat bran come next, then maize, rice and dried peas. That is a firmly cereal-led construction. Carbohydrate is estimated at 55.9% of dry matter, where 46.2% is typical for an adult dry food. The wheat bran is at least doing useful work, being the fibrous outer layer of the grain, and it helps keep things moving through an older gut.

Protein converts to 23.4% of dry matter and fat to 9.8%. Neither figure is high for a food carrying a working label, and the energy figure follows suit at an estimated 332 kcal per 100g against 357 typical for an adult dry food. A dog putting in a full day outdoors should be fed to appetite and condition rather than to the middle of the table on the bag.

Ash at 7.6% of dry matter and calcium at 1.63% put the mineral content on the high side for an adult food. That is not a problem for a grown dog. It is a reason to keep this particular bag away from a large-breed puppy, where growth is sensitive to how much calcium arrives in a day.

Glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate are both printed at 250 mg per kilo each, so the joint pair is a dose and not a hint. Vegetable fibres at 3% and linseed round out the list, linseed supplying omega 3 in its plant form. The vitamin and trace mineral panel is fully dosed, with vitamin A at 18000 IU and zinc at 65 mg per kilo. The additive line stops at the word antioxidants without naming which ones are used. That is the one place the label could say more.

£3.60 a kilo, sold in a 15 kg bag and a 2 x 15 kg double.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats about 253 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), which comes to £0.91 a day. The label's own table asks 120 to 480 grams for a dog between 10kg and 30kg, a wide span that reflects how much the work itself changes the answer.