Why I went back to Orijen Dog Food?

Hey! Mid last year I made a blog post about Black Hawk Dog Food in which I discussed the positives of the food and the fact that I have now transferred to this food from Orijen for Diego. In that post I described how Diego had Orijen since he was a puppy, and had transitioned onto the adult formula when he was of age. They then annoyed me by making their bags smaller for the same price (one of the most expensive dog foods on the New Zealand market). That was the perfect time for Black Hawk to send me a PR package and bag of free dog food to trial with Diego. After that first given bag, I then purchased my own bag of food and wrote the review at that time.

I want to start this with saying that I have not changed my views from the original Black Hawk post. I still love the product, love what it contains and am stoked that New Zealand now has more options for quality dog food. I was not paid to say any of this, and although I was given some food, they never asked for a review or post. They didn't even really bring my blog into any of the emails, apart from offering my readers a bag to win.


This is about to get into the realm of TMI, but Diego has always had soft stools. All through puppyhood it was hard to get his poo's hard. Jokes aside, I literally went through a lot of strife on worrying why my dog constantly had soft stools. I took him to the vet multiple times where they took bloods and examined him, all to no answer. They finally told me some dogs were just like that, which now I don't really believe but hey. As Diego grew into adulthood he still got soft stools but not nearly as frequent and they generally had a cause (Going for a swim at the beach/river, eating human food, etc). I forgot that this was a major problem for Diego apart from telling people to not feed Diego food they shouldn't.

I started feeding Diego Black Hawk food and noticed that he had soft stools, but put it down to the fact I was doing more training with him and using a range of treats. I never guessed it was the food because I started both the new food and the training with him at nearly the same time. I started to cut back on the range of treats and start to feed him only treats from Daisy's Doggy Deli which I knew were only pure meat. After a few weeks of this he was still having soft stools, so I completely stopped any extra treats. All he ate was Black Hawk dog food. Still he was having problems, and that's when I decided that sometimes the devil you know is better.

I put Diego back onto Orijen food just after Christmas and have had only one soft stool since then. I don't know why this is, but my theory is that it is what his gut knows. He is a super sensitive soul and his body doesn't cope well with change of any sort. He gets sick drinking the water in Rotorua compared to Wellington. He vomits if he eats someone's dropped potato chips or any human food for that matter.

I don't think this makes Black Hawk a bad product. Diego's skin and coat were AMAZING on Black Hawk, and the ingredients list is great. I believe that like humans, certain foods work for certain dogs. Diego with his sensitive gut seems to be better on food that he has been on his whole life, and I don't see myself making a change again. Other dogs will thrive on this food and it's quality because they are not as temperamental in the gut area as Diego. I bet that Chico would be fantastic on this food and thrive, same with Ollie. I have learnt that Diego just isn't that dog.

My final takeaways from this are:

• I don't think I will review dog food on my blog again. It is a tough subject, and obviously you need to be on the food for a while to see it's true results. I don't regret my decision to review Black Hawk and will still recommend it, but I feel like I now look a little silly. Plus, I am probably not going to try other dog foods again.
• Diego is a sensitive sod.
• Orijen Dog Food is still crazy expensive and my wallet cries every time I buy a bag. However, Pet.co.nz offers a 10% discount if you chose to auto-ship which is amazing!