SERVING UP HOME-COOKED DOG FOOD

In Hollywood, a land known for marquees and famous signs, there’s probably no sign that’s more on the nose than the store Just Food For Dogs. There, four-legged customers sample today’s offerings, while their owners stock up on the food.

Sarah Rector and her French bulldog, Lulu, are buying her regular order, including beef with russet potato, and venison with squash. Rector says she feels better buying the store’s food for Lulu rather than commercial dog food: “I just know that she’s getting the best possible, like, ingredients and health and overall wellness.”

She and her husband don’t have children, yet, but they have another French bulldog, “so I feel like we have kids.”

It’s tempting to write this off as a trendy L.A. fad, but Just Food For Dogs president Carey Tischler says this store is here because of a permanent shift in the roughly $50 billion U.S. pet food industry. “The last year of research shows that 82% of families think of pets as family, or as children, and that’s up significantly,” he said.

Joe Ovalle is Just Food’s guest experience manager. He says all of their pet food is approved by the USDA for human consumption. “It is human-grade food, something you and I could eat,” he said.

He sampled one of their recipes, for fish and sweet potato. “Oh my God, it’s like ceviche,” he smiled.

It may seem a bit indulgent, and can cost double the price of Kibbles, but some say that feeding our dogs natural food is what we should have been doing all along – and making it yourself can cost the same as buying food from the store.

“It’s about going back to what is biologically appropriate, that they ate for tens of thousands of years,” said pet nutritionist Christine Filardi. “They ate prey animals and table scraps. So, I’m just educating people on how to go back to what they ate for tens of thousands of years prior to commercial pet food.”

Filardi is author of “Home Cooking For Your Dog,” a cookbook offering recipes with what she says are the three necessities: animal protein, a carb, and a veggie, as well as a few extravagant treats, like her bacon and cream cheese muffins.

Filardi says whether it’s store-bought or home-cooked fresh food, the results are the same: well-fed animals live longer, have cheaper vet bills, and are happier … which makes the owners happy, too.

“They take such good care of us,” she said. “We should take good care of them.”