Horizon Dog Food Review [Updated May 2023]: Top Canadian Maker of Exemplary Pet Foods?

Meet Horizon Dog Food

Horizon is a family owned dog food company based in Canada. They’re located in a small town along with their own manufacturing facilities. They’re owned by two families who’ve lived in Canada all their lives and source ingredients as locally as they possibly can.

These characteristics make them attractive for those who are looking for more transparency and a way to escape the big box store brands that aren’t always transparent about their practices.

The company has a commitment to sourcing local ingredients and respecting their communities. If you’re looking to upgrade your food to something better than foods with a bunch of mystery ingredients, this could be just the food you’re looking for.

Let’s break it all down in this in-depth Horizon Dog Food Reviews.

Brand Quick Look

• Parent Company: Horizon
• Founded in: 2007
• Made in: Canada
• Available at:  Chewy, Amazon
• Types of Food: Dry
• Real Meat in First 5 Ingredients? Yes
• Recalled in Past? No

Behind the Brand

The brand is one of the few companies that completely controls the entire dog food process. They opened their first plant in 2007 and now use their two local plants to employ locals from the community and manufacture all their recipes. There are no co-packers and no outsourcing.

They strive to find local ingredients from the farmland in rural Saskatchewan, Canada.  Their recipes use high-quality ingredients that mostly come from their local sources but even when they have to go out further to find an ingredient, they always buy from trusted sources.

It’s locally operated and family owned, so transparency is a huge part of their mission.

Horizon Dog Food Reviews

Reviewed Horizon Dog Foods

1. Horizon Legacy All Life Stages Salmon
2. Horizon Legacy Puppy
3. Horizon Amicus Small & Mini Breed
4. Horizon Amicus Salmon Formula
5. Horizon Pulsar Grain-Free Lamb Recipe
6. Horizon Pulsar Whole Grain Pork Recipe
7. Horizon Complete All Life Stages
8. Horizon Complete Senior Weight Management

 

1. Horizon Legacy Salmon

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

First 5 Ingredients:

• Salmon
• Salmon Meal
• Peas
• Pea Starch
• Menhaden Meal

Horizon’s Legacy line is an ancestral inspired diet that uses whole proteins with quality grain free sources of carbohydrates.

Salmon is an excellent source of lean protein with plenty of omega fatty acids to help protect against inflammation and improve the quality of your dog’s skin and coat. It uses simple proteins and low glycemic carbs to keep your dog energetic all day.

It has fresh fruits and vegetables to provide vitamins and minerals for a healthy immune system and to support the building blocks of good health. Added glucosamine and chondroitin help protect delicate joints and keep dogs from feeling the effects of aging or to help prevent injuries in dogs prone to dysplasia.

It has pre and probiotics for healthier tummies, but some dogs may not enjoy the taste of the salmon. If that’s the case, you can try adding a little wet food on top, or you can introduce the food slowly from your old brand.

2. Horizon Legacy Puppy

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

First 5 Ingredients:

• Chicken
• Chicken Meal
• Turkey Meal
• Peas
• Pea Starch

The Horizon Legacy Puppy is a multi-protein, meat-dense formula that uses the same philosophy of an ancestral raw diet (more meat-based) but in a convenient kibble form. It has an 80% inclusion rate of meat composed of chicken, turkey, salmon, and eggs.

The protein content is extremely high (36%) owing to the excellent combination of animal protein, and it’s just the perfect level to help pups with their developing muscles and high energy needs.

Aside from the meat, this recipe boasts of fresh whole fruits and veggies, such as blueberries, broccoli, and more for a nice antioxidant boost. To raise the nutritional content even further, the recipe is fortified with chelated minerals, botanicals, and minerals.

600 million CFU/lb probiotics have also been added after cooking to ensure your dog gets the full benefits of beneficial live bacteria for his digestive system.

A few supplemental inclusions also warrant mention. It contains glucosamine and chondroitin for the joints, taurine for heart health, and yucca schidigera for inflammation mitigation.

Ingredients have been carefully selected to be low glycemic to reduce blood sugar spikes. It’s free from gluten, GMO, and byproduct ingredients. And only natural preservatives are used to ensure your pet gets only pure, healthy food.

3. Horizon Amicus Small & Mini Breed

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

First 5 Ingredients:

• Turkey
• Chicken Meal
• Red Lentil
• Peas
• Pea Starch

The Amicus Adult recipe is designed for extra small to small breed adult dogs. It has a multi-protein makeup to provide small dogs, who have higher metabolism than bigger dogs, get the proper nutrition that they need. It gets its protein from three sources — turkey, chicken, and salmon — which is why the protein level is a high 30%

Kibbles are softer and smaller here to account for a little dog’s smaller mouth and also to improve the palatability of the food. And to make it ideal for every canine, even with food sensitivities, the recipe is designed to be gluten free.

Chicken fat and salmon oil provide the required fat content of the meal. Both are sources of omega fatty acids, which are responsible for the health and proper development of your pet’s skin, coat, immune system, and cognitive functions.

There are plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables in this recipe, including bok choy, carrots, apples, and more to boost the antioxidant properties of the food. Supplemental nutrition in the form of added vitamins and minerals take the nutrient level further.

Like most Horizon formulations, it includes taurine for heart health; chondroitin and glucosamine for bone and joint support; yucca schidigera for inflammation mitigation and less smelly waste; and a substantial amount of live probiotics for a healthy digestion. It’s gluten and GMO-free and does not use artificial preservatives.

4. Horizon Amicus Salmon Formula

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

First 5 Ingredients:

• Salmon
• Salmon Meal
• Red Lentils
• Peas
• Pea Starch

Unlike the Amicus Adult formula, this small breed recipe is designed with a single source of animal protein — salmon — to make it more ideal for dogs with many food sensitivities. It’s grain- and gluten-free, does not contain GMO products or any animal byproducts, and uses only natural preservatives.

Despite the single animal protein source, this formulation manages to bring up the overall crude protein level to a high 28% because of its animal protein inclusion rate of 76%. It’s a good percentage when you consider that smaller breed dogs need more nutrition because of their faster metabolism.

Fat is provided by salmon oil only. It has both omega-3 and omega-6 for a better balance of fatty acids that are important to a properly working heart, immune system, and cognitive abilities.

What’s more, the omega-3 fatty acids found in salmon are long-chain ones like DHA, EPA, and DPA that are essential to cell membrane structure and the decrease of skin allergy development.

The low glycemic ingredients chosen for this formulation offer preventative obesity management (high glycemic food is associated with weight gain) and minimization of blood sugar spikes.

While the high antioxidant levels courtesy of the fresh fruits and veggies (blueberries, apples, carrots, and more) keep the immune system properly maintained.

To provide small pooches with a more complete nutrition, Horizon has added live probiotics, chondroitin and glucosamine, vitamins, chelated minerals, and botanicals.

5. Horizon Pulsar Grain-Free Lamb Recipe

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

First 5 Ingredients:

• Lamb Meal
• Red Lentils
• Peas
• Pea Starch
• Lamb

Horizon Pulsar Grain-Free Lamb is a high protein and high fiber nutrition diet that uses a single animal protein source, which is lamb. Unlike other grain-free diets, every recipe in the Pulsar line uses low-glycemic pulses (lentils and peas) to provide gluten-free carbohydrate content.

Lamb meal and lamb in tandem bring the protein level up to a respectable 26%. While most know that fresh lamb is a quality ingredient, some are not aware that lamb meal is the same.

Lamb meal is produced when fresh lamb is cooked until its moisture content is greatly reduced. The nutrient profile remains basically the same.

Like other Horizon recipes from other lines, this Pulsar formulation is also free from byproducts, GMO ingredients, artificial preservatives, or products with gluten. It has, however, 600 million CFU/lb of probiotics, added taurine, and chondroitin and glucosamine.

One thing that takes down this recipe a notch or two is its use of canola oil. While canola oil has numerous benefits, it’s also extremely processed, which is kind of contradicting to the whole natural and wholesome outlook of this recipe.

The list of ingredients in this Pulsar formulation is short. There are fruits and veggies (5 of them aside from the lentils and peas), botanicals, probiotics, and added vitamins and minerals.

6. Horizon Pulsar Whole Grain Pork Recipe

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

First 5 Ingredients:

• Pork Meal
• Pork
• Whole Grain Barley
• Whole Grain Oats
• Whole Grain Rye

The Horizon Whole Grain Pork is a meat-concentrated formula with pork acting as its single animal protein source. Instead of the pulses used for the Pulsar grain-free range, this formula instead uses whole grains like rye, barley, and oats to provide the necessary carbohydrate and fiber content.

Unlike milled grains, whole grains can help with energy absorption by as much as 20%. They’re also packed more with vitamins, fibers, and trace minerals. A diet with whole grains has been shown to reduce obesity and the risk of heart disease.

This recipe starts with a steroid-free and growth hormone-free pork meal followed quickly by fresh pork. What’s the difference? Just in the water content, because pork meal has had its moisture removed.

When an equal amount of pork meat and pork meal are compared, the protein content of pork meal will be higher because water has been removed from it but not the nutrients.

A consistent feature of Horizon meals is the low-glycemic ingredients. This is important, especially for obese-prone dogs, because high glycemic food tend to result in more weight gain and blood sugar spikes after eating.

The low-glycemic content of this whole grain pork formulation helps your pooch in eating more healthy. This is an excellent diet that has an optimum amount of protein, fat, and fiber. However, we’ll have to remove some points for its use of canola oil.

While canola oil is considered safe and carries many benefits for dogs, this recipe would be better served with a fat source that is more natural (in keeping with its wholesome goodness marketing). Canola oil is known for being highly processed.

7. Horizon Complete All Life Stages

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

First 5 Ingredients:

• Chicken Meal
• Whole Grain Barley
• Whole Grain Rye
• Chicken
• Whole Grain Oats

The Complete All Life Stages formula offers complete nutrition for pups of all ages and meets the AAFCO profiles for all life stages . It uses pure whole grains such as barley, rye, oats, and flaxseed to give dogs optimal and quality carbohydrates and fiber instead of the usual corn, potatoes, or tapioca

Whole grains are much better than milled ones because these unrefined ones are less processed, digest more slowly (leaving dogs feeling fuller longer), and are loaded with more important nutrients.

Blood sugar spikes are also much less likely to occur with slowly-digesting grains. (With fast-digesting grains, dogs may experience elevated levels of blood sugar.)

Chicken meal, chicken, and egg product are the only sources of animal protein, although the fat comes from another animal — salmon (as salmon oil). The protein is at a respectable 26% (it’s on the upper end of the average range that’s usual for dog foods), while the fat is at a nice 14%.

Protein is essential for developing and maintaining muscles, while fat improves the digestion and absorption of fat-soluble vitamins.

This recipe is full of antioxidant content in the form of carrots, apples, bok choy, broccoli, blueberries, and cabbage. What can’t be provided for by these fruits and vegetables are made up for by the inclusion of supplemental vitamins and chelated minerals.

Live beneficial bacteria are also included to improve the digestibility of the food and to strengthen your pet’s immune system.

Each of the ingredients in this food is carefully selected and locally sourced so that you can be sure you’re getting your pup only the real thing.

8. Horizon Complete Senior Weight Management

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

First 5 Ingredients:

• Whole Grain Barley
• Chicken Meal
• Whole Grain Oats
• Chicken
• Grain Rye

This Horizon Complete formula is designed exclusively for senior dogs, to give them as optimal a nutrition as possible. Every ingredient is carefully selected to provide your older pup all the nutrients he needs to remain as active and alert as a little one. It is composed of 71% animal protein and a purposeful blend of digestible carbohydrates.

This meat-dense formula relies on chicken meal, chicken, and egg product to provide most of the protein content. Protein is especially important for senior dogs because they tend to lose muscle mass the older they get. A proper protein level in their food can help them get enough amino acids to repair their tissues and aid in their energy metabolism.

At 4% crude fiber content, older dogs are able to fight off constipation better. Aging dogs typically have more trouble moving waste, and the right amount of fiber in their diet can make this issue go away. Whole grains carry more fiber content than other grains so the inclusion of whole grain barley, oats, and rye is a big plus.

Senior pooches also typically suffer from pain brought on by aging joints and bones (decrease of collagen in the cartilages). Horizon thoughtfully added a significant amount of chondroitin and glucosamine into this meal to give dogs some relief from the pain and inflammation brought on by old age and osteoarthritis.

The fat content (from chicken fat) is reduced to keep your older canines from gaining too much weight. Seniors have slower metabolism so fat content is best kept between 8 to 12%. In this recipe it’s in the mid-range at 10%.

What types of dog food does Horizon Dog Food offer?

Horizon makes kibbles and dry foods that mimic the canine ancestral diet based on the omnivore assessment. They use only premium ingredients and never any cheap fillers such as corn or soy and no artificial preservatives, colors, or flavors.

Each ingredient is assessed based on research and intended to provide dogs with solid nutrient options that help keep them energized all day.

The foods are arranged in four different lines. The lines have options for life stages and different proteins as well as a few choices for breed size.

They do offer two different grain free choices, and all the recipes try to eliminate foods that are familiar allergy sources, such as those cheap fillers we mentioned.

Be aware of the link between a diet heavy in peas, lentils, and a possible enlarged heart and talk to your vet about the risks.

Amicus

The Amicus line is specially formulated for small and toy breed dogs. It’s grain free and uses no cheap fillers or artificial ingredients. The kibble is smaller and softer, allowing small dogs to chew correctly despite the unique needs of their jaws and teeth. It also has premium ingredients in a nutrient-dense recipe.

• Chicken All Life Stage
• Salmon All Life Stage
• Lamb All Life Stage
• Adult Tri-Protein

Complete

The Complete line is a whole grain, meat based dog food that provides plenty of energy but is low glycemic so it won’t spike your dog’s blood sugar. It uses no cheap fillers or artificial ingredients, and you can actually feed less of it than what you would that bargain food you’re currently buying.

• All Life Stage
• Large Breed Adult
• Large Breed Puppy
• Senior Weight Management

Legacy

The Legacy line has a higher protein level and is a nod to the ancestral diet of your dog’s predecessors. It uses a whole protein source with fruits and vegetables in a convenient kibble size that’s great for storage. It’s clean and uses no cheap fillers or artificial ingredients. It’s also grain free.

• Adult
• Fish All Life Stage
• Puppy

Pulsar

Pulsar is a new type of grain free food that uses pulses (lentils) to help reduce the cost of going grain free. It starts with a protein source sourced as locally as possible and lentils from their area.
The recipe also uses plenty of fruits and vegetables to round out critical vitamins and minerals. It’s also one of the most affordable grain free options out there.

While the line started with grain-free food, it now also contains grain inclusive recipes. Instead of pulses, the grain-inclusive formulas contain core grains like barley, rye, and oats.

All Pulsar recipes contain a total of 66% of animal protein.

• Grain-Free Chicken
• Grain-Free Turkey
• Grain-Free Fish
• Grain-Free Lamb
• Grain-Free Pork
• Whole Grain Chicken
• Whole Grain Pork

Taiga

The Taiga line contains formulas with moderate animal protein with the best ingredients that Horizon has to offer. All Taiga recipes are available in 35 lb. bags, offering more food than standard dog foods but for typically less the amount.

Each Taiga formulation contains 50% animal protein content and 600 million cfu/lb probiotics.

• Grain-Free Chicken
• Grain-Free Pork
• Whole Grain Chicken
• Whole Grain Pork

Horizon Recall History List

The company carefully controls every stage of production, so there have been no recalls so far. Although we know it’s possible that accidents can happen, we are pleased with the quality and precautions taken during manufacturing.

We also think that manufacturing “in house” instead of using co-packers also reduces the risk of contamination or other things that can trigger a recall.

Horizon Dog Food Best Sellers

The food is highly rated, and we are big fans of family-owned companies. Here are three of our favorites that showcase what’s possible when a company doesn’t outsource production to someone else. Let’s take a look.

1. Legacy Salmon All Life Stages

Legacy uses a grain free approach to dog food recipes intended to make the food easier to digest and better for your dog’s overall health. It uses salmon as the main protein, which also has healthy amounts of DHA. There are no artificial ingredients and no cheap fillers that can cause inflammation or reactions and all ingredient are premium and sourced from trusted providers.

2. Amicus Adult

The Amicus line truly takes your small breed dog’s needs into consideration. The jaw and teeth of small dogs could have a tough time chewing kibbles and hard foods, so this is a good way for you to help your little companion get dense nutrition in a form that’s comfortable to chew. It’s an excellent option for those with dental issues that make other foods challenging, but it’s still affordable enough that you won’t have to sell your firstborn to afford it.

3. Pulsar Pulses Lamb

The company has innovated the use of pulses in a fresh and digestively appropriate way. It uses only premium ingredients with meat and lentils to produce a highly digestible line that won't spike your dog’s blood sugar or cause allergic reactions. It’s a great formula for dogs that need a small boost of protein but have a tough time digesting most grains and grain alternatives.

 

Customer Reviews

People like that Horizon is a family-owned company. It’s nice to find a company like that in a world of huge corporations and conglomerates. They give back to their community and have transparent manufacturing and recipes that help your dog to feel its best.

The company regularly has four to five-star ratings on chewy and Amazon with many of those ratings coming from longtime fans of the food and the company.

What do people like and dislike about Horizon dog food?

People like the full range of grain free options. Often, people want to switch to a grain free food, but there aren’t a lot of choices. With Horizon, there are plenty of choices. Customers also liked that the ingredients were better suited to their dog’s digestion and health. Others liked that their small breed dogs could finally have a food that is best suited to them.

As always, not every dog is going to like the food, and some customers noted that their dogs couldn’t be convinced to eat it. It’s not prohibitively expensive, but some of the recipes are a little more expensive for your dog not to like it. Most dogs seem to enjoy the taste, however.

Positive

• “Pulsar horizon dog food is the only food my dog’s sensitive system can take. I have not had any issues with any of the choices, and they are created, so you don’t have to have a transition period.” Dexter, chewy.com

Negative

• “I have two labs, one a picky eater and the other a vacuum for all foods..but, they would not eat this brand. Ingredients sound very good and yet, no go with my dogs” Siggie13, chewy.com

Is Horizon dog food good?

Judging by its ingredients alone, Horizon Complete Dog Food looks like an above-average dry product. Horizon Complete is a grain-inclusive dry dog food using a moderate amount of named meat meal as its main source of animal protein, thus earning the brand 4.5 stars. - Dog Food Advisor

Who owns Horizon Dog Food?

Horizon Company. They are three pet guardians that had a passion for making pet foods of a higher standard. They have grown a lot since we began in 2006, but they are just getting started and completely enjoy seeing how our small company is having such a positive impact in our community and for the people on the Horizon team.

Where is Horizon Pet Food Company located?

They are situated in Rosthern, Saskatchewan, Canada. Its a wonderful community built around agriculture. Its roughly 300 miles north of the Canada/US border (eastern side on Montana). Crop lands for as far as you can. Saskatchewan calls their home the ‘land of the living skies’.

Did Horizon have had any recalls?

No, Horizon has never had a recall.