to eat one's own dog food
1
9.3
- idiom
- Jargon
:
usar lo que se vende
- By eating one's own dog food, we can understand our product better and improve it.
Examples
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The company believes that by eating its own dog food, it creates better products for its customers.
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By eating our own dog food, i.e., applying our products for our own benefit, we learn and can improve.
Blog text (26) -
They've eaten their own dog food.
Blog text (21) -
As the Googlers say, "You need to eat your own dog food and make sure it's the best dog food before you go passing it off on other folks."
Blog text (8) -
I thought that Romney's team was just bullshitting externally, but it does now look like these guys really did eat their own dog food.
Blog text (6) -
However, I think that the reason they didn't focus on the UI was for the sake of the developers who would use the tool (and because they ate their own dog food).
Blog text (14) -
To truly appreciate the software, the team decided to eat their own dog food and use it daily.
Antonyms
How Committed
- Jargon
1
9.3
5
3.2
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to use one's own products' is not derivable from the literal parts—'eat', 'one's own', 'dog', 'food'—which describe consuming dog food; the phrase is an industry-specific metaphor rather than a compositional description. A B1 learner who knows the constituent words would not reliably infer this non-literal, culturally conditioned sense without prior exposure.
Etymology
Eat one's own dog food may come from dog food makers who had their own dogs actually eat the dog food they sold to show it was good and safe. So, it now means 'use your own products' to prove they work and to find problems yourself.