http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eat_one's_own_dog_food
should answer the question
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eat_one%27s_own_dog_food
"To say that a company "eats its own dog food" means that it uses the products that it makes. For example, Microsoft emphasizes the use of its own software products inside the company. "Dogfooding" is a means of conveying the company's confidence in its own products.[1]"

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/103/282904132_d247e125f6.jpg
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the wiki claims that the first use was in a 1988 internal email at microsoft.

i graduated in 1985, and I'm almost certain I heard the phrase in one of my broadcast law classes.

the anecdote i heard involved a pet food company that changed their recipes then experienced a drop in sales. the president of the company brought in a can of their "new improved" product and served it up for some company directors. not surprisingly, they all hated the taste.

then he opened up an old can (made using the old recipe) and they agreed that it was much better (although still dog food.)

Makes for a nice story, but it's apocryphal at best.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eat_one%27s_own_dog_food

http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/Eat+your+own+dog+food

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/62/microsoft.html

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To say that a company "eats its own dog food" means that it uses the products that it makes. For example, Microsoft emphasizes the use of its own software products inside the company.
The idea originated in television commercials for Alpo brand dog food; actor Lorne Greene would tout the benefits of the dog food, and then would say it's so good that he feeds it to his own dogs. In 1988, Microsoft manager Paul Maritz sent Brian Valentine, test manager for Microsoft LAN Manager, an email titled "Eating our own Dogfood" challenging him to increase internal usage of the product; from there, the usage of the term spread through Microsoft, as chronicled in the book Inside Out: Microsoft—In Our Own Words. The phrase became slang during the dot-com craze, and is used most commonly in reference to technology companies.
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