Trying to pick a "good" dog food, any help?

Jojo, I was really surprised at your statement that Purina Mills' Exclusive is very close to the original formula of Dog Chow.  I have ingredient lists for all of the Exclusive formulas and I'd really like to see how Dog Chow stacks up to it.  Exclusive doesn't seem like a bad food.  I've never personally looked up the ingredients for Dog Chow but from what almost everyone says, it's not a good food.  But then again, you said "original formula" - that's not the same as what's on the shelf now? We have a co-op close by that sells Exclusive and I looked into it because it's much more reasonably priced than the Eagle Pack I currently feed but since they don't have a large breed puppy formula, I decided against it (I have a Golden puppy as well as an Aussie puppy).  I don't want to feed two different foods if I can avoid it and the EP Large Breed Puppy is fine for my Aussie, with a little adjustment.

I have had dogs my entire life, and I have tried many foods, I was even "enlightened" at one point in time and tried many of the so called super premium foods, and my dogs do clearly better on Pro Plan and Purina One than they do on any of the premium foods.

I can't comment knowledgeably on the spectrum of dog foods, but I will say that if there's wheat, grain or corn in the food I won't feed it.  Heck I can't even feed chicken based foods.  But on the lighter side, we've found a food combination that works (Solid Gold/Blue Buffalo) and we're sticking to it.   
 
I think that the price of the so-called premium foods is offset by the better overall health of the dogs life span.

Xerxes, just out of curiosity, are your choices based on allergy concerns or personal choice? Christi

ORIGINAL: my3sonsohio

Jojo, I was really surprised at your statement that Purina Mills' Exclusive is very close to the original formula of Dog Chow.  I have ingredient lists for all of the Exclusive formulas and I'd really like to see how Dog Chow stacks up to it.  Exclusive doesn't seem like a bad food.  I've never personally looked up the ingredients for Dog Chow but from what almost everyone says, it's not a good food.  But then again, you said "original formula" - that's not the same as what's on the shelf now?

Correct!  Origanally (10 years ago) Dog Chow was made of more wholesome ingredients.  I like Exclusive.  It's great for it's price.  How I meant it was...yes purina does lots of testing and if Dog Chow is "the best" then why do they make Pro Plan, which is obviously better.

Yes, I have seen dogs on Pro Plan that look great.  I know a yorky breeder that used to feed Eagle Pack Lamb before it went holistic.  After it went holistic her fussy yorkies wouldn't eat it anymore.  She tried every other good dog food out there before she tried Pro Plan and he dogs love Pro Plan and do great on it.  I was disappointed, but at least it's not plain old Dog Chow.

Sorry, I can't figure out how to fix that quote thing.[&:]

but I will say that if there's wheat, grain or corn in the food I won't feed it. Heck I can't even feed chicken based foods. But on the lighter side, we've found a food combination that works (Solid Gold/Blue Buffalo) and we're sticking to it.

You know that Blue and most Solid Gold formulas contain grain, right?

Rice, quinoa, amaranth, etc etc are grains. Corn, wheat, barley, and millet are grains.

JoJo the Pogo--does this mean I should not express my opinions and ideas ???

One rumor that is hard to shake as it is a matter of faith is that vets know nothing about nutrition and receive only "two weeks" reading a book written by Iams. That vets are rolling in the cash from "kickbacks" from pushing major brands. If you say that a 15 year old dog on a lifetime of Purina is healthy, including blood tests, then they will say that you are wrong. That all of your education and half a century of experience mean nothing. They say this after reading about holistics and raw for a few years, not from actually going through an ACVN program.
 
Some people, with a few books and a few websites, think they know more about nutrition than you do and that you know nothing about determining a dog's health because you don't go gonzo for raw or "holistics." "Designer Science" where you can pick the facts that fit your paradigm.
 
We don't usually get vets in the nutrition threads to respond to such allegations and I think most vets can't be bothered and don't want to be "browbeat" by someone who has no formal education.
 

I don't know what vets you go to but i got allmost a year of nurtrition, but for the 6 different  animals that we studied..I don;t know of any vets that got just two weeks of nutrition but then I didn't go to all the vets schools in the states.People say this same thing about  physicians...that they study no nutrition  which is a crock...in fact if I ever got around to writing my thesis before I got into vet school it would have been on cattle nutrition...after 50 years I don;t think I will write it...

THANK you Ron,
A voice of sensiblity.
 
It gets tiring to hear that crap repeated time and again by people who "read about it on the internet."
 
ugh

I have a question and then i will shut up..my experience with store bought dog foods has always been good and economical for the clients ( also I never sold  one can of dog food in 45 years) and good for the pets..But what bad experiences have some peopale had with commericial foods...and I am not referring to food allergies which can happen with any protein going into the dog

Link's stool on Purina Puppy Chow, the first week I had him, was runny and green. Switched him to Solid Gold Wolfcub and he's been doing great ever since.

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! First of all DVET,,,I admire your courage!    LOL!   Really, I admire you for sticking up and telling us what you believe.  Even knowing most here will not believe you  or at least don't want to.
Ron, I admire your courage equally as much...what you said is 100% right.  This is all about reading,,,not experience..with most of us.
Dvet,,,I feed my Dane Eagle Pack,,and for a reason. The Great Dane Lady, Linda Arndt has  used it for years and it was trial tested on large breeds for generations.  Being that Danes are prone to bloat,,,I want to feed my Dane what has been the best for them. My sons Dane Ollie also eats Eagle for that reason.
BUT I have said here on this board for a long time,,,I fed my pitty anything I had a coupon for years ago,,, no kibble but things like Gains Burgers,,Kibbles and Bits and other soft stuff. She lived to about 16 years old. At that time I fed my Dane/Shepherd mix Biljac frozen, which was mainly meat,,,but she got the "runs" with anything else I ever tried to feed her and the vet suggested BilJac. THAT was a long time back,,,I don't think BilJac kibble had been invented back then.
More recently, my sons Dane Ollie was on Iams,,because that is what the breeder told him to feed. He made at least 6 piles a day on Iams and an aweful grumbly tummy,,,THAT was sure not working,,,we switched him to a few different kinds of kibble and eventually came across Idog and started to read about the 4-Ds. in grocery store pet food.   I think THAT is what started to get to most people-the 4 D's.    People here are not regular pet owners... not for the most part. We push things a little far...we read more than the regular pet owner, we compare more.   I'm one of them so I'm not knocking anyone, but I agree with you...most dogs probably do really well on Purina,, but no one here is ever going to admit to it! 
One day a long time ago, I started a survey here about food and allergies,, wondering which food their dog was allergic too...but it was a rare person that had a dog with an allergy of food, that they were SURE of.   And in the conversation about raw,,,the people here that feed raw seem to have the same problems as the rest of us,,,but they will never admit it it either.  So you are probably right about the more economical food for their dogs...   but I for one will be sticking with Eagle Pack!

For every good experience someone has on a Premium Dog food, I can find someone who has had a bad experience, and the same goes for the commercial foods.  Like everything else it is not black and white,  I started off feeding Purina One and never had any problems, but I kept being told how bad of a food it was and began to believe it, so  I started trying most of the Super Premiums, well I never found one that my dogs did well on, and some had disasterous affects.  So the bottom line is the best food is the food that works best for your dog, it may be Innova or it may be Purina, and not one person can look at an ingredients list and say a dog will do great on that food.