What are the Best Foods for My doggie??

 You should check out the Nutrition section here, it's very thorough and a lot of your questions can be answered via the search function.

 do have to say that Iams is definitely not high on my list of quality foods.  Checking out www.dogfoodproject.com may be helpful. :) 

 Some of the most common foods that people on this board seem to like:

Innova

Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul

Canidae (apparently also one of the cheapest)

Solid Gold

Wellness

Timberwolf Organics (though they're changing their ingredients)

Eagle Pack Holistic

Blue Buffalo

There are many others, but there's somewhere to start at least :) IMO you can do a lot better for your money than Iams. But the bottom line of course is to feed what works best for you and your dog.
 

I like to think of Iams, Eukanuba, Purina, SD and such like feeding fast food to your pet. Yea - it's fine every now an then, and it's not the worst thing out there - but there are just so many other better options out there. Your vet will probaby reccomend Science Diet - because that's what they were trained with in vet school. Vets are not experts in animal nurtition - you need a nutritionist for that. Just like you wouldn't go to a dentist to have your eyes examined.

The dogfood project website is very helpful - lots of good tips, why things are good and bad.

I think the canned vs. dry food is something you'll have to decide on your own. I feed dry - because it's more in my budjet, canned food can be quiet more expensive.

I personally feed Blue Buffalo - I think we are using the Wilderness bag right now, but I've also used Orijen puppy. Both are what I concider to be great foods - for different things. not every food works for every dog. I have a cat that will break out in an allergic reaction and rip her face apart - unless she eats Purina. She's an old lady - so I'm not pushing anything new on her. When she is no longer with us, I'll look into switching my cats to a better food.

The higher quality you feed - the better your dog will look and feel. Casey doesn't smell, his coat is super soft and shinny, his poops do not smell nearly as bad, his eyes and ears are clear and his allergies are not nearly as bad. He came to me eating Science Diet - but I switched him immediatly. I never regreted it, ever.

I recently switched my two from Eukanuba to Canidae and I've seen a huge difference.  To me the food looks and smells better.  M&M's coats are getting even better and their poops are nice and solid as well has being smaller.

Now I'm working on finding the right amounts for them - it can be trial and error.  I switched foods because I've recently discovered this thing called nutrition for myself and I want the dogs to join me.

Beneful is worse than Iams.  There's a ton of fillers and coloring, plus a nice load of chemical preservatives. **Please** check out the dog food project site - I swear it'll really help! 

He eats Blue Buffalo - I get it at petsmart. It's easy to get to, and not too expensive for a smaller dog. You will be paying more money per BAG, but that ONE bag will last you a LOT longer - as you don't need to feed as much. It's not a food for every dog, so you may need to shop around a bit.

You also want to make sure to slowly mix in the new food with the old food so you don't upset your pups stomach.

As a rule, I avoid *any* food I see in the regular grocery store or WallyWorld. Especially a dog as small as a pap, it's not too expensive to feed a higher quality food. My boy is a Pap mix and he did well on Blue Buffalo, which is available at PetSmart. He's also done well on the 'Wellness' line, which they sell at smaller, non-chain places. (www.wellnesspetfood.com)

We've fed IAMS to all of our dogs past and present and have had no problems whatsoever. We like it and why change a good thing?? I have to disagree with people who say it's not up there with Blue Buffalo, Canidae, etc. It works just as well for our dogs.

Just look at the ingrediants - and you'll see why it's not 'up there'. Lots of 'fillers' in products like Iams - and you end up feeding TWICE as much kibble as you would with a higher end food. For instance... my dog eats about 3/4 cups of BB, once a day. On SD - he was eating close to 1&1/2 cups.

Beneful--shudder. You might as well feed your dogs Play Doh.  Blech!  I had to laugh at an ad I heard the other night (can't remember what it was for).  It said that the food was made with "real ingredients". WTH?  Of course it was made with real ingredients.  Heck, sodium benzoate is a "real ingredient", so is ascorbic acid (vitamin C).