Canidae dog food / alternatives

Question
We have a 4 month old cockapoo and are trying to find a good dog food.  The pup was fed purina all-pro from the breeder and we tried to tranistion to Nutro Natural Choice, but he got diarrhea and loose stools.  The vet gave us a bag of Science Diet so we gave him that and with other meds it cleared up the  diarrhea.  After doing some research, we found out how bad Science Diet really is.  I also found some sites that recommended Canidae - but then found complaints about a formula switch in August of 2008 that caused digestive issues in many dogs.  So, the pup cannot tolerate Natural Choice and I'm not sure that I want to try Canidae - do you have any other options?  We would like to use a high-quality food for him, but don't know what to try.  Thanks for any information.

Answer
There is limitless amounts of nonsense around on dog chows.  Much of it is marketing hype from those selling more expensive chows.  The truth is, most dogs will thrive on most dog chows.  Science Diet is in fact a high quality chow containing a careful balance of all the nutrients a dog needs.  True, some of the ingredients are less appetizing that the ones in Nutro or Canidae.  That makes no difference to your dog. Go back to where you found the negative information on Science diet.  Ask them if they have a controlled study showing dogs are healthier eating a more expensive chow than the Science.  They don't.  If any such studies are available to the public, I haven't been able to find them.  I have asked people advocating the premium chows on forums for any proof, and they waffle.  It is mostly shrewd manipulation of people's emotions.  You have as strong of evidence that Science Diet is a quality chow as anybody has that it isn't.  You let somebody convince you to change from the Purina All Pro, that likely was working, to Nutro that messed up your dog.  With your vets help, you corrected the problem.  Don't let a bunch of speculation put your dog through a mess like that again.  Stick with the Science.  

By the way, much of what you read are lies.  The lamb meal used in Science Diet doesn't contain sawdust, etc.  There are no more dead dogs in it than what is in your own food.  I see many reports of people going through a half dozen ''high quality'' chows before finding one that works.  I also see thousands of healthy dogs eating the first one of such junk food as Iams, Pro Plan, Science, Eukunuba, etc. they were given, and doing very well.