Fading coat color

Question
Yogi is a rescue so nothing is known about him before I adopted him one year ago.  He is a Lhasa Apso and was not neutered (I fixed that), had a gold and white coat and best guess on age was approximately 1 1/2 to 2 years old + the year I've had him.  He gets no human food, eats Pedigree Adult canned and kibble twice a day and gets a modest amount of doggie treats.  The gold in his coat has faded out almost completely and his skin has been getting itchy.  Obviously I'm feeding him the wrong stuff.  I need help fast.  I would gladly home make his food for him if the Lhasa diet is not met through a commercial source.  I've read that they have special nutritional needs.  I'll do anything to correct this problem ASAP because his loss of color in his coat assuredly means his current diet is causing unknown problems internally.  What can I do to correct my damaging mistake?

Answer
His dull coat is probably directly related to his food. Pedigree, in my opinion, is not the best food you can feed your dog. It's ingredients are below par, having little identifiable meat and other questionable chemicals. I don't know how much research you've done into dog food ingredients, but I'll recommend you to an article that I helped write, which explains what I look for in dog food (http://www.heartypet.com/blog/?p=63). If you can, I would switch off of the Pedigree as soon as possible. My favorite dog food brands are Nature's Variety, Nature's Logic, Innova, Wellness, Orijen, Fromms, and Canidae. If you good the brand, each food's website has a store locator so that you can find retailers in your area. Since switching my dogs to these 'premium' foods, I've noticed a visible difference in their appearance.

If you'd rather switch off a dry food altogether, I would recommend a homecooked or raw diet for your dog. Since I do not feed those, I am less familiar with how to formulate them. However, if you go to the Dogster forums (http://www.dogster.com/forums/home.php), there are areas set aside to talk about just those diets. The posters there are very knowledgeable and will give you great advice.

To help out his coat, I would definitely go buy him some fish oil tablets. Give him one a day, and it should make a difference in his coat in a couple of weeks. The omega 3s and 6s are very beneficial. You can also give him one raw egg once a week.

Good luck, I hope that helps!