Lhasa Apso feeding

Question
I have a 6 year old neutered male Lhasa Apso, that I adopted last year. This is my first dog. He is a very picky eater, and   was wondering if I can feed him the Royal Canin MINI Shih Tzu dog food. From all the reviews I've read about the food, and all the characteristics of the dogs that liked it, like itchy skin, picky eater, etc., it seems like the perfect food for him as kibble. Otherwise, he has a home cooked meal twice a day, since he is so picky. Also, am I doing wrong by home cooking him a meal with chicken, rice, and some vegetables?
Please help, since I can't find too much information online about if he can eat this kibble as a snack, and I'm running out of ideas.
Thank you

Answer
Neither I nor many of the strong advocates of them, have enough personal experience to judge home made diets.  For the AVMA's opinion of home made diets, see http://www.avma.org/press/releases/070404_homemade_diets.asp  Let me assure you all the valuable service dogs in the programs, that I am a part of, are eating a comercial kibble.  

I do have enough experience to confirm my training on picky eaters.  If the dog never did eat very well, and has seen the vet since the problem existed, you may be over feeding it. A vet check still won't hurt. Many dogs will snarf down more than is good for them and look for more. Others refuse to eat more than than they need. Evaluate the dog as illustrated in this link, http://www.longliveyourdog.com/twoplus/RateYourDog.aspx  You may want the vet to confirm your judgment. Adjust the dogs food and exercise as needed to reach its ideal body condition. Some German Shepherds and other breeds may refuse to eat enough to completely hide their ribs. As long as you are feeding a concentrated, meat based chow, the best thing is to accept it.

The worst thing you can do is to bribe a dog with rich foods into eating more than it needs. Instead, Put down the dish with what the dog should eat, and give it 15 minutes to eat. Then take it up. Do not give it anything to eat until its next scheduled meal. In a few days, it should be eating what it needs. Continue to check its ribs and adjust the food as needed. This is not easy. I had a Shepherd go 3 days on a few nibbles. I was a wreck, but she was fine. It is almost unknown for a healthy dog not to eat what it needs. Unfortunately, in too many cases, it is less than the package says, and less than the owner thinks the dog should have. Many dogs are quite good at holding out for tastier chow. Like kids, sometimes it calls for tough love.

I have never seen any objective, controlled testing of Royal Canin vs. other brands.  While it scores well on ingredient based evaluations, I see thousands of highly valuable service dogs thriving on common brands with very low ratings.  I can only conclude the tests are rigged by manfacturers of premium chows.  While I see a number of questions about dogs faring poorly on well rated Nutro, I don't remember any doing poorly on Royal Canin.  If you feel good about Royal Canin, I am sure it is a much better choice for your dog than any home made diet.