4 old german shpherd

Question
hello,

I do have a 4 months german shepherd puppy, I am feeding her a puppy hcow large breed formula, her ears are not up yet ,still down.
one of the petsmart trainer told me that the puppy chow contains corn which can cause skin irritation and suggest me to use royal canine .

please advice me

thank you for your time

Answer
Suppose you knew a breeder that bred hundreds of dogs a year, mostly Labs, Shepherds, and Goldens.  They provided all the medical care for most of them the first year.  At the end of it, they did a complete physical including hip X-rays on all of them.  They then spent $35,000 training them before giving them away.  They have a large data base of breeding records.  Dogs with any physical or temperamental problems are unfit for the program and are a waste.  Their well equipped clinic and vet staff are available for serious problems as long as the dog is working.  When the dog is no longer able to work, it is replaced at again the $35,000 plus a large emotional upheaval for the person depending on the dog. They have experimented with different diets and exchanged data with other such breeders.  Don't you think that what ever they are feeding is healthy and safe?  What kinds of controlled studies are there backing Royal Canin?  How objective are the sources of her information?  Is your dog's health, their top priority?

I have been raising puppies since 1991 for a large dog guide school that does exactly that.  What do they feed?  They instruct us to feed Pro Plan chicken and rice puppy chow until 4 months and then switch to adult Pro Plan chicken and rice.  I know enough of the people with the trained dogs to know they continue the Pro Plan.  The group I meet with monthly for training includes people that have raised puppies for 6 different service dog schools.  Some of them are feeding other premium commercial chows including Iams and Eukanuba.  Any dog owner wanting a healthy, long lived dog can make this regimen work, leaving more time to spend on the dog.  It is also relatively economical.

There are a lot more opinions around on dog chow than facts to back them up.  Currently there is a vociferous debate on dog chow on one site.  One person posted a long analysis of the price of things going into dog chow are going up faster that the price of dog chow.  He considered that proof the manufacturers were cheapening the product.  Well, I happened to have an old Pro Plan bag out in my garage.  The guaranteed analysis was exactly the same, and the ingredients list has only such a minor difference as to be insignificant.  That is typical of the faulty reasoning behind much of the discussion of dog chow.  Time after time I have asked for a controlled study proving, that with this diet or that diet, dogs actually are healthier.  Nobody has ever produced one to back their opinion.  Well, there dog I doing fine on ....  So my son is feeding his Foxhound corn based Purina.  They were here last weekend and she looked great.

How is your dog doing other than the ears?  If it is doing well, I would suggest switching to the adult version of what you are feeding.  The less rich diet slows growth which is better for the joints.  It could be better for the ears too.  I have no other suggestions for them.  Some people tape and glue them, but I haven't seen any evidence that in those cases they wouldn't have stood on their own just as quick.  

Sorry if this is a little long and strongly opininated, but I see regular dog chows working very well.  I also see problems with other diets.  Somebody started their dog out on a duck and potato diet and it was doing very poorly.