Your question is delving into a subject that is incredibly complicated.

Most dog foods at the local grocery store are the equivalent of junk food for your dog. They have fillers in them, especially corn and wheat, that can cause all sorts of problems, both upper and lower GI, and a host of other things. Dogs were just not built to digest most grains well, especially corn.

You would do well to Google the subject and educate yourself.

Since you will probably get a ton of information about this here, here is my experience.

I've had dogs for the past 17 years. Oldest (now in doggie heaven) had a corn allergy. Sores developed that just would not heal.

I've now got three large mutts. Two of them have a wheat allergy, one of them took at least 6-7 years to develop, the other less than a year. It caused horrible diarrhea in both. One has had a history of UTI (thank you dog god, she's been fine since September).

Dogs with allergies are on IVD venison and potato, the other one is on a high quality food with no fillers.

I come in contact with lots of dogs daily. I know what they eat and I also see the probable results of what they eat. There is no question that a better quality food is going to help stave off numerous health problems, and perhaps extend the life of the dog. When my old doggie (Shepard/Lab)went, she was 14. Very old for this size dog, but she had three serious health issues.

I attribute lots of positive results to better food, BUT, it ainÂt cheep.

SG

As much as I would normally say to avoid Purina products like the plague, if your only choice is between Purina Pro Plan and Goodlife Recipe, go with Purina. Goodlife Recipe's ingredients list is one of the worst I've seen in ages. The first ingredient is corn (ugh!) and the third is corn gluten meal (ugh!!!). There's plenty else wrong with it, but that should be enough to convince anyone. The Purina Pro Plan Select formulas are not terrible.

By "Ennova" I assume you mean "Innova" and the differences between either of the previously mentioned foods and Innova could not be more dramatic. Here's an analogy with human foods:

Goodlife Recipe is the equivalent of digging in the dumpster for dinner every day.

Purina Pro Plan is the equivalent of having a Big Mac and a big bag of Cheetoes for dinner every night.

Innova is the equivalent of having a nutritionist stop by your house every night to cook you dinner right after stopping at the organic market to pick up lots of fresh veggies and meat.

OK, maybe that's an exaggeration, but you get the picture.

I read the ingredient list on one of the products and the first and third are corn, which is known to cause allergies in a lot of dogs and the first ingredients should be meat sources. All meat sources should be named like chicken or beef, not a general "animal" which could be anything. The fact that your dog likes it doesn't really mean much because I love fries and cheesecake, but as we know a steady diet of them wouldn't be good for me.

I know picking a dog food can be difficult with all the conflicting info on the net, but an easy way is to just go to the link below and choose a 5 or 6 star food.

Personally, after reading tons of info on various foods I am most impressed by Sojos(you must add meat), Orijen, Honest Kitchen and Evangers (I use the 100% meat in cans as a mixer.) None of them are manufactured by companies involved in recalls and they use human grade ingredients.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dog food analysis

I agree with the stuff posted.

Raw is a whole nother nitch but if you truly want what is best you can do it cheaply IF you know what you are doing. Chicken can be the base meat, use bones in, NEVER cook the bones and feed liver and hearts too, you can also check out this site. www.Haretoday.com. Wolves are dogs are close cousens and a wolf CAN eat dog food AND get most of the same health problems just as a dog can eat like a wolf and get most of the same health benefits. I have a cat on raw and its IMO the best move I've ever made.