[Nancy1999]

Originally Posted by abbie's mom

When a dog poo's a lot (several times a day, large quantities), it is an indication that their bodies are not using the nutrients from what they take in (food). Grain-FREE food is always best, as grain cannot be broken down and utilized by canines, and grain can cause many allergies.

I have to disagree with you here, it's true that canines cannot break down uncooked grains, but they can utilized cooked grains. While there are some dogs who are sensitive grains, this isn't true of all dogs and there is no proof that other carbs are better for dogs.

Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates may originate from grains (rice, wheat, barley, oats, corn etc.) or alternative sources like potatoes, sweet potatoes, tapioca or peas. The claim that all carbohydrates in commercial dog food are nothing but fillers and can not be digested by dogs is incorrect - properly cooked (as in extruded and baked dry foods as well as canned foods) they are highly digestible and valuable sources of energy. • The tolerance of amounts and types varies, some dogs do better with more carbs in their diet than others, and some do better on grain-free foods with alternative sources.
• For certain health conditions it is beneficial to avoid high-gluten grains like barley, wheat, rye or oats and favor low gluten ones like rice, millet, amaranth, quinoa and sorghum (milo).
• Quality is also important, since grains deemed unfit for human consumption (often contaminated with mold) can legally still be used for animal feed.
• Whole, unprocessed grains (also listed as "ground" or in "meal" form) retain all the nutrients in the bran layer, the original fat content and the endosperm. Grain fragments and flours are incomplete and may have already lost much of their nutritional value during processing and storage. Some manufacturers include one fragment (most commonly brewer�s rice) to lower product cost, which is acceptable if whole grains or starchy vegetables are also present. Be wary of products that consist mainly of fragments and flours. Flours are highly refined and while not harmful, contain less valuable nutrients and more refined carbohydrates than whole ground grains.
• Be careful of "splitting" of ingredients, such as for example rice, rice flour and rice bran all appearing in an ingredient list. Added together they would appear much higher on the ingredient listhttp://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=betterproducts The Dog Food Project - Identifying better products