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Stay away from Science Diet, Iams, Beneful, Purina, and Eukanuba for sure. For my young female Dane, I feed Natural Balance Venison and Sweet Potato. It's a limited ingredient food which will help isolate anything that may be causing an allergic reaction if that's what is causing the problem. Eukanuba does have a "Taste of the Wild" formula that is pretty good. Canidae is a pretty good food (I can't get it up here but I know someone in the Anchorage area carries it). Check the ingredients - if there is corn in the first 4 ingredients, don't buy it; if it doesn't list a meat as the first ingredient (or better yet first two ingredients), don't buy it. There are a lot of quality natural foods out there that aren't any more expensive than Science Diet. They will actually save you in the long run in that your dog will need less to maintain it's condition and you won't have as many visits to the vet.

Some ideas for feeding raw... Contact the feed stores that cater to mushers. I get 50 lbs of "puppy mix" (ground beef, liver, and tripe) for about $32. It comes frozen in 10# tubes. Also, talk to your friends and coworkers, let them know that you feed raw and you'll take freezer burned meat and fish off their hands. Talk to the folks you know that hunt and fish alot. I get lots of moose bones and scraps that way. One of my coworkers is a charter captain and he doesn't want pinks when he catches them so he save them ALL for me. Contact the charities that salvage road kill moose and see if you can have the bones and unsalvageable scraps. I have a whole freezer of moose and caribou because of that. Satin balls is great for putting on weight, enticing a dog to eat, and for occassional treats, I wouldn't use them as a regular feed though. Oh, and I can get 50# of ground chicken from my feed store for about $20. With a little ingenuity, feeding raw can be much less expensive and better for your dog than the commercial kibble. The fats and oils naturally occuring in a raw diet make for wonderfully shiny coats and very active dogs. Don't be afraid to add eggs (also excellent for the coat)

Yes, Petco has the Natural Balance line. Check with the different meat processors around your area and some of the livestock producers (aka farmers - lol).