Is the expensive dog food really any better for your dog's health ??

I think the answer to this is both yes and no.
The very cheap dog foods are mainly corn, which many dogs have a hard time digesting, and also can cause their skin to itch, and you will see them incessantly licking their paws when this happens.
However, on the other end of the scale, are the very expensive foods actually better than a middle priced good quality food ??
Apparently not, according to a new study done about different dog foods. They explain that the $15 bag of Costco has about the same nutrition as the $30 bag of one of the premium brands. So, the best solution to feed good healthy food to your pet, while not going broke paying for it, is to carefully read the ingredient list on the food.

All ingredients are listed in order of the amount in the food; so if corn (or a corn product) is the first listing, then that is the main ingredient of that dog food. A quality dog food should list some kind of animal by-product as the main ingredient, followed by a digestible grain, like rice.
After that will come the lesser ingredients, beet pulp (which is very nutritious), flax, or other nutrients, and then probably added vitamins.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/health....html?_r=0