Hi Linda,
I have showed and breed Rhodesian Ridgebacks since early 80’s. Even though I feed top premium dog food, I still did always get the results I “wanted” for them to be at their very best. These were best of breed, group and best in show winners. So around the mid 80’s I switch over to feeding raw food. I feed for breakfast a ladle of ground up raw organic veggies with ground raw chicken meat. it is like a thick, green, mushy soup. They loved it. For dinner they would get one or two (depending on size, age and activity) organic raw chicken backs. I would once every 3-4 months buy 30-40lbs of chicken backs from the local organic free range chicken farm. I would then put it into daily bags and then freeze them. The dogs had their own freezer. Put out the night before to thaw out. It really wasn’t that much extra work or expense. They started having perfect shiny coat, perfect white teeth (never needed cleaning), clean ears, great skin, no allergies, perfect weight and never got sick till they were close to death at an old age. Poo was smaller, white, chalky, no smell, didn’t attract flies and only once a day because of the digestion of the bones. They smelled great and I just whipped them down if they got dusty. I would say the only “problem” I had was their nails were very healthy, strong and grew faster. I had to Dremel them more often. I do have to say there is a learning curve. You need to do your research on it. You can find a lot of info on the web on raw food feeding (barf). Size of your dogs does limit what you can give. There are raw feeding co-ops that you can get variety of different parts of different animals. Some people like changing up the type of animals they are giving and the parts. I did throw in organ meats into the breakfast meal like hearts, kidneys, liver, offal, tongue, etc. trying to reproduce more what they would have eaten in the wild. Meat, organs, bones and the ground up plant material in the intestines. As you can see you can take it small or big, what works for you and the dog. Even the easiest raw packaged meal is better than commercial dry cooked food. Of course this is just my opinion.
I stopped showing 10 years ago after being baptized. Showing my dogs wasn’t important any more to me. Jehovah was. I have continued with the same type feeding schedule. In the long run with healthier dogs it is cheaper. They don’t get sick or have any trouble digesting the food. They don’t have human digestive systems. I haven’t gotten sick from handling all this raw food for decades even with me not being a well person. As long as you clean up counters, dog dishes and hands well you shouldn’t have any problems.
Sorry if if I gave too much information. Honest Kitchen, Primal, and Merrick are some good raw food companies you might find at you dog food store. There is a lot more companies jumping on the band wagon. Even 5-10 years ago you didn’t have the choices you do now. Really research whatever you do. The proof will be in the pudding as they say. 💚🐕