Grainfree vs grains dry dog food

[Rosalyn Ancrum]

Hello its me again. Here with another question.  I recall reading and hearing there are now concerns with grainfree food.  I really don't know if its a good idea to feed  doodles grainfree.  I read that certain breeds are more prone to DCM. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

There is a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding out there about this issue, especially on Facebook. There is some very good evidence that the questioning of grain-free diets is driven by Big Dog Food (Purina, Hill's etc) and at any rate, there is of yet no evidence that there is anything at all to worry about if you feed a grain-free diet. We have a good comprehensive discussion here about this. It would be a good idea to read through it so that you have a better understanding of the issue, which is actually a non-issue for the vast majority of dog owners:
https://doodlekisses.com/group/thefoodgroup/forum/topics/taurine-de...

As you will see when you read through the above, this issue really has nothing to do with grains. It's a very complicated issue, but basically it's about a particular form of DCM that is caused by a taurine deficiency. Taurine is found in all animal proteins, and dogs make it themselves from the amino acids in the animal proteins in their foods. Taurine deficient DCM is rare and seems to run in certain breeds, Golden Retrievers among them. (Not really doodles in general). In the past, this issue was found in other breeds, Newfoundlands being one of them and at that time, they tried to blame lamb and rice diets for the dogs' inability to make enough taurine from their food. Now it's grain-free diets and diets that contain peas that are being blamed. When the smoke clears, I truly expect that they will find that to be as incorrect as the old fears about lamb and rice. (BTW, they are now saying lamb and rice is fine, lol). The fact is that grains don't contain taurine in sufficient amounts and will do nothing to prevent taurine deficient DCM; the concern is that the foods that don't contain grains have too many legumes and not enough animal proteins, and that issue is easily avoided by choosing a food that contains a high amount of animal protein. So the presence or absence of grains in the food has really nothing at all to do with it.
THIS article should set your mind at ease about all of this:
https://thesciencedog.com/2018/08/30/the-heart-of-the-matter/

Now...assuming that we forget about the DCM issue, I'd wait to see what food the breeder is using at the time the pup comes home. You must continue that food for at least two weeks. At that time, if everything is good with the pup's digestion, you can either stay with the breeder's food IF it's a good one (which is rare, to be honest. Many breeders feed garbage, for $ reasons) or you can choose to switch to one of our recommended brands. Your choice will be driven by the type of diet the pup has been on up til then. If the food is grain free and he is doing well digestively, you will want to continue that. If the food contains grains and he is doing well, ditto. 
I feed grain-free food, and I have found over the 10 years that I have been working in the area of canine nutrition that most dogs do better on grain-free or low grain diets. But there are many who do perfectly fine with diets that contain healthy grains. I do give treats that contain some grains, and that's been a perfect balance for my guy, as well as for many others here. 

[Rosalyn Ancrum]

I feed grain free as well. I couldn't do grain free for my bichon because of her health issues but I switched my yorkie to grain free years ago. I agree breeders normally feed cheaper food which I can understand because they have so many pups and dogs. I always changed my pups food after a couple of weeks.