THis is the food we've been feeding our 14 year old Golden for the last 5 years ago when she developed what you described. She doesn't get itchy as often and her coat looks great.

http://nutrisourcepetfoods.com...en-pea-grain-free/12

My mom's dog had terrible food allergies, with some of the same symptoms of yours (but much worse). She tried every high quality food she could find. The only food "Little Girl" didn't get terrible rashes from was the ultra-cheap "Bisket" product.

Big deal, did your vet screen for Pemphigus?

We had a healthy and happy Carin Terrier that always had “food allergies” that would cause her to itch a lot. Like you, we tried various combinations of diets and shampoo and everything else. When she got to be around 11, the itching got very bad and our vet put her on steroids to help. They would work, but after a while we had to increase the dosage. Finally our vet suggested a specialist.

The specialist was able to properly diagnose her on the first visit using skin scrapings, blood work ups from our vet and tissue biopsy. The disease is usually undetected because it mimics allergies until it gets bad. Most vets miss it. It is an autoimmune disease of the skin. The specialist was more concerned with an underlying disease that sparked the outbreak.

With the proper diagnosis, medications and bathing protocols we were able to extend her life for about two additional years and she was mostly comfortable during that time. Sadly we had to finally put her down due to a large cancerous tumor that formed in her neck (the underlying disease).

I truly hope your pup only has allergies. Good looking guy. Best wishes to you both.

My German Shorthair had a skin allergy a few years ago. Our vet recommended a salmon based food, we use ProPlan Sensitive Skin & Stomach Salmon Formula. We have kept her on it and Sophie does very well on it. When she first had the allergy I also used Grizzly Salmon Oil. A pump of it on her food twice a day. Made her coat nice and shiny and the vet commented how good she looked when we took her back in for a follow up

Re-read dgrdvm's post on the first page. That's the advice you need. Talk to your vet about it. There are many fine foods that are limited allergen, but the only true way to determine if it is really a food allergy is to feed a food that has (as close as possible to) zero allergens. That is a very hard to find option over the counter.

If the dog improves, the standard is to then re-introduce the old diet, and the pet will usually "flame up" again. This is the confirmation he/she will need, and then you can go about finding out which "limited" ingredient option he can eat without having adverse reactions.

It's a process, but well worth it if you stick it out. Without that first important step (the zero allergen food), you can swap foods 'til the cows come home and not find one that fits the bill.