My 12 mos old GSD is doing alot of coat blowing and itching. I feed him Science diet , I did have him on Nutro but this only gave him huge stools and never really kept the wieght on him very well. I am thinking maybe it is an allergy, he gets his Frontline for fleas and ticks every month and I have never seen a flea on him. He lives in the house with us and therefore I know that it is not fleas also. When I got him his coat was very thick and full, now it is alot of guard hairs, but not really any undercoat. I take him to the vet here onbase, they have ALOT of experience with GSDs and Mals due to the K9 units here, but they say he is fine, but I live with him and he is itching way too much. I thought about using a K-Zyme supplement as it worked outstanding on my German Wiredhaired Pointers. I did get some oatmeal and aloe shampoo today that I'm going to bathe him with too, but I really need some advice here because I want him to get better asap.

Get rid of the Science Diet - it is the WORST food you can feed your dog - ignore the vet and read the package ingredients label yourself. If you can read, you will see "CORN" all over the place on there - usually the first ingredient. Meaning? It is a corn-based food. A) Dogs are carnivores, they need a meat-based diet. B) Corn is the main cause of food allergies in dogs. Food allergies cause poor skin/coat, unnatural shedding, itching, ear infections, and all sorts of other problems including poor weight and condition.
Easy solution - change your dogs' diet to a meat-based one. Raw Diet is one solution, but there are many kibble foods that are meat-based and some with NO CORN or wheat in them. Look for a food with meat-meal as the first ingredient. Then, look down the ingredients list and if you don't see corn or wheat, that's good. I feed (stupid name but great food) Chicken Soup for Dog Lover's Soul dog food and my dogs eat less, poop less, have excellent (better than ever before) skin and coat - even the sables shine. I also recommend Canidae. No other foods on the market, to my knowledge have as much meat in them, without corn or wheat.
Good luck!
Molly

I tried some kibbles for convenience as I have one dog with major allergies and found Wellness Fish and Potatoe and Royal Canin as also decent readily available kibbles. I have heard that there is a decent version of Purina Pro Plan (I know pro plan is normally conidered poor food) for allergy dogs.

Chicken soup caused loose stools and itching but is a nice food for a dog not sensitive to some of the ingredients. Stay away from food with beet pulp as the beet pulp binds the stool together and gives you a false sense of "security" if your dog tends to loose stools with allergy.

For us, no grains nada none at all not even barley or oats work so I just gave up and went back to raw.

Kevin, the previous posters have given excellent advice. Stay away from anything sold in the grocery stores. Most dogs cannot digest corn at all. There are many Super Premium foods available. I primarily feed Candiae (dry and cans) to my GSD and German Pinscher for 4 years now. Others I can recommend include Flint River, Blue Buffalo, Solid Gold, Wellness, California Natural, Pinnacle, and Newmans Own Organics. These foods cost more, but a happy healthy dog pays for itself.

Good Luck...

Supertanker