@izakb TLDR: at a bare minimum make sure your dog food is AAFCO compliant, then feed whatever makes you feel comfortable and your dog enjoys eating that is nutritionally complete.
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I am not a dog nutritionist. I am not a people nutritionist. I've had exactly 1 dog, my current dog, for almost one year (gotcha day is coming fast). My daughter has had two dogs for a number of years but one of them had pretty serious food allergies. My dog, the ACD of the group, does not have food allergies. So take the following with the huge grain of salt it is intended:
All dogs are different. What is ok for one dog will not be ok for another dog. If a dog has liver issues, they might need to be on a special diet to protect their liver from damage. If a dog has allergies (presenting through frequent ear infections or extreme paw licking or even visible skin problems) that dog may need to avoid certain foods. One dog in my life has a major allergy to pork. Another dog in my life has a mild allergy to turkey. My ACD loves it all: beef, salmon, turkey, chicken, pork. A "dog nutritionist" would say that variety is good for them, so long as it's balanced nutritionally. I am not a "make fresh food every day" kind of owner, but we have the means to buy fresher food on a regular basis. Here is how our feeding has developed since adoption:
At adoption he was eating the same food from the rescue, Acana limited protein pork and sweet potato dry kibble. He had only been with the rescue a short time but since he didn't have any digestive issues and we didn't want to mess with his diet while he was also adapting to an entirely new climate and then recovering from neuter surgery.
After a few weeks, we added a similar wet canned food, again Acana pork recipe, simply because it was likely to be well tolerated during the transition. Later we introduced some beef recipe into his diet gradually over time. Then he was able to shift between pork and beef without any noticeable changes to his poops.
Then he went on a trip with my better half an he decided to randomly buy FreshPet at the grocery store. My better half has food hang ups about pork and beef for himself because of a history of colon cancer in his family. I tried to explain that's not an issue for dogs, but alas he wanted to shift our dog away from pork and beef, to chicken and turkey. Over time he shifted to FreshPet with some of the same Acana kibble, but now it was the "poultry" acana kibble, not the pork. Again, it was done gradually and we didn't have any allergy issues or changes in poops.
My daughter feeds Just Food For Dogs exclusively because it works for their two dogs dietary needs. We visit there frequently, so my ACD got to have JFFD Chicken recipe and beef recipe with his kibble. He really liked it (who wouldn't). Then for dietary reasons she had to shift one of her dogs off beef, and she gifted us like 35 lbs of frozen JFFD Beef recipe. So we shifted to that and he loved it (again, who wouldn't). He liked it so much that we proceeded to buy it ourselves during a 50% off sale. Of the JFFD turkey recipe, the JFFD chicken recipe, and the JFFD beef recipe, we find our ACD likes the Beef and Chicken best. He is less excited by the turkey recipe. We were also gifted a HUGE bag of salmon/fresh water fish kibble from another friend, and our dog seemed to like that kibble more than his Acana kibble. So we transitioned to that.
So right now he is eating 100g of "Ancient Streams" dry kibble with 100g of JFFD beef or chicken recipe twice a day. Sometimes I add some shredded zuccini (like a tablespoon or teaspoon, not a ton), when I'm making zuccini in a recipe for us. If we are having sweet potatoes, I'll set a chunk aside to add for him. He also likes me to put aside riced broccoli when I'm making it for our own meals. He also gets a little goat milk as an occasional treat, but we try to limit that because when we did goat milk on the regular, he put on a couple lbs. Our training treats are freeze dried salmon bits, chicken liver commercial treats, freeze dried whole chicken hearts, home cooked and frozen diced beef liver, and commercially made pumpkin-based crunchy stars.
Do I like JFFD, sure! Do I feel like JFFD is the end all of pet food, no. My dog was just as happy on his other foods. And while my ACD likes the frozen fresh JFFD, he is not as much a fan of the shelf stable JFFD which we bought for a trip. JFFD is stupid expensive.
I'm interested in maybe trying that "Sundays" food I keep seeing. Anyone tried that and like it?
