Go back a bit to my previous post on this thread. I listed several resources including whole dog journal, and dogaware which are excellent. The best standard you can follow is the AAFCO association of american feed control officials, sort of like animal version of FDA. See
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2&aid=662 for their recommendations on percentages of nutrients. If the food does not have these items in it you'll need to supplement or include items that meet those requirements.
Don't embark on a homemade or raw diet without doing some reading on your own first. I'm still feeling a little inexperienced after over a year, not to discourage you but you'll need to balance nutrients for your dog not just add raw meat to their diet. Then you must decide do you want to do all raw/no cooked carcasses and parts no carbs, raw but use dairy and veges, raw and cooked combo, or raw and kibble.
The biggies are proton, calcium, and phosphorous, and fat; then there are vitamins, trace nutrients, omega fatty acids. In the wake of all the dog food contamination scares I saw recipes for raw "safe" diets that had no source of calcium or phosphorous and no added fiber, or material that provides vitamins and nutrients.
You'll also not find much more of a hotly contested issue in the dog world. As people become more picky, vegan, green, obese they start obsessing about what their dogs SHOULD eat and get pretty crazy on some of the forums I've seen fighting and getting mean about food when I'd rather see them get angry about someone hitting their dog for example.
Don't ask your vet unless that vet is a canine nutritionist, most are not and most sell and recommend Science diet which is a horrible food in my opinion (mostly corn/sugar). Most vets HATE raw diet and home diets because they believe most people are too uneducated to balance the diet correctly even though they also can't. Honestly most people don't do the research either so the vets are right to be concerned. They'll also lecture on bacteria etc even though you haven't killed yourself yet handling raw meat that you cook for yourself. And not to slam the vet but that really isn't their specialty so you can't expect them to know everything. Ideally you would have a holistic vet and consult with a canine nutritionist but I know that this isn't going to work for everyone.
There are a number of excellent books by different philosophied experts and you need to decide what you are willing to do prep-wise and pay for. I argue that you can raw feed a dog for about the same price as a good quality kibble. I also feel strongly that the less processing/cooking the less you alter the natural nutrients in the food and the more likely that they are in a form that makes them usable by the dog's body. The same principle if you cook your broccoli to mush that you've crushed the fiber and so broken down the nutrients that you can eat it and get little from it other than full.
Kibble is the most processed by its very nature because it must be ground and material added to it to get it to stick together in pieces and cooked. Canned is less processed because no additives are needed to get it to kibble and often it contains whole pieces of vegetable matter and meat. Least processed is raw with home "cooked" defined as how much of it you cook and how long.
The supplements you'll need to add to a totally homemade or raw diet can be expensive but if you look at the entire package you can make a better evaluation. Also consider that a kibble food may have 26% protein but part of it may be vegetable protein or altered enough by processing that the net effective protein digestible by the dog may only be 10%. So depending on what you decide you can ask for more help or go back to those sites I listed in this and the previous post. I like several kibble foods and several canned. I also am a big believer in green unbleached tripe which is a superb source of natural probiotics (the good bacteria your dog needs for digestive health).
Check out the links too for the dog food project that is very good on explaining ingredients and labels on commercial dog food. Dog food labels have been downright misleading IMHO because they could be and get away with it. Most commercial foods would not disclose where they got their ingredients and how much of what they listed was actually in a large enough percentage to even be detectable. Until the last few years there was no requirement for a customer decipherable best by date.!!
I'll give you some suggested reading and surely some other folks will chime in. This is my opinion based on help from other people I know and my puppy's breeder. She is a PhD and very active in the dog world and dog research on nutrition and breeding away genetic defects. So I think she's pretty smart and her dogs are obviously very long lived and healthy and winning titles all over the place. This is not the only opinion out there-so intended to just get your feet wet and let you run. Hopefully not scare you but help you understand there are things that need to be added other than what you might find in a normal family pantry.
Your source of calcium and phosphorous for healthy bone and the calcium/phosphorous ratio are very important. Some people add ground bone, give whole raw bone, dairy calcium, egg shells, and the list could go on forever. I prefer feeding one protein source which is grass fed and pasture grazed given no antibiotics or growth hormone and US raised. Learn the terms like free range, which is meaningless and doesn't mean the animal ever went outside. Many people prefer to find local farmers or co-op clubs and buy meat local or order and ship it frozen. The reason for one protein source is that if an allergy occurs you can go to another protein. Exposing a dog throughout its life to a lot of sources, many people argue can create sensitivities as it can in humans to more foods.
I said grass fed above too because grass fed animals have meat richer in omega 3,6,9 fatty acids needed for cardiovascular health (just like humans take for lowering cholesterol, artery blockage, healthy heart). Grain fed animals are not as rich in FA's and are more likely to be lot fed, more crowded, and therefore need antibiotics to keep a large crowded population healthy and growth hormones to supplement the lack of good grass nutrients.
For example I am mildly lactose intolerant now, my doctor suggests that even though I don't have a severe problem avoid dairy because I can develop worse issues. So you see where the human dog diet emotional issue comes into play here.
The whole dog journal has interviewed and compiled a list of AAFCO acceptable dry, canned, grain free, and raw foods. Where they could they got country of origin of ingredients and listed the amount of ash (trash) that was included in the foods and where foods had excess of some ingredients that might be bad. you can subscribe to the monthly and it's well worth the cost and then can purchase back articles like the 2008 best dry foods for $7.50 for members or $10 for non-members or if you subscribe you get it all as it is published.
Although this all seems like a lot-once you get it down just like any diet or life style it becomes second nature and you can ad lib and change things up and should do so. A diet that you control and isn't full of preservatives, contaminants, junk, by products, and undigestible crap has got to be healthier. Particularly look at the bad ingredient list at
http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=badingredients
References: I tried to give a wide spectrum -- with help from friend's reading suggested list and much advice over a long period
Note that each meal need not be totally balanced with raw. The balance can be completed over 2-3 days or a few meals as long as the needed nutrients for that amount of time are met fairly quickly and over those few meals/days. The idea being that the body doesn't sense a deficit right away, you do need to meet the need before the body responds to a lack of any nutrient.
Raw specific
Kymthy Schultz Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats
Dr Tom Lonsdale DVM newest Work Wonders Feed your Dog Raw Meaty Bones (not sure I like his concept but I’m no expert)
Susan K Johnson Switching to Raw
Chris & Beth McDonald Raw Food, Make it easy for you and your Dog
Dr Billinghurst Eat Drink and Wag your Tail Improving your Dog's Life through Nutrition
Raw Friendly & home made
Dr Wysong the Truth about Dog Foods
Dr Marty Goldstein
Monica Segal books and Pamphlets
Steve Brown & Beth Taylor See Spot Live Longer
Dr Strombeck DVM
More emphasis on grains than others
Wendy Volhard & Kerry Brown DVM The Holistic Guide for a healthy Dog
More General INFO
Liz Palika The Consumer's Guide to Dog Food
Ann Martin Foods Pets Die For