BARF

We have tried it, and find it to be pretty good. However, it is a little more costly than just buying a huge bag of feed at your local feedlot.
We may try it next year. Since we'll be planning our garden and livestock much more carefully, we hope to be able to have the ingredients for BARF diets for our dog and cats; our chooks will probably continue to get the bag feed in addition to free-ranging.
There are some really good sites that have really good recipes. I suggest following them and not just feeding a dog or cat table scraps; table scraps are great for a treat, but dogs and cats don't have the same nutritional needs as each other, much less as us.

http://talk.buybelowcost.com/eve/ubb.x?a=frm&s=5716013&f=7956043

I recommend that you post a topic on that board. There are a lot of show dog/cat breeders on there, and a lot of folks that use that diet. I have heard that it makes no difference if you use BARF or a good dry kibble. (By good, I mean one of the 'expensive' foods like Nutro, don't buy Science Diet, it's the same as a grocery brand, but it has a good name.) Just check the ingredients, if the first three ingredients are corn meal or if they have peanut shells (both are fillers, but peanut shells are INDIGESTIBLE!) don't buy them. Any thing high in lamb/taurine is also a bad idea (it can cause problems in dogs).