I suggest you talk to your husband about choosing a new food. The dog and puppy chow is full of terrible ingredients. While you may pay a bit more per bag of a higher quality food, you won't need to feed as much because it doesn't have all the useless fillers. You will also save money on future vet bills. Your dogs may not show it now, but that food is not doing them any favors. It could very well be harmful to them. You want to think short term vs long term.... is it worth more to pay 5-10 dollars more a bag, or would you rather pay hundreds of dollars down the line at the vets because your dog couldn't handle the chemical menadione?
Ingredients: Whole grain corn, poultry by-product meal, corn gluten meal, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of vitamin E), meat and bone meal, brewers rice, soybean meal, whole grain wheat, egg and chicken flavor, animal digest, calcium phosphate, salt, calcium carbonate, potassium chloride, l-lysine monohydrochloride, choline chloride, added color (yellow 6, yellow 5, red 40, blue 2), zinc sulfate, vitamin E supplement, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, niacin, vitamin A supplement, copper sulfate, calcium pantothenate, garlic oil, pyridoxine hydrochloride, vitamin B12 supplement, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin D3 supplement, riboflavin supplement, calcium iodate, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of vitamin K activity), folic acid, biotin, sodium selenite
I bolded the "bad" ingredients in the Dog Chow formula. When you buy this bag, most of what you are buying is fillers. The first TEN ingredients are just not good for dogs, and those are the ingredients that make up the majority of the food.
Again, please try to talk to him. Ask him, would you rather pay 5-10 dollars more a bag, or possibly hundreds of dollars in vet bills down the road? Not to mention quality of life, this food has got to be hard on their bodies to digest with all the plant matter and chemicals.
As for your definition of free feeding, definitely do not do that! Kibble has meat in it and should not be left out like that. As it is exposed to air and light, kibble's nutrients will degrade and the oils will go rancid. Kibble should be kept in a sealed container and changed out everyday. Free feeding of any kind will also not help with potty training since they will always have poop in them. My dogs eat around 10-11 am, and then they poop it out around 6-7. They eat dinner around 9-10, and they poop out that first thing in the morning. Knowing when your dogs eats and when it is due to eliminate makes monitoring their health much easier.
So again, short term vs long term is the way to think. Five Guys is cheaper than a whole foods or central market meal, but it doesn't do my body and good. It ONLY benefits my wallet.