My puppy Booker also had real bad itchy skin problems. He would itch and bite himself all night long from the skin allergies. I switched up his dog food to grain-free and artificial preservative free and he's finally getting a chance to sleep through the night uninterrupted. There are several different causes for irritated skin, but for Booker it was from his cheap dog food. The expensive grain-free dog food is twice as expensive, but when I calculated all the veterinary trips I had to make dealing with the sores, infections, and steroid prescriptions trying to treat the illness, it ended up being about the same cost per year as feeding him the good dog food that doesn't give him allergies.