My dog started the scratching and it was bad, she was making sores all over her. I tried everything I could think of before taking her to the vet. She's already on a special diet due to bladder stones (don't want to pay for that surgery again). He said it was allergies and gave her a steroid shot. It's been 3 months and she has started to scratch again. Vet also said food allergies affect the ears, the dogs will scratch at their ears and get ear infections with food allergies.