Thanks to all who replied I have switched him to a sr diet .He isn't crazy about it but I have in 2 weeks seen a difference in his activity level and the skin problem is getting better. A plus I never thought of. I took a week of mixing the food to avoid upset tummy he wasn't to happy about it but I found some nice organic treats that have lots of his favoitr things in them ,so if the food dish is cleaned up he gets his treat.
He is still doing his job of being my alert dog and seems much more in to it I guess I should have thought of the food thing sooner. Merlin is a lot of firsts for this vetern dog owner and handler.