biting at other dogs when it comes to food
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| It is perfectly normal behavior for dogs to guard their food from other dogs. It will be a challenge to change, but is doable. I'm just not sure it is worth the stress. It is different if she "guards" food from people. That is dangerous, but from dogs...well.....
Dixie will share her food with no problem at all. So there goes the theory that it is because in the past they didn't have enough to eat ...She probably didn't. 
Bosley, on the other hand, will get very antsey if Dixie is near him while he is eating. He will give her a stare, and if she come closer he will bark loudly and chase her away. We just feed them separately, with me or someone in the middle until Bosley is done. Then he goes and helps Dixie finish hers 
Many, if not most people, feed their dogs separate for this reason. |
| I feed all together, but I've been very involved in training them. All newbies were fed separately for weeks, if not months. Then I brought them with the others and stood guard over the newbie's food bowl as if to say, "I'm in charge here."
Jack is the exception. He eats with everyone else, is fed last and must sit and wait until I give the command to eat. At first he would not let me stand with my feet on either side of the bowl. Only now, 17 months later, will he allow me standing close ( apparently the other dogs know better than to approach him). Fortunately it's the only aggression he shows, Phew! So my suggestion is the same as above, feed in completely different rooms. This may last the whole tome you have the dogs. I know others to feed this way and have for years. |
We feed seperately because it makes them all more comfortable and relaxed. I also know everyone gets the right amount of food too. Simon the basset eats on the dog mat in the kitchen, the 3 small ones in their crates and Bart  ate on the entry/porch. The labs eat seperately outside. They all know the routine and run to their "spot" at feeding time. It is pretty funny! |
| I feed both Violet and China in different rooms. Violet is very protective of her food, so for everyones sake all three animals (cat) eat serperatly. Violet, the Alpha, is the aggressor, but not all the time. China gives her "wide berth" when the food is put down. |
| We feed our girls separately. Callie started getting protective of her food when we would go visit Sadie, one of Callie's littermates. Sadie learned to just let Callie eat first and then she could get her fill. Then when we added Lambda, the pug puppy, to our family, we decided that it would be better to be safe than sorry when the tiny puppy wasn't taking the hint from Callie. So now they eat on separate sides of the kitchen. It works quite well, except that Callie likes Lambda's puppy food better than her own adult food. She always tries to sneak over and steal some when we aren't looking. But then she lets Lambda finish the adult food. So... I guess the point here is that if the dogs can't settle it themselves pretty quickly, then it's better to just avoid the conflict and feed them separately. Just try a few different methods and find the one that works best for you. |
| Lucy and Bear can eat happily side by side. Bear finishes her food for her when she's done and they're okay with that. Clyde is another story. He is a piggy and quite food protective. Clyde eats in the other room, away from Lucy and Bear but the boys free feeed so there's always food in their bowls. Clyde used to guard his dish anytime either Bear or Lucy walked by it. Over time, that's relaxed a lot.
The bigger problem we were having is that, since Lucy never ate dry food, Clyde believed that any food that crunched was his so he'd hear Bear eating and rush in and push poor Bear off his own food. At first, we had some fights and a couple resulted in bloodshed. We'd stop every fight, separate them and let them calm down. If Bear was eating, and Clyde got up, we would block him by stepping in front of him and distracting him, with a toy or something. It was hard to stop him at first but it got progressively easier. For the most part, after we stopped the blocking, they worked it out on their own-- without the original aggression that Clyde was showing. Even now, Bear and Clyde steal bites from each other's bowls but at least they eat the same food. Clyde porked out from stealing Bear's puppy food before we switched him! |
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