Aggression over food

[Jiffer]

Kronk is a year old now. He's an awesome dog. Totally submissive "I want to please you" personality. Just went through basic obedience training and is doing very well. The only time he shows any kind of aggression is when our 12 year old chow tries to eat his food. There have been times when he has stood back and let her eat it, but sometimes he just won't tolerate it and can get down right vicious and scary. He barks and growls and pounces on her. I just pulled him off of her not knowing for sure if he was actually biting her because I wasn't going to stand there and analyze it. I kind of don't think he was, but I'm not sure.

I don't know if I should allow him to defend his food and teach the chow that he won't let her bully him. Or if he should be taught that this aggression is intolerable. If I determine that he doesn't actually bite her or hurt her, it seems it would be okay to let him "intimidate" her with his vicious snarling and hovering over her to keep her away from his food.

What are your thoughts?

 

[TysonsMoma]

This was the case with my dogs too. What we had to do was give each dog their own set of bowls, placed at opposite sides of the kitchen. Then for about the first week or so each meal was supervised, I would watch Tyson and my boyfriend would watch Layla to make sure that each stayed at their own bowls until they were finished. After a short time they seemed to understand. Tyson usually finishes before Layla and so sometimes now he will go over and watch her eat, trying to inch his way in. When he does this I pull him away. He has now learned that anything in that bowl is Layla's and that he isn't allowed to eat out of it. Good luck, hopefully, seperate bowls on opposite sides of the room will do the trick!

 

[courtney323]

Ummm, definitely feed them seperately. It's no wonder he's being protective over his food, if the poor guy has to fight for it every day LOL.

My 2 must get fed seperately (and many dogs do, really). It prevents some very serious fights.

 

[Jan]

You must stop your Chow from eating your boxers food. I don't blame him for trying to defend his food. If that means that you feed them in separate rooms, that is what you have to do.

 

[Adelle]

Mine eat in their crates for this reason also, unless you can teach your chow to stay away from his bowl I suggest like everyone else that you seperate them for meals. Its only fair you can't blame him for protecting his food.

 

[gussy98]

Our male boxer, JoJo, has been food aggressive with our male dane since we got the dane (about 3 years ago). All of our dogs get fed in their crates... the thing is that Roxy and JoJo have always shared a crate. They're only 7 months apart, and they have always been inseparable. Tonight I heard a ruckus coming from the dog room right after I fed them. This is not uncommon, as JoJo and Carl will "yell/bark" at each other from their crates after they're finished eating. So I went in there to tell them to cool it and JoJo was going after Roxy... he had her down and on her back. This is very odd behavior for him, at least toward her. I took her out of the crate and checked her over and she had a few scrapes from his teeth, but not any actual holes. I kept him in his crate most of the evening because I was so mad at him. Now he is of course acting fine, but I told my husband absolutely no more shared crating for them, especially at meal time.

They have either bronchitis or kennel cough (the vet said it's bronchitis, but I think it's kennel cough) right now, so I'm wondering if it has something to do with that. I also noticed him last night being pretty over the top bossy to our 7 month old bouvier puppy (who is also a female), who he hasn't shown any previous signs of aggression/bossiness to.

I'm going to keep an eye on him this weekend, and if he gets worse I'm definitely going to look into a behaviorist or something. I'm hoping it's just that he doesn't feel good.

 

[JAVI]

I had the same issue with mine. What I did was feed them in different rooms for a while and then gradually started feeding them closer and closer to each other. My boy "buster" always finishes first so even if my girl "coco" leaves food in the plate I never let him eat it so he understands that eating out of her plate is not acceptable. Also I dont know if you have different style or color plates but that is also a way so they know what there plate looks like.