# Food agressive



## Kittilicious (Sep 25, 2011)

I think I've seen it on here as guarding?

There was a small discussion about this in my intro thread... my 5 yr old female golden retriever has been WONDERFUL with our new GSD puppy (6 1/2 wks - had him since he was 5 wks). She is sharing her toys with Knuckles and even sharing her "favorite" toy, a stuffed pheasant. (we didn't expect her to, but she lets him chew on it while she's chewing on it!) She lets him chew on her lips, her ears, her legs, her tail. She play bites with him and is so gentle it's actually comical considering how big she doesn't know he's going to get. 

But then we get to the food bowl. I have gotten Knuckles his own bowl, but she still gives, what we call, the "Elvis look" when he gets near her when she's eating. And for those of you who remember my intro thread, I have since stopped free feeding because of this, but what ends up happening is Saki just eats when Knuckles is sleeping.

I know the simple solution is to feed them separately, but I am hoping there is something I can do to get Saki to knock it off. I've even tried feeding her out of my hand, in the bowl, while Knuckles is eating and praising the heck out of her for eating nice... but as soon as my hand is out of the bowl the lip comes up. And yes, she will snap at him if I don't stop her. 

I feel like I'm telling her to NOT EAT instead of not doing the lip thing. She backs off of the food bowl all together when I tell her no. 

I have NEVER had a dog do this before and I've had quite a few dogs in the past. They have always just eaten, free fed, out of the same bowl with no issues whatsoever. Whats even more puzzling is that Saki came to us as a puppy and we had an adult Pomeranian which we got rid of a year ago and she had no problem sharing food with him. She doesn't like to share her toys (guarding?) with other dogs, either, which is why we were surprised with her sharing toys with Knuckles. 

Any ideas how to get her to stop this behavior? I just don't want her snapping at him during feedings if he gets too close to her.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Manage the situation. No free feeding, which you've already done. Separate bowls, which you've already done. Feed the puppy in his crate so she doesn't have to worry about him getting in her face while she eats and feel the need to guard her food from him. Or, if they will each stay in their own bowls with you right there, you can put the bowls on the floor 5 or 10 feet apart and then stand between them so there's no leaving of bowls to go check out what the other dog is getting. Stay there until both dogs are done and then pick the bowls up.

We feed in the garage and I've got a chain link pen in there - if I close the gate with one in the pen and one outside the pen everyone gets to eat in peace and I can control how much food each dog gets.


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

She knows if she does not keep on top of it now, he'll be bigger than her (quite possibly) and won't stop later and she'll lose. She's doing what comes naturally.
Please intervene, and DO NOT Let him close to her bowl so she stops stressing. 
Food and feeding time should not be a constant source of stress, especially as she approaches her "golden years" (no pun intended).

It's your job to keep him away, she's enforcing it because you're apparently still letting him close to her. 

I might add, we have a rescue and between all the dogs, we feed over 15 per day, AM and PM. In all that time, we never ever feed anyone alongside others, we take it for granted there _will_ be resource guarding. It's quite instinctive because if they didn't guard what they have, they will lose it, and (in their minds) starve to death.


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## chelle (Feb 1, 2009)

I agree, I wouldn't really bother with trying to get them to eat together. Just feed them seperate and don't deal with that stress.


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## Kittilicious (Sep 25, 2011)

So you all think there is no way to break this?


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## Kittilicious (Sep 25, 2011)

And as I typed that out, Saki was drinking water, Knuckles walked up and stuck his nose in the bowl and they both were drinking water at the same time. 

It makes no sense to me. The water bowl is ok but the food bowl is not?


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

Um...food's "good" and tastes good!
Our dogs all share a water bowl.

Although some very pissy dogs will indeed guard water. Be glad she isn't!

I would simply keep them separate. I know it's different, but again, the dynamics change every time you add a dog, and to try to change it will only stress everyone, including you and the poor dog out!


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## Kittilicious (Sep 25, 2011)

I guess I should have added that the food bowl was right next to the water bowl


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Kittilicious said:


> So you all think there is no way to break this?


Yes, by doing all the things that people have suggested. You won't necessarily have to do them forever, but I would definitely do them for now. As long as he's free to bother her while she's eating she's going to feel insecure around her food bowl which can lead to guarding issues. At some point he may respect her boundaries, she may relax knowing that even if he's nearby he's not going to dive headfirst into her food bowl, and that you are there to make sure that everyone follows the rules so she doesn't need to take things into her own paws, so to speak.


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## Samba (Apr 23, 2001)

Some will guard water, but the food has a much higher value and is worth defending.

I have seven dogs here tonight. There is not a single one of them that would be okay about one of the others head in their bowl of food! Free feeding can make food less valuable and might result in less competition among some dogs. My dogs have high drive for food, so free feeding is not an option. Laid back, free fed dogs do happen but it is certainly not always the case. One has to work with the type of dog they have rather than try to make them be like dogs of a different make up.


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## chelle (Feb 1, 2009)

Samba said:


> Some will guard water, but the food has a much higher value and is worth defending.


Yup.  Food is definitely higher value than plain 'ole water. 

My oldest two were free-fed until the pup came home. The food bowl was always there and usually full, so no one felt a worry there wouldn't be something for them. Therefore, they never fought over food or water. 

Then the pup came in... and it all changed... The pup is on different food, so the free-feeding came to an abrupt end with his arrival. Now I feed the two oldest in the spare room and they have no guarding issues, they're just fine eating and drinking together, but Lord Forbid the pup get NEAR their food OR that THEY get near HIS food. They will guard theirs and he will guard his. Long story short, there's no point for me to try to get them to do any different. The two are fed together, the pup is fed alone. That's all. 

I will never free-feed again, anyway, so I don't care if it is like this.

I'm no expert here, but it might seem that the more you try to "push" the older dog to accept the pup's intrusion, it might actually make it worse. Give poor Saki a break.  Let her have her dinner in peace from the pup.


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## codmaster (Aug 5, 2009)

Kittilicious said:


> So you all think there is no way to break this?


Of course there is - esp. since one is a young puppy! I would strongly urge you to work on this feeding thing - will be much better for the future if you train them to accept each other when eating. And also will reduce the chances of either developing any food guarding against people.


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## BowWowMeow (May 7, 2007)

You can create structure (ALA NILIF) around eating. As Deb suggests, feed them in opposite corners and don't allow the pup to approach your older dog until she is finished eating and vise-versa. 

You need to remove the thing she is worried about (the pup) before you can work with her on feeling more secure about her food.


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## Kittilicious (Sep 25, 2011)

Ugh. None of this is working. The only thing working is keeping Knuckles away from Saki - when she decides to eat. Neither one of these dogs want to eat when I want them to eat. I know Saki is going to take awhile to get used to this feeding schedule thing, she just wants to eat whenever because she has been free fed since she was a pup. But now... take this morning for example. Knuckles hasn't eaten since about 6pm last night. I got up at 6am, let him out, put food down for him when he came in. He doesn't want to eat it right now, he wants to play. He'll walk over and take a bite or two and continue playing. I've got 2 full bowls of food on the floor right now and nobody is by them. Saki is on the floor here in the kitchen playing with Knuckles... even if he walks over and eats she doesn't care, as long as he doesn't walk over by her when she's eating. 
I've tried putting the food up if they won't eat, but when I put it down they look at me like "yep, thats where it goes, now leave it there" and walk away and they will go back on their own time.


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## BlackPuppy (Mar 29, 2007)

They will get used to the new schedule. And keeping Knuckles away is what you need to do. It's what everybody is telling you to do. You are going to need to do this for a long time. Not just a couple of days or a week. We are talking months. Maybe forever. It depends on how much work you want to put into it.

When a new puppy comes into my house, he gets the crate for his house and he eats in there in the beginning. There is ALWAYS a problem when a new puppy arrives. At some point, when the puppy is much older, I start feeding the dogs in the same room. At that point I spend a lot of time with the puppy, physically blocking him from the other dogs' food. 

When I have a very high value food item, like their weekly chicken breasts. I go outside to feed them. They each take their piece of chicken and run to different corners of the yard. If one dog is too slow, I'm ready to repel any greedy dogs looking for crumbs.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Carole is right, it will take some time for them to adjust to the new schedule, but they will eventually figure out that they need to eat as soon as you put the food on the floor because if they don't they're not going to have an opportunity again for awhile. Start by feeding in the crates if you have to, and leave them alone with the food for a period of time, so they can't choose to play instead of eat. Mealtime is mealtime, playtime is playtime. 

Puppies shouldn't go for too long without food, but you can use some of the kibble as training treats.


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## Kittilicious (Sep 25, 2011)

Remember this problem? Well... I gave up and let them figure it out on their own. 

Now they are BOTH respectful of who is eating. They usually just take turns - I take a few bites, you take a few bites. It's kinda funny watching them. 

Here's Saki waiting for her turn - 









And yes, I still have 2 food bowls, but THEY chose to share. They will both eat out of one bowl until it's gone, then move to the next one. They are both getting about 2 cups a day total, 2 cups go in each bowl and they are both getting pretty close to an equal amount by the end of the day. I gave up on the scheduled feedings too. They usually eat one bowl in the morning and the other late afternoon. They did it on their own. 

Its working for now, so I'm not going to try to fix it unless something else happens.


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