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Permalink Reply by Ella and Lily on July 24, 2010 at 3:27am

Ella has this issue. It isn;t so bad now that she is an only dog but when she had a Buddy (ex's basset) around she would do this with bones/treats. She then started to do it with her food, but that was mostly because Buddy would finish his then try and eat hers. I did exactly what you are doing. Take it away for awhile. Something else you might try is separating them when you give them the bones. I would work on teaching them both leave it. When you hear him growl tell Finn to leave it and call him over to you.

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Permalink Reply by Zach and Lisa on July 24, 2010 at 7:52am

I forget which forum had this information on but it was amazing. For what you are you are talking about every dog has a right to protect their own found prize. It doesn't matter the ranking in the "pack". It can get loud and loudness should not be considered aggression, it's correction. Sometimes in correction there will be scuffles and as long as those scuffles don't result in anything larger than a small puncture wound, it should be okay. It will sound scary at times but you need to let it be once it's started or you will be picking sides. We have been following this since we got our two boys and they know each others boundaries. Hope that helps! If somebody remembers what forum that came from please mention it. It was a really good and helpful article. It definitely opened my eyes to a whole to way of thinking that I had never considered.

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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on July 24, 2010 at 10:04am

Hi Lisa, did you mean Joanna Kimball's reply here and her link here? The article was really good.

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Permalink Reply by Joanna Kimball on July 24, 2010 at 6:49pm

Dogs don't understand "fair." Finn isn't saying "I think your bone is better"; he's saying "I want both bones." Guinness is saying "Sorry, no." If Guinness thought he could get away with it, he'd take both bones too. It's a very normal encounter. It would still be normal even if Guinness actually connected. It would STILL be normal if they got in a huge minute-long roaring fight, as long as nobody came out bleeding in the end (though for the sake of your house you could of course stop them long before this point). Dogs have a beautifully designed series of actions to work out who gets the food without ending up hurting anybody, and none of them have anything to do with "You take one and I'll take the other."

If you don't want them to argue over bones, you should feed them separately or in their crates. This actually works with their instincts as well - if I give six bones to the six dogs who are currently in my dog yard, they will immediately bolt to positions as far away from each other as they can get in order to enjoy them. Slow chewing on a high-value treat like a bone seems to be something they enjoy alone.

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Permalink Reply by Beth on July 24, 2010 at 10:51pm

As has been stated, dogs don't understand "fair." For high-value consumables, I crate one and leave the other loose (the one won't eat in his crate, he stands and drools so he gets the living room and my crate-happy girl gets the peace of her crate).

For high-value toys (like squeakies), I stand guard for that first hour or so when the excitement level is high. After that, they are on their own and are usually ok. Ok by their standards, which is not necessarily ok by humans sense of fair play! I once took four (count 'em four) fleece piggies out of the wash and tossed them out, and Jack managed to stuff all of them in his mouth and trot off with them. At some point one fell out, but he managed to then lie on top of two and chew on the third. To keep my girl from being bored, I will sometimes call Jack off a toy and let her get it. But he does it not because of any sense of "fair," but because he is minding MY command to "wait."

You may find separate rooms work well for you.

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Permalink Reply by Beth on July 24, 2010 at 10:53pm

Oh, by the way, I do keep half an eye on mine and if one is chewing on a toy and the other starts hovering near, I'll distract the hovering one and send them for a different toy to avoid squabbles in the house.

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Permalink Reply by Julia on July 25, 2010 at 1:03am

We have always had "bone games" of some sort with rawhide, no matter who our current dogs were. Separate rooms can work, if a "real" fight breaks out. I think you know what I mean by real. Growling, sneaking, stealing, charming, begging, tricking, etc. are allowed so the dogs can work it out themselves. If I step in, the dogs learn nothing about their own interactions.

Some things are just too dangerous, though. For us, the Buster Cube, a food dispensing toy, could end up with a doggy murder. That toy went to the Humane Society. Anything that regularly sets off the "real" fight ends up there, not here.

Food matters, since they are on different diets. They are fed around the corner, no door between. Lilli, the corgi, would bully her way into stealing the Old Dog's food if she could. It's the only time he growls. But he can't defend his food anymore, and sometimes his appetite just isn't that pressing. So I do have to watch. If I'm in the room, Lilli wolfs down hers, then comes and stands behind Old Dog, waiting in line to get a turn at his dish. Very cute.

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Permalink Reply by Misti, Guinness and Finnegan on July 26, 2010 at 5:20pm

Thanks everyone! I expected some minor issues, as Guinness was used to being the only dog. If this is the only thing I have to worry about with the two of them, I'm happy with that. I appreciate all the input and will try some of these tactics. Taking the bones away for a little while has helped. Guinness uses his best "I'm sorry" face to entice us to give it back, but I stand firm.

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