Advice for dog to dog food aggression

Hello all,

Our puppies Nellie and Howie are generally good with each other, but NOT when it comes to meal time. Both gobble down food (we recently purchased those big silver balls to put in their dishes and slow them down), and when they finish they begin to growl at each other. This used to happen only when one puppy finished first and went for the other's food. Now it can happen even if both bowls have been picked up. They have no aggression towards us. We pick up their food 1 to 3 times to slow them down each meal.

For a while my husband and I were feeding them in separate rooms with the puppy gate inbetween. This wasn't very successful. Today we fed them both in the kitchen on leashes. It worked well. No one made any growls or snaps. Does anyone have suggestions for anything else we can do? The leashes worked well. I just hope we don't have to continue that forever. When we got a second dog I figured that meals would be no problem. Nellie would patiently sit and wait for her food before we got Howie. Now I can get them to sit and wait, but after they get the food it is a whirlwind! I believe this must have something to do with our approach. Neither Nellie or Howie had food issues before living with each other.

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Comment by Simon & Anne on November 23, 2009 at 7:06pm: Thanks for the advice. We pick up the bowls because they eat so fast that they choke and start making weird huffing noises.

Comment by Beth on November 23, 2009 at 5:54pm: We feed ours on opposite sides of the kitchen peninsula, so they can't see each other and are loose but still in the same room. Ours are not especially food-aggressive so I don't pick up their dishes when they are done. They do check out each others' dishes after each meal, but I strictly enforce the rule that neither can approach the other's dish til both dogs are finished eating. If one starts to go to the other's dish and the other is still eating, they actually look towards me. If you don't have an island or something, you can get a similar effect by feeding one at each end of the room, with each facing away from the other. Enforce the rule that they don't leave the feeding area til you say it's ok.

At this point I still stay in the room with them, but since it takes them, oh, about 40 seconds to eat it's not a problem.

When Maddie first arrived, we locked her up to eat for the first two months. It's just in the last few weeks we leave them both loose.

By the way, I understand what you are trying to do but personally I think picking up their food during the meal on a regular basis will actually make them gulp faster and be more vigilant. Personally I might do that occasionally to enforce the "I say when you eat" mentality, but not every day. Mine eat so fast but they don't get more than a half-cup of food per meal, so I don't think inhaling it is that big a deal.

Adding a second dog will definitely make them more food-vigilant. Jack always loved to eat, but when we'd put his dish down he'd wait a minute or so and just mosey on over. Now that we got Maddie, Jack "aroos" for his breakfast each morning, and he never did that before for anything except treats.

Comment by Bev Levy on November 23, 2009 at 4:16pm: My Sparty has food issues with other dogs so we have to be very careful about feeding three dogs. Firstly, I must say that I have done quite a bit of obedience work with Sparty which is the foundation to convincing him that we are in charge of the food not him. I put the food bowls down in the same order and do not allow any of them to check out the other bowls. This did require a leash at first with Sparty. I do not leave the bowls down and if he gets possessive about a space he gets leashed and removed from the area. We feed in the same room but not too close to each other. At first I stayed and watched to make sure there was no crossover but now they all seem very clear about it. It should just take a week or so. Good luck.