food agression or dominace issues?

[irishknight]

I have a total of four dogs, and recently two of them are having issues. They are growling and fighting with each other every day and it seems to be only in the kitchen, and it starts around 3ish and seems to last until we feed them supper. They get breakfast and some treats during the day so they are not starving. Don't ask the Dal. he thinks is belly is always empty and needs to eat 24/7.
The dal and my hound mix are the ones with the issue, at one time chica my hound mix was alpha, anymore I am not so sure. Marbles the dal, only fights with Chica, my other two dogs come and go and there is no problem.
Whats thier deal? Should I feed them in another area of the house so they stop associating the kitchen with food? Or let them just fight it out and see if it stops. The rest of the time they seem to get along or at least tolerate each other. So any suggestions?

[gypsy]

HI! I am no expert in your particular issue since I only have one dog and therefore never had such experience. But what if you separate their bowls, in another words, make an eating space for each one of those dogs that have been having the issues, make them eat in different areas, and see if the problem persists. I hope you discover what is at the root of your predicament. It might be a dominance issue, and the food being the commom denominator....
Good luck!!

[Dax]

It is natural for two dogs to try to establish thier pecking order in a pack even if they are not dominant. HOWEVER, you should be the Alpha and will establish that your house is a NO TOLERANCE Zone. When they start you could try telling them both STERNLY NO!! and then place them in a time out area (their crates would be great) and they only get to be in the kitchen with you when they behave themselves.

Food is not the main factor but just a contributing item.

[erdog3]

Hi Knight, give a little more detail, who is sterilized? how many males/females? ages of those fighting?
I can only guess at this stage, but the most common reasons are:-
Female comming into heat.
Male maturing.
One castrated, the other not.
Both male and uncastrated.
One receiving a different kind or more food.
It could be a number of reasons or combination of reasons, as I said I can only guess at this stage.

[erdog3]

Also, no don't just leave them to it and fight it out till we know more detail, size differences etc, one could kill the other over food!!!
It sounds like it could get worse as well and spill over into other times.
You may need to separate them till you can do something about it.

[irishknight]

marbles is a sterile male weighing about 65lbs and is approx. 6, Chica is sterile female about 45 lbs and is apprx. 10.

We keep their food behind the door that goes to the basement, this is where most fights occur. We feed them in the kitchen.
They usually start thier growling, glaring, baring of teeth and fighing around 4is and we don't usually feed them until 6 or 7 at night.

Today Chica had her head out the kitchen dog door, snariling at Marbles, then just bolted out and started fighting with him. Its a 50/50 thing some days she starts it some days he does.

I moved their food out on the screened porch, and their food bowls outside. Should I feed them earlier or just once a day in the a.m.? They get a long the rest of the day, it just a couple of hours before feeding that they behave this way.
I have never let my dogs fight things out, I would be afraid one would get hurt.
They are driving me nuts with this, nothing seems to work. I pull them apart tell them bad dogs and make them go to separte corners.
Suggestions please!

[Dax]

I would feed them separately for a while at least. Lets say one in the kitchen and the other outside.

Still continue to show your displeasure at even the slightest vocalization in the house.

Allow them to burn off some of the energy during play time as long as it's supervised. Since both are fixed and adults, feeding them in separate areas might be all that you need to do to calm down the situation.

[erdog3]

Something must have changed in your household to start the behaviour, they have normally got along quite well you say? the problem only starting of late? Are the other two fed with them? are they male/female, ages?
I have a dominant female-spayed, with a male uncastrated, before she was spayed she was always a real b#*ch with him, she is 7 he is 4. I feed them separately always. They get along mostly the rest of the time, occasionally she will have a good go at him, I have had to break them up a couple of times, or given her a good hard squirt in the face with the hose, normally it's either when another dog is present, or she has something she is jealous of, bone, or toy etc.
I just make sure Ellie (my other lab) isn't in sight if she is in with Wally, or she will have a go at him. It could be the same sort of thing with yours, don't know why they do it, she just acts really agitated and annoyed.
I think it a good idea to change tea time, don't make it regular for a while, but feed them separately now, I would put one outside the other in, then switch this round quite often too.
They can tell when it's tea time, mine start barking when they hear me washing the bowls, so separate them before you even start serving it up.

[irishknight]

I moved the food out onto the screened in porch and feed everyone outside. Fighting has decreased quite a bit. Only maybe once a week now. Although Marbles did pee on Chicas food bowl, I will have to collect them sooner. Thank you for all the wonderful advice. Let me know if there is anything else.

[Miacoda]

Is there any reason why you can't feed them in their crates? I initially fed my dogs in their crates. They would "kennel up", wait for their food, and I would not let them out until they had both eaten and were calm. They would leave their crates, go check out the other crate for missed morsels and that would be the end of it. Now I feed them almost side by side.