Dogs Fighting - Again

This is the only time i have owned more that 1 dog and i find there behaviour sometimes quite difficult to understand and would like advice does your dogs squabble over food.

It's been steadily getting worse over the last few weeks. Always around food issue's.

I now feed them in seperate rooms and do not let them mix until all traces of food are put away. Tonight i went to cook my food, jess smelt it and started staring kai out again and then all hell broke loose.

Jess is stood over the top of Kai (dominance?) and has got hold of the back of the neck. The fighting sounds awful and really nasty. I manage to get jess off of kai and seperate again. I really thought kai might have been injured but there isn't a mark on him thank god.

I just don't know what to do unless i keep them seperate all the time. You can see it in her face when jess wants to start she stares and goes in his face. A firm "NO" or distracted her has worked this week but it didn't tonight.

The worse part of all is my daughter saw the fight and it reduced her to tears as it is very upsetting!

Sorry I can't help. I have a new puppy and feed them in seperate rooms but at the same time, as the puppy wants to eat my older dog's food. I find that this is the easiest way round it.
Hope you get it solved

I used to have two cockers who did this,I had a tendancy to shout no and out to the aggressor putting the one who started it out off the room.xxxxx

So sorry your having problems, Do the dogs have the same meals, or are they fed on diff foods,
I feed the three house rotts in the same room and dont seem to have problems, but I have heard shib's can be a bit head strong,,,
with my lot if one dog dives into another dogs bowl,,,its like musical bowls,,,everyone makes a dive for a bowl,,,
You could try,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
seperating the feed into four or six bowls,,,then in a large room spread them around, it may just throw them off the routine of facing off, I take it the female is the one with the issue over food? If so you could try sorting the dominance issue out by feeding the more dominant dog then the quieter dog,,, hope you find a solution to this quickly its so upseting for kids to see a prang with dogs, xxx

This for me is why feeding dogs seperately is not the answer. We all have situations where we drop something and if the dogs are not accustomed to leaving it until told otherwise they will pounce and all hell can break out. I can only say what I would do in the same situation as obviously not knowing your dogs or how you interact with them makes it difficult.
I would teach both dogs seperately to "leave" using high value food such as cooked chicken or whatever your dogs particular fave is. Do it by placing it on the floor to begin with and then progress to throwing/dropping it on the floor and you want the " leave it" to be perfect. I wouldn't even say ok and then let them have it, I would pick it up and then give it to them. You can do this routinely with their dog food if you want and that way they learn they can only have it if you say so.
Once they have perfected it, I would try a group leave, and again only reward from your hand.
I wouldn't resort to feeding my dogs in separate rooms simply because , I have 4 and I would be feeding them all over the show and secondly because they learn nothing from it. I would in fact feed them in the same room a reasonable distance apart to begin with and position myself between them, and if either moved towards the other they would be corrected and returned to their own food.
Jess is the newfi isn't she and still fairly young so she sounds to me as though she is chucking her weight around and using bullyboy tactics, something I never allow to happen as it's far easier to nip in the bud early.
It's something I have been dealing with recently with Frankie the terrorist and Diesel the staffy, Diesel thought he could have anything he wanted as long as he was quick enough and no matter how many times Frank told him no he still tried to bully his way into Franks bowl. They had several spats, and they both had the wounds to prove it. With increased training and vigilance on my part, He has now learnt that until Frank has finished he has to stay away, he needs reminding obviously but now when told leave he walks away and waits for Frank to finish and then he gets what's left if anything.

Trouble raised a good point with the above post, re: seperate feeding solving nothing, To me you have a dog with ambition, so she is trying to climb the social ladder by dominating the male, now if the food issue is removed, she will most likely just begin dominating in aanother area, eg you attention, or some areas of the house, Its really most likely an issue with dominance rather than food, if you know what I mean, xx

I haven't done much digging to find out but - what ages are the dogs and how long have you had each of them ?

Sounds like dominance to me too. Good advice already given but can I just ask which of the two you think is the 'boss'?

I avoided using the word dominance as I think some dogs just need educating as to what is and is not acceptable behaviour, and the aggressor is not necessarily the dominant one.
Aside from food issues, Frankie came to me at 20 weeks old as there were issues with the other dog he lived with, the other dog was being possessive and territorial etc. I took him on knowing all the previous owner could tell me, but Frankie was obviously a quick learner and in his short life had learnt this behaviour from the other dog. My Dobies behave completely differently and Frankie gets on well with them after a few teething troubles. He has possession issues and frankly anything will do. a manky old plastic bottle top or a 3" long piece of string, and he will guard them with his life. This obviously can not be allowed, he can not stop the others from walking freely around the room etc. Frankly is learning to share and it's time consuming, but the point is he isn't trying to be top dog, he's just trying to protect those things he values, (however manky we might think they are) but he has to learn to live in harmony with the other dogs and he has to be taught that, it wont just resolve itself. So I think you have to be very proactive and make the rules and make sure the dogs obey those rules at all times.

Jess my newfoundland has just turned 1 a few weeks ago. Kai is 6 and was castrated about 6 months ago. Jess i have owned from 8 weeks and kai from 7 months old.

I think that is a good question, my anwser would be "i am not sure" they would both like to be. Kai my shiba is a breed that is definately stubborn and head strong and i think jess is just so much bigger that she thinks she should be.

This is my fear....it started with "cheese" or fancy food that was a luxury. Last night it was my food i was cooking and nothing to do with them at all. I am sure it will continue with other items that she feels is hers.

I can't just put them in a room with several food bowls as i am sure all hell would break loose. So how do i sort out who is leader. I think jess (newfie) will end up leader as i did notice her eyeing him up (mild warnings before the storm) and he backed away. Previously he has gone back very aggressively.

Although the fighting is just awful i have come to realise that no harm is being done and in the past if i looked closely when they had a fight they never actually bit. Last night jess was stood over the top of kai and in trying to get her off i thought she had kai in her mouth, my daughter said after that she thought jess had hold of his collar and was pulling him around by that but i am not sure as my concern was trying to get a 50kg dog out of the room.

Just wanted to add that there are no issues with jess knowing that i am boss. She knows that i am top and has never challenged that.

Any help gratefully received as this has really upset us as a family. At the moment they are seperate.

I just don't know what to do for the best really and i think its all about jess (newfie) wanting to be big boss and bullying but how can i sort it out. If i have seen her start i say a firm no and if she continues she is removed. But i am a little worried about putting them back together.

This all started 6 weeks ago after we moved house!!