Hi Everyone
New to the forum so hope this is the appropriate place for this thread....I see lots of other posts about older dog aggression generally but ours specifically relates to food mostly and they are puppies so thought a new thread was best? Anyway here goes.....
Our two pups are sibling females aged almost 6 months. The main issue we seem to be struggling to overcome is aggression which is sometimes developing into a full blown fight which needs intervention. They do the usual rough and tumble play and generally get on very well and it appears quite obvious who is the dominant one. However, the dominant one seems to have issues when it comes to the resource of food mostly. After feeding or sometimes a treat, she will show threatening body language and give out (a low not particularly aggressive sounding) growl. if we don't intervene at this point then it has gone to full fighting mode at times, (this evening drawing blood!) when the less dominant will defend herself also and puts up a good fight! After us intervening and perhaps separating them, within a few minutes all is fine and they can even be whining for each others company!...As i said this seems to mostly be about food but she also does this low growling at us sometimes, particularly if we are say moving her from a comfortable spot.
Basically what we have been trying so far is trying to tell her we do not accept this through our tone of voice, separating them. we also feed them separately but she still starts this behaviour the minute they are reunited. We also intend to get them spayed in the next few weeks hopefully. Any other tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanking you
New to the forum so hope this is the appropriate place for this thread....I see lots of other posts about older dog aggression generally but ours specifically relates to food mostly and they are puppies so thought a new thread was best? Anyway here goes.....
Our two pups are sibling females aged almost 6 months. The main issue we seem to be struggling to overcome is aggression which is sometimes developing into a full blown fight which needs intervention. They do the usual rough and tumble play and generally get on very well and it appears quite obvious who is the dominant one. However, the dominant one seems to have issues when it comes to the resource of food mostly. After feeding or sometimes a treat, she will show threatening body language and give out (a low not particularly aggressive sounding) growl. if we don't intervene at this point then it has gone to full fighting mode at times, (this evening drawing blood!) when the less dominant will defend herself also and puts up a good fight! After us intervening and perhaps separating them, within a few minutes all is fine and they can even be whining for each others company!...As i said this seems to mostly be about food but she also does this low growling at us sometimes, particularly if we are say moving her from a comfortable spot.
Basically what we have been trying so far is trying to tell her we do not accept this through our tone of voice, separating them. we also feed them separately but she still starts this behaviour the minute they are reunited. We also intend to get them spayed in the next few weeks hopefully. Any other tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanking you
