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Originally Posted by Ringo1  Glad things are going better. I have to feed Lucy and Ringo separately. Ringo inhales his food and would bully his way over to Lucy's if I allowed it. So, we feed them in separate rooms and just quit worrying about it.
Small, boring bones and treats are no problem; they will trade it back and forth for hours. One will take it from the other and then lay it down; then the other will pick it up and so on and so forth.
For really good treats like bully sticks ~ those have to be eaten in their crates. Because they will fight over those. Lucy has to have Ringo's and then he gets mad and tries to hoard both of them . . . it's just not worth it. Now I save the bully sticks for when they have to go in their crates for some reason.
But Ringo is probably way more dominant than Cooper. Lucy is very submissive so there are few skirmishes. Poor Lucy. But she loves Ringo so I think she is happy??? |
Max inhales his food, but I am there at every feeding. When he's done he comes and sits with me and doesn't bother Cooper anymore. But, tonight he went towards Cooper and Cooper turned the corner towards Max and gave him his ugly face snarl. It could have escalated but did not. I redirected them both.
I suppose the bickering between 2 dogs is quite common. I'm starting to pick up better signals of when i think the aggression will start. If Cooper is sitting eating a bully stick and Max walks over to him, it will be a problem. But if Cooper brings the bully to Max and hangs it in his face it's ok. I'm trying to teach Max to give Cooper space and trying to teach Cooper that Max is ok and not to get upset with him. So far I haven't needed to separate them, however I'm always around.
Both of your dogs sound happy. It doesn't seem like Lucy minds all that much. With Max being just a puppy I'm not sure what roll he plays yet but I keep telling Cooper he's the alpha king.