Brother & sister again on eating aggression

Hi swampyann,

I would like to correct this behavior of Sarah as soon as possible before it gets out of hand and affect the whole relationship between her and Jagger.

What I would like to suggest is:

1) Leash Sarah and tie her (or have someone hold her leash) in the safe distance from Jagger. Have her sit in front of her empty dish.

2) Set up Jagger's meal as usual in the distance from Sarah so that he feels comfortable eating his meal, but still within Sarah's sight.

3) Put a few kibbles in Sarah's bowl at a time, reminding her to focus on you and the kibbles not Jagger who is eating his meal in her sight.

4) You will repeat this until she doesn't show any aggression/interest in Jagger's food and shorten the distance between the two.

5) When you become comfortable not tieing her leash and you think you can just block her with your hand when she tries to go to Jagger's dish, you may do it.

This might take a good week or so based on 2 meal times a day but she needs to learn that she is never allowed to get to her buddy's foods.

I know a family that got a white shepherd male puppy to add to their existing aussie female, that has been having separation anxiety and fear issues. They made the young shepherd as the dominant dog because the aussie was so fearful. Now that the sheperd is bigger than the aussie and the aussie's submissiveness even got worse. She would not take any treats unless the shepherd has been first offered.

I, myself, don't want one dog too dominant and the other too submissive. I would rather have two dogs that are are well-balanced and relaxed with each other. I really don't want Jagger to lose his self-esteem by being bullied by Sarah all the time.

I think it's a good idea to step in every time you see Sarah being too bully to Jagger. What you need to establish is a stronger bond between you and each of the dogs. You are at the top of the pyramid! Good luck

Hi swampyann,

Now I see the difficulty in sorting the order of your 2 outside puppies...

Everybody has a different view and idea on dogs and in fact my sister always believed that dogs should live outside. However, she started allowing her dog only inside the kitchen from the back door, and now the dog is allowed in the living room and the dining room.

There are limits as far as interaction and communication between you and your dogs are concerned when they are not allowed inside the house, unless they are working dogs that spend a lot of time outside with their owners.

Outside dogs usually have little time to interact with people, especially during the winter. Who wants to stay outside in the cold weather?

On the other hand, dogs living inside the house with people are deemed more like "companions or family members" rather than "dogs" in a way. Our expectation on their behaviors is much more than that on outside dogs. Therefore, we need to control their behaviors more strictly, i.e., toilet training, not to do counter surfing, not chewing or stealing, waiting nicely while human family members are eating, not barking when we are on the phone, greeting visitors nicely, etc.

Despite all the hard work in training them, I think it is way more worth to have such companions living close to you. Even when we are busy doing our own things, such as working on my computer like this, I am in the picture of my dogs. They are waiting for me to come out of the office. They are hanging around me when I am cooking dinner, waiting for some pieces of food to be dropped. Their ears perk up even when asleep if we mention their names in our conversation. When we read they are lying next to us.

Outside dogs don't have those opportunities but they might be enjoying their life to be a "dog". They don't get scolded for stealing a piece of bread from the counter, or peeing on the carpet.

I don't know which is happier for dogs. However, I can tell you one thing - "I prefer to live closer with my doggies, both physically and in my mind."

It might be easier to convince your husband (in fact, my husband has changed a lot since he realized how smart and loyal our BCs are, and how much fun to be with them) than to train your puppies