Kingdom of Pets

Posted by hsouter
May 10, 2009

I have two 11 month old Westies (brother and sister from the same litter), who in the past 2 weeks, are showing serious aggression towards each other when it comes to feeding time. The female (Piper who is the dominate one) has been guarding both bowls and preventing the male (Angus who is the submissive one) from approaching. I've tried feeding Piper first and then feed Angus but Piper will just sit in front of the bowls for 15 minutes and refuse to eat hers and continue to prevent Angus from approaching. Afer she tires from sitting in front of the bowls she will sit in her crate and the moment Angus makes a move for the bowls she will come out and give him the most disgusted look that stops him in his tracks.

I've tried feeding them in different rooms but Piper will come into the room that Angus is in and lower her head and ears and give off a body posture of attack. I will give her a jab to the shoulders to break the zone she's in and tell to go back to her bowl and eat.

Tonight I tried feed them both in completely different room to see if that would work. Angus got right to eating and Piper paced around the room avoiding her meal. Once Angus was finished he attempted to walk past Piper and her full bowl of food. Piper lowered her stance again and prepared to attack. Again, I jabbed her in the shoulder to break her from the Red Zone she was quickly approaching but I was too late and she lunged at Angus and the fight was on for about 20 seconds. Once the fight was over Piper darted for her food and started to eat it up rapidly.

Can someone help me out with some suggestions about how to control this or do I just let them continue to fight it out until they finally sort out who is the actual dominate pup in this pack.

Posted by MaxHollyNoah
May 11, 2009

Hi hsouter,

You said "they are showing serious aggression towards each other" but it sounds like Piper is the only one showing aggression, doesn't it?

I would start feeding Piper in a crate while feeding Angus right outside of her crate. Encourage Angus to eat without minding Piper since he is safe as long as Piper is crated. You can show extra attention to Angus and reprimand any poor behavior of Piper. If Piper growls and doesn't start to eat, that's her choice and problem. You can even put a cloth over her crate. If Angus is afraid of Piper and doesn't start eating, you can hand feed him. (kind like showing off to Piper).

In my opinion it doesn't matter which is dominant and which is submissive but they both should learn to respect each other's food (resources). I would never let the dominant one to threat the submissive one and challenge his food. Foods are provided equally to both and they don't need to fight over the food for surviving. They are not stray dogs.

I have 3 dogs and a foster dog most of the time. When they eat, they are close to each other because I feed them in our utility room. Ones finish quicker would hang around until the slower ones finish their meal and they all check around each other's bowl and clean them up.

You, as the top of the pack, need to sort them out. Don't let the dominant one (Piper) acts dominant when it comes to the meals.

Hope this will work.

Posted by hsouter
May 11, 2009

Thanks for info.

I have been paying closer attention to the Angus and Piper and their body language to figure out / understand what's really going on here. I've noticed that Piper is definitely being the dominant dog when I drop the food down but Angus has decided not to put up with it and he's not dropping his head or his tail and submitting to her. In turn, it's pissed her off royal and she starts the fight. The sad part is, that for the past 9 months that I've had them they have always eaten next to other without issue and happily clean up each others bowl when the food is gone. This aggression has only been happening for the past week and a half.

This morning I tried a little experiment and put the food in completely different dishes to see if changing up the look of the bowls would improve the situation. When I put the dishes down, Piper approached the food and took a sniff and then walked a couple of feet away. She let Angus approach the food and smell it and he too took a sniff and then sat down next to me, six feet away from the dishes. Piper then crawled into her crate and just sat there. I picked up the food and added a little bit of water to it. Hoping that the aroma would change slightly and entice them. Angus approached the dishes and took a sniff while Piper watched on with no issue. I picked up some kibble from the dish using the spoon I mixed the food with and Angus took it willingly. Piper then shot out of her crate and stood next to other dish but just waited, so I gave her a spoon full too. Next thing I know both dogs are eating their food together once again with no fight!! Needless to say I was thrilled to see this but I'm certainly not holding my breath and will wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Posted by MaxHollyNoah
May 12, 2009

Hi hsouter,

It is soooo interesting that changing to new dishes changed the reaction of your dogs so much!!

Maybe it was the dishes themselves that cause your dogs' possessive aggression. How about switching the new dishes every day so that there is no Piper's dish or Angus' dish.

I would love to hear what happens tomorrow:rolleyes Kepp us posted!

Posted by hsouter
May 12, 2009

Continuing with the saga ....

Last night for dinner no issues with the new food dishes.

This morning, still using the new dishes, I put the food down and both dogs looked at me like I had horns growing out of my head. I waited for about 30 seconds and then I nudged Piper towards the dish and she willingly went and ate all her food while Angus parked his butt next to me and patiently waited for Piper to finish. Once Piper finished her meal she went and laid down about 2 feet away from the dishes. Angus then started to approach his dish and she bolted for the dish to guard it - head low, ear pointing out and the hair on her back standing up high. She took one look at me and I growled at her and told her no and with that, she shot into Angus' crate. So I closed the door on her and nudge Angus towards his dish of food. With Piper locked up he went to town plowing through his food. When he was finished I opened up the crate and let Piper out - she wasn't too happy about being locked up and shot him a look but didn't start a fight. Now for the next 15 minutes however, Angus took it upon himself to antagonize Piper just looking for her to fight him - stupid dog!

Just to give you some background regarding the food dishes I have/had been using ... both dogs have been fed from identical 2 cup stainless steel bowls. The only difference with the bowls are the rubber no-slip bottom with one bowl's rubber being purple and the other being green. I have never dedicated a bowl to either dog. The new dishes I'm using are Corelle white single portion serving dishes, again both dishes are identical.

I'll keep posting while this silly little saga continues ...

Posted by KOPsarah
Jun 3, 2009

hi hsouter, i was just wondering whether you were stilling having problems with this situation and if so if anything has changed?

Posted by hsouter
Jun 19, 2009

So my little saga is still on going and manifesting ...

The all out dog fight amongst each other has subsided and Angus has been submissive to Piper but we are now experiencing episodes where he will just lay buy the bowl and show zero interest in eating. We've gone through a couple of episodes are both dogs are so stressed over the situation that they have both refussed to eat for over 24 hrs. During those episode, they go out to the backyard and eat grass to the point of barfing it back up This week has been a better week as I have tried experimenting with feeding Angus in his crate. The first day I closed him in the crate and he happily ate his dinner. The second day I left the crate door open - also good results but Piper chose to hang out in her crate too so the two actually ate side by side which hasn't happened successfully for a couple of weeks. This morning Angus went directly into his crate and waited for me to feed him. As long as they are eating and not fighting with each other I'll continue and keep tracking the results.

Food agression amongst each other