I feed Ferdie and Diva side by side, but I watch while they eat. Diva will try to nudge Ferdie out of the way when she has finished hers and he is such a big dope, he will walk away and let her have it. If I see her trying to get in his bowl before he has finished, I just get in between them and nudge her out of the way.

But there has never been a fight; that is a different matter so separate feeding until youngster learns some manners would be my choice.

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Wouldn't say dominance (especially not on this forum a dirty word) but just plain instinct with food. You may find and sounds like you will, that your two dogs will have to be fed separately in the future. I could not feed my Mals together, they can't even have food dished up when together or they'll fight, they are just very food orientated. I even had a fight on my hands while washing up their bowls AFTER they had eaten once.

Some dogs will just not tolerate others at feed times and best to feed in different places, especially with bloat as a worry, I like mine to take their time with food and not bolt it down.

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"For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack"

Eating quickly is often a good sign of resource guarding. I would forget about applying dominance to this whole situation. If you wanted to be specific, neither are 'dominant' in the food situation because there is no clear differentiation between them- there is no winner and loser. You have Kaiser who is an adolescent male, naturally protecting resources, and Max who is most probably just defending himself. Dominance does not imply personality traits, it just implies roles in relationships, and can never be applied easily to domestic dog relationships, so don't worry about it

As others have said: feed separately; practise rewards based training with each of them, then both of them together with you hand feeding. You can slowly incorporate doing training and feeding them from a bowl, e.g. ask both to 'Sit', (click) and feed them a couple of pieces each from a food bowl via your hand. After numerous repetitions of this, the food bowl can be given to them each to take a few pieces out (a food bowl each, just with a couple pieces of kibble in each) but placed away from each other. Slowly, the presence of both of them around food bowls will not be so demanding on Kaiser. But these steps must be taken slowly and preferably under supervision of a behaviourist.

Try to feed them more slowly too, rather than having all their food in each bowl, as this makes the resource higher value and more likely to be guarded.

Kaiser is just a little unsure and anxious around food, and does not feel comfortable with Max around. This is natural and probably an innate trait, that has just onset recently.

we get all our dogs ( six of them ) to sit when its meal times whoever sits first get the first food bowl
when one dog has finnished we take away theire food bowl we or rather dh stays outside with them and make sures that each dog eats there food and dosnt try to take another dogs food

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Is Kaiser the 12mth old neutered and is Max neutered? At 12mths old Kaiser is now sexually mature, and its not unusual for same sexes who live in the same house to get to a certain age and compete. They can live in total harmony up until then. It can be the same for bitches too when one comes into season or they both do, you can get competition. Some breeds are known for it more then others. Even if they or one is neutered it can still happen.With Males even things like bitches in heat close by can set off two males who are usually friends and the bitch doesnt even have to be there they can smell it in the urine that the bitch has left and the smell can carry.

If dogs are going to compete or fight then food is usually first on the list to compete over,followed by treats, chews, toys, attention, confined spaces and times of hyper excitement like visitors coming and leads coming out for walks.
All these avoided and not put in the way for the dogs to fail life can still be fine.

So I would either feed entirely separate, or have a dog control gate inbetween with a margin of space either side and supervise. Bowls up and away before they are let back together. Also no toys or chews laying about,
only give when supervised. Take care with attention and dont over fuss either when the others watching or there. Watch them when together in confined spaces like narrow hallways or a small kitchen especially when you are preparing food a dropped piece and they both go for it can set them off.
Again they can also get snappy with each other and competitive when visitors come or leads come out for walks with over excitement.

Just be vigilant over the next few days, make sure you remove any triggers and control the situation and maybe too just separate them when unattended just in case and until you know things are settled again. With management you should be OK.

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Hi Everyone,

Once again thanks for all your advise.

Last night and this morning i did feed them seperately and everything went ok.
However i have noticed that Max now doesn't want to be around Kaiser (which is understandable) but he also looks very nervous. Is there anything i can do to help the situation, i don't want to make a big fuss over Max as this might make Kaiser feel jealous, but i do feel really sorry for Max at the moment.

To sled dog hotel's question, Both Max and Kasier have not been neutered. We have not got Kaiser neutered as the breeder who we got Kaiser from wants to use him for stud.

Thanks

I'm kinda surprised your breeder didn't ask any questions or talk to you about same sex aggression when you said you already had another intact male dog in the house is it a good breeder? Has kaiser won any titles, had any health testing or temperament testing which would make the breeder think he is stud worthy? Did you sign a contract to say that they could use kaiser for stud? If not, it might be worth having a chat with them, after all its you who's got to live with him. Breeding a dog can really alter temprament too. Again, I really don't mean any offence with any of those questions, I just think they're questions you might want to ask yourself.

I would also consult a professional behaviourist if it were me, it is something which can be kept under controll but can easily escalate into world war three if left unattended or dealt wih inappropriately.

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Hi Dober,

Firstly no offence taken by your questions.

The breeders was aware that we had a male dog and of Max not being neutered, this was discussed at lengths before we sign the contract to buy a puppy as Max had been on his own for so long.
The breeder wants to use Kaiser as a stud as this was the last litter from the parents and they want to keep part of the lineage going because of the great temprement ect.. We are going to get his hip score done soon and then take it from there.

Is Max trying to do things like keeping his head low, not looking at Kaiser turning his head away and not looking at him full on? Maybe doing a lot of lip licking? if he is then he is tying to defuse the situation. Hopefully as long as Max doesnt try to challenge Kaiser, and Kaiser lets things be they will now have some semblence of order. AS long as you dont put triggers in their way for them to compete, and as long as one doesnt challenge the other again it should be OK. The Problem that occurs in a multi dog household of same sexes, is when you have two and neither will quit. My girls started when the younger came into season, the older 10yrs Plus and spayed since 18mths started on the Younger. The younger who was 9mths then, ony went up to her as usual to greet. After a couple of digs the younger retaliated back. I stepped in and the older then realised it wasnt a wise thing to do. Since the youngers season finished and she was later spayed I have had no more open warfare, but they will still compete over food if I let the situation arise. Its the older thats the problem if she goes for or takes something, so I just dont let it happen. Never give them anything to fail over and they are now 14 nearly and 3 years.

You could try maybe taking them out separately and walk them and give them a break from each other and spend some one to one time. If you do that I would just make sure they are going to be OK together when you bring them back after the walk. Mine are fine and I can take them out together in different combos or individually it doesnt matter. Some dogs though can be competitive even about going out, I have seen it. So I think its something that will be good in a lot of respects but just be careful to make sure on return.

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It's a different situation for me seeing as i have a bitch and a dog rather than same sex but I do have the issue of Alfie (18 months) wolfing down his dry food and then wanting to take Jess' (7 yrs) dry/wet food from her.
First thing id say is never let either dog lick out the other's bowl, even when they've finished, Alfie knows Jess' bowl is out of bounds, no exceptions.
What I've taught Alfie to do is come and sit by me as soon as he's finished his (a fair distance from Jess but same room). I give him gentle strokes while we wait for Jess to finish hers (I try to distract him from staring as much as possible).
As soon as Jess finishes i tell him to wait, i go and pick up both of their bowls and put them in the sink then call both dogs over for a treat and a fuss.
At first I had to go and get alfie and bring him to sit with me when he'd finished but now he just comes automatically as he knows that the end result is a biscuit and a fuss. It does mean eating is always fully supervised.
It does of course depend entirely on your dogs and from what you've said it may well be more sensible to just feed your two apart, but just thought i'd let you know this worked well for me
Good luck!