Hello all,
I need help. I have a 10 month old GSD. He is now 80 lbs. My family and I have had "Buddy" since he was 8 weeks old. I have always been able to and have continued to make sure I fed him by hand. I have also been able to hold his bones while he eats them. Sometimes he will take trash from meat packages from the trash can. I have always been able to take those packages from his with no problem.

The problem began when my wife brought home a malnourished 3 year old Dashund mother and 6 week old puppy. My wife and kids fell in love with the 2 new additions. We never allow the 3 dogs to be unsupervised. The mother Dashund is very protective of any bones and or food she is eating. She will not allow her puppy and or my GSD near her. She will however allow my family to get near her. She has not growled any to us. When my GSD does get near she will growl and try to snap at my GSD. My 80 lb. GSD thinks the 10 lb. Dashund is playing. We have allowed the growling behavior to occur thinking that this will establish pack order. My GSD is intact and I think he is starting to try to establish his pack rank. We have always monitored this behavior to make sure the GSD does not hurt the Dashund.

Now the problem...For the first time he has growled at me and bared his teeth. He had taken some trash from the trash can. He has never done this before. I quickly grabbed him at the back of the neck and stopped that behavior. He is also starting this behavior towards the Dashund whereas before he never did.

Should I allow the growling and pack order to be established between the dogs yet always maintaining mine at the top of the pack? Is this behavior learned?

Thanks for any response,
Roger Smith

Sounds like the Dachshund is teaching the GSD bad manners. I wouldn't let the Dachshund growl at the GSD, sounds like a matter of time before there's a fight, especially since it seems the GSD is taking his cue from the Dachshund. And it may also be a matter of time before the Dachshund starts growling at your family. I also wouldn't allow the GSD or the Dachshund's puppy to invade the Dachshund's space while she's eating or chewing on a bone. Having the experience of being malnourished would certainly impact the way a dog reacts when it finally does have food, very guarded about it. I would feed them in separate rooms or in their crates with the doors closed, or one inside and one outside until they're both done.

I know you will get MUCH more experienced advice here than mine - you came to the right place!! So this is just my two cents worth.

In our own household, the biggest thing our dogs might "fight" over is food, or anything that smells like food. (i.e. garbage). We pick our battles. We have found it is MUCH easier to feed the dogs separately (they eat in their crates) and SECURE the garbage than to deal with fighting over that stuff all the time. The only time that any "treats" come out is for training related stuff with each individual dog (and we use toys more than treats for training related things anyway). When we are working on individual training, the other dogs are crated.

We just work to minimize "food fights" by eliminating the possibility to the highest degree possible.

Interestingly, we have also found since feeding raw that all of our dogs are far less interested in things that "might" be food.

While many trainers might disagree with this, we also taught both of our GSD's (we got them as pups) the "out" command VERY early on. That has helped many times.

That being said, it is interesting what happens when one of our dogs catches something (squirrels being the most common) out in the big yard. The pack order is quite apparent - they don't fight over it like they would a rawhide bone in the house. They all wait their turn. I've always found it curious that their behavior over "food" when they are roaming 6 acres is SO different than it is in the house. (feedback????)

Best wishes - and as a fellow "multiple dog home" person, I am very interested in the additional advice that will follow!!

Beth