| Dogfights over food - what to do?
A little background, I have a 2-3 yr. old female foster dog, Lucky. She was a neglect case, almost starved to death.
Naturally, she has some food issues, but only with dogs, not with me. My problem is she will instigate a fight with my 3 yr. old Cody over anything that may even resemble food.
I feed them both outside of their crates. I've worked up to this. She is fine with that as long as they are strictly supervised.
However, I can't eat a thing without a possible fight. I don't feed them from my plate, but when I am eating Lucky stands guard. For example, last night Cody was at the other side of the room and Lucky was by me. I was eating dinner. He moved a little and she attacked.
These fights aren't deadly. There has been the odd scratch, but they are easily stopped when I stand up and shout something like "STOP". But they are noisy, and they are showy, and I don't want it to continue because I fear it can progress into something more serious, and I don't think Cody should be attacked for doing nothing.
Now, I know the simple solution is for her to be crated whenever there is food near. But she is a foster, and I really want her to be prepared for anything when she goes to her new family. What if they have a smaller dog or a cat? That would be deadly. I want to try to fix the problem rather than avoid it.
Also, she guards the drawer where I keep the dog cookies. She used to guard the bag of dog food until I moved it to another room separated by a door. And if I'm not mistaken, I believe she's beginning to guard the refrigerator.
Aside from placing her in a home with no other pets, what can I do?
Kim  |