Help!!!
I am in urgent need of any suggestions or ideas as to whether this is normal behaviour and if not how do i solve this problem??????
A QUICK BRIEF
I have a 12week old bullmastiff puppy (LOUIS) he is wonderful in every way!!!!!
Until my husbands friend came to our house with his rotti (OZ)puppy 15 weeks old!! There is not much difference in size and they have been left to play with a couple of eyeopening moments of snapping but not to bad all in all!!!
Until the food comes out!!!!! If the rotti went anywhere near his food Louis would go completely ballistic I mean very nasty and attack the Oz.
Now they both had food down at the same time and there is NO favouritism!!!!
The thing is I dont think Louis would purposely go for me my husband or my son!! If he is aware of us there he is ok for us to put our hand in his bowl!!!
The thing we stood by him and my husband touched his back with his foot gentely and because he did not know whether it was a dog or us He went for his foot but realising it was the other half he stopped!!!
NOW THE QUESTION is he being a normal puppy or do we SERIOUSLY have a problem!!!! If so how do we irradicate his behaviour??????
ANY SUGGESTIONS WILL BE GREATLY RECEIVED!!!!!
Thank you
pinky

My thoughts are that maybe your dog is being teritorial (sp) after all the other dog is in his *grounds/terrority* and then even eating his food. I think if the dog was going for you and hubby you would have a problem but as he sees you as a non threat top dog/pack leader you do not have a prob. When my dogs have a row between themselves over food/toys etc.they sort it out after a few growls and snaps. But if I go to take the food off them they are fine

I never feed my dogs together , it is not unusual for a dog to protect his food .
They know when you are giving it to them you are not going to eat it but they know another dog will .
Do keep up the practice of you being allowed to touch his food ,and if he objects then take it away .
If he continues to snap then it is up to you to let hom know this behaviour is not permitted.
But do remember he is a dog and he is entitled to enjoy his grub without the worry of another dog eating it on him.
My Alice was a hoover and if she got the chance she would scoff all the food put down for all the dogs simply shrugging them off if they objected . It was a case of now you see it now you dont .
I had no choice but to separate them . You are ok as you do not have another dog living with you .
But I would not let them together when eating
Mari

Hiya Mari
its tracey!! I do have another dog a 7 yr old Lab! But we feed her first and she leaves him to his food and there are NO squabbles AS YET thank you both of you for your advise!!!!
Its certainly taken a worry from my mind but we will still check hand in bowl!!!
Pinky

Sorry Tracy I forgot the lab
.I also know your breeder has a good reputation re her dogs temperaments so I dont see a worry right now.
All the best Tracy Mari

Mari I have just read your message and the hubby was over my shoulder! He asked what dogs you have???? We never really caught up! Your doggies are????? :)

Bulmastiffs and lately Sharpeis two . bred by Dizzy lol

How many bullies do you have!!what are there ages and names? Sharpeis are they the wrinkled ones??

yes, the wrinkly ones :D

bless em!!!!!!!! :D :D Hiya Dizzy the Sharpei breeder???
I don't know if you know what we can or could do!! we are Just pondering on whether or not to show our bully!! We have noticed his ears going astray!! Do we or can we do anything to corrct them!! I think his teeth are causing them to fall back!! If that doesn't sound completely doolally to you
Maybe you can help Mari

Hi Pinky,
Look at the situation from your puppy`s perspective. He has been with you,(I`m guessing) about 4 weeks and you bring another youngster onto his patch,he accepts this to a point but has to let the `the visitor`
know just whose patch this is,and then what do you do you go and bestow some more affection on the other pup that up to know has been all his by giving it some of his food!No wonder he is protecting his food.If he has been used to eating alone you shouldn`t expect him to accept a different situation readily at such a young age,he will have to be taught manners gradually, dogs are creatures of habit
even at this young age.He was just getting used to his routine and you upset his little apple cart by doing what you did.
Any dog should readily accept his food/dish being touched at any time.The best way to get a puppy used to this is not to take his dish away but sometimes only put half his ration in his dish and when he is eating slowly add the rest of it to the dish
this way it is a pleasant experience of you with his food.
It is important for safety reasons to be able to remove food/objects from your dogs mouth with ease for the times when they try to eat things that are harmful to them.
Regards Carole

The pup sounds pretty normal to me, and the best way may be to manage the situation, by feeding separately etc.....i agree with the advice given about adding food to the dish, this also helps to make the dog safe around visitors and kids as he/she believes humans are nice around food. Also you will be able to take the dish away with no problem if there is ever a problem with the food, say a piece of glass in the food.

A lot of owners do worry that if a dog scraps with another dog then it may attack a human; but this is rarely the case :)

Anyway good luck :)

Lindsay

Thank you Lynsey and Carole! I can take the food away!! And so can my son and hubby we can all take bones without any probs aswell!! The on thing we haven't done is add food to his bowl although we have put our hands in his bowl while he is eating!! But I certainly will get us all to add!!! You have set my mind at ease and thank you again for your helpful advise!!!!!!!
chat again i hope
tracey

Tracey
I dont know if this might help I have 2 dogs around the same age(2yrsnow)one was a gannet?? and the other was very slow at eating.
I made holly work for her food sit stand ect and I also pretended to eat her food she's ok now she will wait until Lucky has finished before eating his bowl

Tracy he is a lovely boy I really think you have no worries about this one .
He is coming on nicely and I for one would not object to him running around here lol.
Remember what I told you re the taping its ok if done properly ,but if wrong has the same effect as a lamb ring on the ears as it does on the lamb tail it falls off.