Can anyone offer me any advice regarding the chaos at feeding time. As soon as I get the food bowls out all the dogs run about barking, jumping up, the Spaniel snapping at the heels of the others etc. They are fed Naturediet, which as anyone who uses it knows is a pain to open, so for a good 4 or 5 minutes (it seems longer) there is total chaos. I'm sure my neighbours must think the dogs are being murdered or something.

This is why it is a good reason to teach the dogs the 'stay' and/or 'leave' commands. My dogs wait until they have their own bowls before being allowed to eat, and woebetide any dog that dares to go into the wrong bowl! I don't allow it. I would start by feeding the dogs separately, teaching them to leave until told to eat. It will take a while but will be worth it in the long run. ;)

I agree with LindyLou. :) It's not hard to do but you do need to teach one at a time. I have 9 dogs, 7 of which are large and fed together. They know they aren't to touch their food until told so, and now all I need to do is put each food bowl in front of each dog, they sit and wait (don't even have to be told to now as it is such routine- twice a day 365 days a year after all :) ), when all have their own bowl I wait a few seconds then say "okay" and all tuck in. :) I do the same when going out for a walk to avoid dogs running off lead and getting tangled up in dogs still on the lead. Each has to sit and wait, have the lead removed, and none can move until told so.

They will leave the food until told it is OK to eat, it is just the chaos whilst it is being prepared. Are yours all fed in the same place (ie. in a line next to each other) or are they scattered around the kitchen as mine are - maybe I should line them all up?

I prepare the food in the kitchen with the dogs outside, then let them in when it's ready. :)

That is similar to over excitement when going to get ready for a walk.  You sit back sown and hang the leaqds back up until order is restored, and stop everytime they kick off, so eventually you ahve them sittting quietly waiting for their leqads to be attached.

I personally would stop preparing the food the moment they start acting up, then start again when they settle and stop if they restart.  It will be a pain, but they will learn that making a nuisance of themselves will result in them not getting their dinner.  In fact if they go without for one day won't kill them.

Thanks for the advice. They are pretty manic at walk times as well, so will try what you advise and see what happens.

It may take a bit of time until the penny drops, but It workjed for my first dog that I had allowed to get loopy when getting ready for walks,a sn when I had the next dog I amde sure that they learnt that noisy behaviour and jumping when going for a llak would delay the walk.

There are 4 of them (and a pup), so I guess it will take a bit of time, but hopefully if I persist things will get better.

Both of mine sit by the front porch door waiting for their dinner, after I give the release command they have to run through the house to the kitchen, I started this when they were puppies in exactly the way Brainless advised, they also sit for their leads to be put on before a walk, it works very well :)

Progress is very slow. They will all wait for the OK command before they eat but the preparation time is still chaotic.

If I do them individually the one being fed is as good as gold, but the others are running about, barking and generally creating havoc in the other room / garden. If I try preparing the food and they are all together a couple will sit and behave whilst the others run around like maniacs therefore setting the behaved ones off. If I stop preparing whenever they start creating they do shut up but the minute I pick the knife up they start again.

The trouble is I don't want to penalise the well behaved dogs by not putting their food down until the delinquents have shut up.

Any further suggestions?

Prepare the food as now and then put it up out of the way say for an hour and then go and feed them.  After several days of this they will be desensitised to the preparation, especially if you continue as now stopping waht you are doing as soon as they start.

Unfortunately it si a bit like a teacher and an unruly class the others will just have to wait on the naughty ones to behave.  Of course you could feed the good ones sooner and put up with the silliness until the penny drops that the silly behaved ones get nothing until they behave.

I have 8 dogs and all are fed together, but they are always fed in the same order and in the same place, so they know where to stand  - you just have to be quick at putting it down!!!!!