My 4 1/2 month old puppy is becoming aggressive. I feel like I’ve done everything to prevent this and it’s getting worse

[ijustworship]

Midna, my 4 1/2 month old bloodhound heeler, is becoming aggressive/food aggressive. She’s only aggressive to my 8 y/o JRT named Sprocket. She has lunged at him if he gets too close to her chews or her food dish. Even a piece of kibble that fell a foot away from her dish. She gets super intense and it’s hard to snap her out of it. Especially because my JRT tries to go right back at her. So while I’m pulling her away he’s still running at her.

She’s always been super eager to eat. I had to teach her sit and stay before she eats because she would just go absolutely nuts for her food. I also got a slow bowl for her. I sit on the ground and feed them on opposite sides of me.
The breeder (who wasn’t REALLY a breeder. It was an accident litter) would feed the puppies (a litter of 12) out of the same dish. And Midna being the runt I assume had to fight extra hard for her food.

So meal time is very supervised and I try to do my best to keep all of her chews in her crate. I don’t want to close the crate because she’s free to go in there and keep herself busy with toys. I don’t want to just feed her in her crate to avoid dealing with it.

Another thing, today the dogs were playing like they always do. Rough and aggressive looking but they are having fun. But Sprocket was done and tried to tell her off but she went nuts. I had to grab her and pull her away until she calmed down.

It scared me because my JRT is so small and Midna could be up to 80 pounds full grown. I don’t want to have to pull an 80 pound dog off a 10 pound dog

She is amazing towards people, not possessive over her things with me.

Does anybody have any advice on how to actively work against this behaviour? Am I contributing to this in anyway?

 

[carolynnab]

@ijustworship Hmmm here’s an idea. My dog does not touch my cat’s food while she’s eating, because she knows it belongs to her and he respects that. I started to feed her 30 seconds before I put his food down and allow him to eat. Somehow in my mind, I picture a “pack” hierarchy and who gets to eat first is higher in the hierarchy. I’m not a professional, and my dog has not growled when it comes to food since early puppyhood, but this was what worked for me. Maybe you can do this along with the advice from others who reply to this post

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@ijustworship How are you approaching feeding them? Why is Sprocket near Midna when she's feeding? Isn't Sprocket busy eating his own food elsewhere?