sibling agression

Question
How do I go about correcting sibling aggression? I have five golden retriever 1 female that will be six on the 20th, 1 eleven yr old  male, and here lays the problems three males that are going on three in February. The first problem occur two years ago . After feeding all the dogs one of the boys starting growling and barking at the other, it progress to two of the boys getting physically hurt, not enough to need vet care. Now those two boys are always , more so around me , growling, snapping , baring teeth posturing over each other. The old male who is eleven is the top dog, then the female, then come the fighting boys, then the last boy , who now bark, snap , and bare teeth at the one boy who always in the trouble starter. It was just after they were done eating at first. Now,it whenever I go into the room , let them in or out, if I'm grooming the trouble starter and the other more dominate male  come and stand over by me, the one being groomed with started growling and get up and go bare teeth at the other. Help Help How do I stop this behavior?

Answer
Wow. THREE littermates? There is even a name for this problem. It's called littermate syndrome, and competition is very common among siblings. Do you feed these dogs separately? I'd be feeding everyone in a separate room, or in their own crates. I'd get professional help to observe and tell you if this is even fixable at this point, or if the dogs are endangered by living together. It's no fun for anyone who has to live in this sort of intense situation. In a natural setting, one dog might drive another dog out of the "pack". But we keep our dogs in walls and fences, and refuse to allow them to leave if they need to. So the issue is never resolved. You may need to consider if rehoming one or two of the youngsters would make everyone happier and safer. Sandy Case BFA MEd CPDT www.positivelycanine.com