agression against new dog

Question
I have a 12-year old Brittany who is very good with people. However, my daughter moved back home with her 8 month old Sharpei-shepard mix and our Brittany is very aggressive towards the new dog when there is any food around. We've tried giving the Brittany extra attention and feeding the dogs snacks in the same room, but we have to stand between them or we end up with a dog fight. Any suggestions? The Brittany is in very good physical shape for her age but she is very hard of hearing which makes this even more difficult for verbal training.

Answer
Dear Jennifer,

Don't feed them meals or snacks in the same room anymore.  Don't give them rawhides, pig ears, bones or any other animal-based chew in the same room anymore, and don't have these items lying around.

We humans tend to want to make everything even and "fair" but in the canine world it's just not that way all the time.  I have run a daycare for dogs for over 10 years now, full of extremely sociable dogs, and never once considered having a treat, food or animal-based toys in there.  The few times at the beginning that I did try non-animal-based toys, such as Kongs, there were problems.  

Every dog is different.  Your 12 year old deserves a break, and if you can solve the problem and avoid fights by simply feeding them separately, why not?  I suspect the 8 month old is not going to be getting any less feisty in the coming year; he is entering adolescence and is very likely to challenge the "old man" of the house over lesser things than food.

Keep food out of the equation and you will reduce the fight frequency very, very dramatically.

Good luck and thanks for writing.
Suzanne Harris, BSc, CPDT
http://www.dogdaysusa.com