food aggression between 2 females

Question
QUESTION: I have a chow lab mix she is an alpha female(30lbs) and we just rescued(today) a 7 month old great Pyrenees female.(70lbs)I made the mistake of leaving dog food out. The females locked up. It appears that the Pyrenees is also very dominant. I have 3 small children. I am afraid that one of them will get hurt. I am also worried that my chow/lab mix will get hurt. What suggestions do you have to help them get along?

ANSWER: Because of the size difference, I'd be very careful. I would feed the dogs completely seperately, so that they can not challenge each other over food. At all. As in different rooms, possibly feeding in crates. No free feeding (food left available). The thing is about females is that once they decide they can't live with each other, they may fight to the death. Males fight for status, females fight for breathing rights. And in the average household a dog doesn't have the option to leave. So it's very important that you do what you can to keep from having fights over important resources. And I would supervise them closely. If the only issue is about food, that is easy to manage. They just don't get to eat together, or get valuable treats or objects together.
I would also work with the new dog to be sure she doesn't resource guard against humans. (hand feeling, teaching trade, leave it, etc. This is also important considering you don't want the dog to resource guard against your children. A great book for this issue is "Mine" by Jean Donaldson.) Good luck. Sandy Case MEd, CPDT, www.positivelycanine.com

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QUESTION: I know this will sound silly but what exactly is resource guard?

Answer
Not silly at all. Resource guarding is protecting any valuable object (food, toy. etc.) from being taken away. Dogs often resource guard against other dogs, which is very normal, and some dogs also resource guard against humans. Because a dog protects "what is theirs" from other dogs doesn't mean that they will also protect it from humans. Many do not. But when the situation involves small children it's sometimes worth making sure they don't also protect what is valuable from humans by teaching them that giving up something usually results in getting something even more valuable, and supervising their interaction with the kids carefully. Sandy Case MEd, CPDT, www.positivelycanine.com