food aggression

Question
QUESTION: We have a 6 1/2 month old cocker ,who we all adore. He is sweet funny loving and very affectionate, we can see the love in his eyes. We have only a few issues with him ,one being house breaking with which we are getting a handle on. Another is with our 15 to 16 year old, half chow half yellow lab, he (the cocker) is very aggresive with her over food, it doesnt matter whose bowl it is, he raises cane when she goes to eat.So we have had to adapt and feed her at different times and take him outside or out of the same room.Is there anything we are doing wrong or can do different to change this behavoir, or is it something we have to deal with?

ANSWER: At 6 1/2 months he should be housebroken.  If you'll tell me how you're approaching this perhaps I can speed things up.

Now..the feeding time.  First - is he aggressive over anything else or at any other time?

If not, then you're doing exactly the right thing.  Lots of times you have to separate dogs at feeding time because they eat at different rates and the fast one will steal the others' food.  And your old girl needs peace & quiet when she's eating.

So if this is your only behaviorial problem I wouldn't worry about it
and just keep feeding them separately.   I hope you're using a quality, meat-based dog food?  Cockers do not do well on supermarket kibble.  The high carb load can cause skin & ear problems.
Delores

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: We crate him at night,and take him out first thing in the morning and play and walk til he goes potty and praise him when he is done, he normally does not want to eat first thing, so we feed him a couple of hours later he eats 2-3 times a day depending on when he tells us he is hungry. We generally take him out every 2 to 3 hours. the times that he goes potty in the house is basically unknown til we find it, but is usually in the early evening, when the kids get home and things get a bit hectic.
He is not aggressive any other time, just when she eats and only to her,she actually eats faster than he does. We can give him a  dental treat, and he will not take it from our hands unless we open our hand up and put it in his mouth, no matter how bad he wants it. sometime we even have to put it on the floor for him to get. Yes he has a good diet.
Also he is about 13 inches tall, about how much taller will he get?

ANSWER: Does he have a command?  Like "go potty" or whatever word you choose?

To speed this up, "anticipate" when he's about to go and give the command - he goes - then praise and REWARD!  It doesn't take long for the command-action-reward idea to sink in.  Be sure and take him out before the kids get home...at least he'll have an empty bladder :)

I don't think you have any real aggression problem here at all - he's just trying her on for top dog position :)  

He won't grow much taller..another inch or so..but will put on more weight.
Best of luck,
Delores

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Yes, the command phrase is go potty,, he also responds to go ,or go outside,when we are out and he has had time to run around playing and sniff, then we say go potty , he is a really well behaved puppy. Has a cat issue, with which he harasses our two inside cats but we tell him no and he usually stops.

Answer
It sounds to me like you have a very good boy there :)

A good "behavior stopping" trick (re the cats) is to fill an empty pop can with about 15 pennies - tape the top shut.

When you say NO - raise it in the air and bring it down hard ONCE !
Then just walk away.

I worry about him harassing the cats because they can give him a good scratch in the eye.

I just used this old trick with our new Rescue...he'd sit at my feet during dinner and whine & bark.  One time with the can and he never did it again.  For whatever reason they just hate that.  And I only resorted to it after everything else had failed.
Delores