Sibling Rivalry

Question
We have 2 dogs,brothers, one year old this past May. Bought them from the kennel last July both are AKC registered. Toby is a chocolate lab and Cody is a yellow lab. 2 days ago they got into a fight at dinner time. They eat together,live together, play together, always have. Until the fight (blood, cuts and all)they had no problem with each other that I could see. Since the fight Cody (who is probably 10-15 pounds lighter than Toby) has started snarling at Toby at dinner time and his hair stands straight up on his back from his neck to his tail. Toby is generally minding his own business and eating his food, not bothering Cody. I even separated them with a baby gate and Cody still growled at Toby. What am I doing wrong. This is the only aggressive behavior I have seen. After dinner, they are fine. Help!

Answer
Hi Dianne,  Are either one of them neutered?  What you are seeing is very common for dogs living together when they reach about a year of age.  In a pack situation, which is basically when there is more than one dog in a household, they have to establish a heirarchy, just like in the wild.  Since you have labs, which are a mellow breed, you probably haven't seen the clues leading up to the big fight which now has them literally fighting for leadership.  What happens as they get closer to a year a dog will try to establish themselves as leader of the pack.  Since both of your boys were the same age, there wasn't an older dog to be taken on, they have had to start fresh on deciding who was going to be leader.  Cody has decided he wants to be leader and is starting the dominance part of it over food because that basically is the way to control Toby.  At this point, you will probably have to feed them separate from now on because unless Toby gave in during the fight, Toby may retaliate against Cody if the leadership was not established, and take him on over the food.  I would recommend feeding them in separate rooms where there is no chance for them to challenge each other at all.  Growling is a form of a challenge.  Hope this helps,

Dawn