new dog/old dog interaction

Question
I have a 4 year old dog and my husband and I have just adopted a 6 month old dog from a dog shelter. Our 4 year old is a mix breed of rot, chow, and lab. The new pup is a siberian husky mix. I was wanting to know how to go about the feeding arrangements. Should I have their food and water in the same location and should I leave food in their bowls all day or only feed them twice a day? The husky will be put in a crate when we are not home. Our current feeding arrangement for our 4 year old dog is to leave his food and water dish out at all times and make sure they are always full.

Answer
Leaving food out all day may allow one or the other (or both) dogs to overeat and put on too much weight as there is now competition for food. The healthiest thing is to keep a dog slightly on the thin side as it has been proven to add 1-1/2 to 2 years to a dog's life.

They can have a common water dish, but feeding should be done separately once or twice a day, depending on your preference. Due to the possibility of bloat in larger dogs, feeding smaller amounts twice a day would be better for your dogs. If the older dog is a slower eater, you might want to feed the puppy in his crate, and he should have access to water there if he is crated during the day.

One should never "self-feed" as the dog tends to think that the food just "grew there" rather than realize that it came from the Alpha in his pack and he must earn his food by sitting before being fed, etc. This is a small, but important way to reinforce being alpha to one's dog(s).