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Tips on two dogs sharing toys and chews.

*Pauline*

Well-known member
In the summer I look after a Scottie dog, Dollie, for 4 days. Last year I gave them both rawhide chews. Dolly buried hers in Dylan's bed and when he found it, she bit him. She didn't break the skin or anything but he was really upset. Dolly was told off and locked behind the baby gate in the hall. Dylan asked to go outside and he sat on the top step, with the door open, gazing out at the garden for over an hour.

At first, when I gave Poppy a rawhide he would hide under the table. She wouldn't hurt him but he was worried. I thought I'd never give her a chew again but she does love them and I thought maybe he'd get over it if she was nice. She does tend to take his chews off him if he puts it down.

Any tips on managing this or should I just be grateful one is backing down with no arguments? I have been letting Dylan take his chews outside on his own for some peace. Same thing happens with toys.

I'm also due to have Dolly again this year but think I should cancel.
 
Ruby is a complete cow when it comes to rawhide! She has an attitude beyond ridiculous. For the first few months she would steal Charlies and he wouldnt even put up a fight! I figured he would learn eventually and didnt really want to get involved in their little disputes.
He has got alot better and certainly holds his own but most of the time when he is chewing I will tell her to lie down by herself somewhere else and she will.
She inhales her chews in less than a few minutes and he takes more like 15-20mins!

I did intervene last night as she latched hold of one end and a (very vocal) game of tug of war took hold. She can get quite vicious over chews and will growl at me if I try to take it off her but if I lift her up under her front legs she will let go! When this happens I stick her in the crate so he can finish his in peace.
Sad yes and I do realise that it isnt good behaviour on her part and I am working on training it out of her but she seems to be getting more Stuck up, obnoxious and damn right arrogant with age!!!:x

Unless Dylan and Poppy are possesive over chews I would let them sort it out between them.

Im trying with Ruby to train her using my clicker and the words 'not yours'- so when she backs away from Charlie when he is eating she will get something else but she has to wait in a down for a while before she gets a reward. It is starting to work but im assuming it may not take as long with dogs that aren't overly possesive like Ruby.

Its funny though as she isnt possesive over ANYTHING else apart from chews. Not even he dinner which I can take off her at any point.
 
I have stopped giving my dogs rawhide chews because Chaos kept trying to swallow such a huge lump and would get it stuck in her throat. She is a complete Cow when it comes to gravy bone biscuits however. A lot of it is to do with her always being starving because of being on steroids and so she has attacked poor Impie very often. He would have fought back once but now he is 13 he doesnt. I now have to give her two biscuits, which she almost swallows hole, whilst he gets to eat his one. Armani is safe because she always jumps onto the kitchen table. I still have to be on standby to pull Chaos off Impie even so. I wanted to give them denti sticks for their teeth so found the best way was to give Impie and Armani one each in the lounge with the door closed and let Chaos have hers elsewhere and then take the uneaten bits away. I also have to feed them their dinner in separate rooms. Maybe it would be best to give the chews to yours in separate locations so that poor Dylan can have some peace.
Forgot to say that don't see why you should cancel your Scotttie visitor, if she is only coming for four days you could just feed her separately and don't give anyone any chews.
 
Try giving Poppy her chew & then give Dylan something thats his favourite & then sit with him & reassure him while he's eating it.

I had a simiar thing with Sparky & Lucy this week, I got them all bones & put a bone in each bed which was fine - then Lucy robbed all of the bones & had them on the mat, Sparky went over to the mat for a sniff & Lucy went mad & bit him & Poor Sparks had a big sulk for ages. I threw the bones out & decided maybe they're not ready for that just yet.
 
With our 4, we tend to manage dinner time and treat time; as a preventative measure! Because of Bella's history, we feel she could cause an issue with another dog, so she is crated for eating her dinner or any chewy treats. Zara wouldn't cause a fight, but may steal(!)so she is kept in a room on her own with chews. Ozzy and Kizzy don't care, so they are allowed to eat wherever. I think it's probably just easier to separate them if you're not sure...
 
I do separate them for meal times, not because they would fight, but because they are quite happy to both eat out of the same bowl at the same time with no squabbles :rolleyes: They are on different diets also. Teaching Poppy to sit and wait 2 seconds before she gets her food at the moment. I have to hold her though. When they finish eating I open the door and they swap over and lick each others bowl :lol:
 
That's funny, Pauline, my two dogs do the same thing with the food, but are on very different diets so I have to feed them separately.
Fighting over chewy bones seems like a game with our two cavaliers. Belle- who is nearly two years old and Bob-who is nearly 9 months old just love to play games with the bones. I give them each a new bone and Bob will run off to his "den" with his and Belle just stares at him and drops hers on the floor, waiting for him to come over to her. He zips over to take her bone and then a flurry of chasing/squabbling/scurrying around the room occurs. After many minutes of this, which has involved Bob chasing after Belle who runs with the chewbone in her mouth, she finally drops it, in which it appears as though she literally "gives" it to Bob. He runs off and chews it happily while Belle falls on the floor in exhaustion and has a snooze. Very strange indeed. You would have to see it to believe it.
Just keep a close eye on Poppy and Dylan. It's good you separate them for mealtime/chewtoy time. It does keep the peace.
 
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I am so glad I came across this, my new little Velvet is a bit snappy about food and chews, to my shock, since Bentley will literally give you his chew or food and not care. I have been doing a lot of food aggression conditioning with her. Today she had a bully stick (a giant one) and Bentley came over and sniffed it and she snapped at him. I took it away from her for that.. Then later on I gave it back, Bentley stole it from her, and she was good about it.. I went to take it from him and give it to her, when the cat came over and swatted him one.. so he brought it back to her lol. She was happy to have it back but allowed him to chew the other end while she was chewing it.. then he took it up to the couch so she climbed up beside him and they just lay there each chewing one end.. happily. Not even sure if I should allow them to share or not... but curious if it is ok if they tolerate it and are behaving about it.
 
I just don't give really good stuff to the dogs together. Bones, they get separately, rawhides are separate. Once they're chewed up, they sit around and are shared just fine, but I just don't take the chance with really high value stuff. We have three dogs, and they're perfectly fine with stuff that has been chewed a bit being shared. We have antlers and beef marrow bones that have the meat chewed off sitting around all the time. Luke only gets his rawhides when he is in my room, with nobody else around.
 
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