Why do dogs fight over food or bones?

Question

My 2 year old queensland attacted our 3 pound pup over a chew bone.They were buds the 3 weeks before . The pup is fine now but it was really scary. Besides dont let food or toys/chews around ,what can we do and why do they do that.

Answer 1

We, humans, have developed this fantastic and yet complex societies and emotions. With the increase in material possession in the world, comes greed. Humans fight over money, power, love, lust, and what not. If an animal were to analyze a human, it would laugh at humans since money is just a piece of paper to chew for that animal. But we do fight over that, dont we. In the similar fashion, food and teritory are two basic and most important elements for dogs. Its a basic survival instinct that animals have. Thus, they fight on food. Dog fights might look silly to us, just like how our fights are silly to dogs. It all boils down to threat and survival. When we are threatened (by power or lack of food or extinction or life), we self-defend or fight for our survival.

Answer 2

Survival of the fittest. Dominance is the trick here as well as survival techniques. The older dog is showing it is the pack leader and will do so until you exert that place for yourself. I would suggest you watch the Dog Whisperer if you can get the national Geographic channel and if not you can do it yourself but you do need some guidence from someone that knows what they are doing. It is hard to just tell you how to handle it or I would do just that. You need to be shown how to do it so get a trainer or professional that can show you how to handle it.

Answer 3

in the dog world food is dominance and they think that if they have all the food that they are the best...well to comtrol this habit you have to be consistant...if you work keep your dogs away fron each other so that the habit doesn't progress...when you get home...you have to keep a close eye on your pups to make sure that they do not get too dominate over the food...do not try to feed them at two different times because it will just draw them even farther aprt...if when they are eating together, and one dog starts to get dominate just prick them on their neck with two fingers and it will snap them out of the behavior...hope that I can help and Consistancy is best thing that you can do!!

Answer 4

Dogs are domestic wolves, and as such behave like wolves. Your dogs aren't your children. You are their pack.

Every pack has a hierarchy. I hope that you have established yourself as pack leader, and have made sure that the humans in your pack have rank over the dogs.

When dogs attack over food, they are displaying pack behavior, and trying to "pull rank". If your dogs are fighting over food, then it is because you have not made pack order clear. If you are treating them as equals then you have years of food aggression to look forward to.

The dog that has been there the longest has a higher place in the pack, period. she is to be treated as such, but not put higher than any of the humans.

She eats first. When her belly is full, and she is content, she will allow the puppy to eat. So it is in the wild, and so it is in the home. You have tow domestic wolves, and you can expect nothing more than for them to behave as such. Start researching pack behavior so that you can get a handle on this.

Answer 5

IT IS A TERRITORY THING. ALWAYS FEED AND DISTRIBUTE
ALL BONES, TOYS AND TREATS SEPERATELY. MAKE SURE THE DOGS ARE IN A TOTALLY DIFFERENT AREA WHEN DOING SO.
GOD BLESS YOU.
saint bernard breeder in indiana since 1977.

Answer 6

For fun and natural thoughts.

Answer 7

Because they want them and don't have money.

Answer 8

FEED YOU DOGS THEY MAY BE HUNGRY OR IN STARVATION