Expert: Jannie Balliett - 3/5/2010

Question
My boxer is food aggressive to my other dogs yet if there is no food down she will play with them all day she actually bit my little toy puppy

Answer
Of Bridgette, there is no question here, so I am assuming that the statement is why and what can you do about the food aggression.

You haven't told me how old the Boxer is,  when you got her: was she a puppy or a rescue? I need some history in order to diagnose and offer suggestions in behavior modification.

I would suggest the "alpha" technique with her and the rest of the dogs.

Place all of there food bowls on the table where they can still see them but not get to them.

Line them up in front of you making them sit.

Place a cookie or cracker on the table behind the food bowls where they can not see them.

Pick up the cookie or cracker as you bring it up from behind the bowls, it will appear that you took it from a dog food bowl. Eat the cookie or cracker without looking at the dogs.

When you are finished, tell them they can eat and sit their bowls down for them to eat.

In the wild, among packs of wolves and feral wild dogs, (in any pack even in domesticated packs) the alpha always eats first while the others wait for permission to eat. Once the alpha has eaten all he or she (yes, there are female alphas) wants, the alpha will tell the pack that they can now eat what is left.

Doing this technique for a few weeks will show your pack that you are the alpha. Once that has been established, the Boxer will know her place and maintain her behavior.

Also, I suggest you keep their food bowls a few feet from one another allowing them all to have their own personal space. Over crowding dogs when eating is reminding them of their litter mate days when they were puppies and it was a free-for-all fight to eat before the food was all gone- the strongest survive and the weak die.

We don't want this mentality and attitude, but it can be instinctively triggered by over crowding.

Try this and let me know how it went.

Good luck.