Food fight
Something happened tonight that's never happened before – the dogs got into a fight over food, and blood was shed.
I'm not sure exactly how it started, even though I was standing right there when it happened, but from what I saw it looked like both dogs had wandered away from their bowls and Jeepers was trying to check out the remains of Tater's meal, and when Tater saw that he decided he wasn't done eating after all.
I was standing at the counter eating my own dinner when I heard them scream, and when I turned around they were both on the floor and Tater was trying to get the Jeeps in a headlock. I took a step toward them and said (did not yell), "Tater!" and he backed off right away, so it wasn't an all-out ferocious attack or even what I would call a serious fight ... But then I saw the blood and realized that he had chomped a little fang-sized notch out of the middle of the Jeeps's nose.
Mr. A is not going to be happy about this when he gets home. He gets very upset when there's any tension at all between the dogs. Usually I can kind of take it in stride as just the way dogs work thing out, but this one has kind of upset me too. The Jeeps is so old and frail – he really can't afford to be getting wailed on by a bigger, stronger dog. And what was he doing on that side of the kitchen anyway? His own bowl was still full of food! Did he think there might be something better in Tater's bowl?
And I know it's just in a dog's nature to protect their food, and that it's my responsibility (not theirs) to make sure this kind of thing does not happen – but I still wish Tater could just chill the hell out about stuff like that. It wasn't like he wasn't going to get to eat! There's always plenty of food for everyone. And he wasn't even interested in his food tonight in the first place! He'd walked away from his bowl – that was why the Jeeps thought it was okay to take a sniff.
So I guess the time has come to start feeding them totally separately – not just on opposite ends of the kitchen, as we've been doing for as long as we've all lived together, but physically separated into different rooms where they can't see each other. No more wandering over to see what the other dog might have left behind when dinner's done ... they'll each have a given amount of time to eat, after which the bowls will be picked up and put away until the next meal. Not left empty on the floor anymore to drop an occasional treat into – too bad for them, but it just doesn't seem worth the risk.
It seems like kind of a hassle to have to make such a production out of it every time they eat but I've been reading about food aggression online all night and now I'm thinking maybe we're lucky nothing like this has happened before. All the major dog people recommend dogs should never be put in the position of even thinking they might have to defend their food against another dog – you're supposed to feed them separately just as a matter of course, even if they've never fought over food before.
Anyway. The Jeeps's nose bled a lot, as those kinds of wounds always do, but it isn't a deep cut and I hope if I keep it clean it will heal quickly. I keep looking at it to see how bad it really is ... it might be possible that Mr. A would not notice the injury, and I would never have to tell him what happened.
I really wish I didn't have to tell him. Mostly because I feel like the whole thing was pretty much my fault. It would never have happened if I'd been paying attention to them as I should have been doing. But my shame as a negligent dog guardian has to take a back seat to his need to know, because we're both going to have to be even more structured and vigilant about their food from now on.
I'm also starting to think maybe we shouldn't get another dog when the Jeeps finally goes. Some dogs, they say, are better suited to be the only dog in the house; maybe Tater is one of those dogs. I hate to think of him all alone all day while we're both at work, but I also hate to think of more blood on the floor, or coming home to a dead puppy. That happened with some friends of mine about 12 years ago and it was way beyond awful. I don't want any of us to have to deal with that kind of stress and horror.
A couple of hours have passed since "the incident" and neither of the dogs seems fazed at all. Amazing.
I'm not sure exactly how it started, even though I was standing right there when it happened, but from what I saw it looked like both dogs had wandered away from their bowls and Jeepers was trying to check out the remains of Tater's meal, and when Tater saw that he decided he wasn't done eating after all.
I was standing at the counter eating my own dinner when I heard them scream, and when I turned around they were both on the floor and Tater was trying to get the Jeeps in a headlock. I took a step toward them and said (did not yell), "Tater!" and he backed off right away, so it wasn't an all-out ferocious attack or even what I would call a serious fight ... But then I saw the blood and realized that he had chomped a little fang-sized notch out of the middle of the Jeeps's nose.
Mr. A is not going to be happy about this when he gets home. He gets very upset when there's any tension at all between the dogs. Usually I can kind of take it in stride as just the way dogs work thing out, but this one has kind of upset me too. The Jeeps is so old and frail – he really can't afford to be getting wailed on by a bigger, stronger dog. And what was he doing on that side of the kitchen anyway? His own bowl was still full of food! Did he think there might be something better in Tater's bowl?
And I know it's just in a dog's nature to protect their food, and that it's my responsibility (not theirs) to make sure this kind of thing does not happen – but I still wish Tater could just chill the hell out about stuff like that. It wasn't like he wasn't going to get to eat! There's always plenty of food for everyone. And he wasn't even interested in his food tonight in the first place! He'd walked away from his bowl – that was why the Jeeps thought it was okay to take a sniff.
So I guess the time has come to start feeding them totally separately – not just on opposite ends of the kitchen, as we've been doing for as long as we've all lived together, but physically separated into different rooms where they can't see each other. No more wandering over to see what the other dog might have left behind when dinner's done ... they'll each have a given amount of time to eat, after which the bowls will be picked up and put away until the next meal. Not left empty on the floor anymore to drop an occasional treat into – too bad for them, but it just doesn't seem worth the risk.
It seems like kind of a hassle to have to make such a production out of it every time they eat but I've been reading about food aggression online all night and now I'm thinking maybe we're lucky nothing like this has happened before. All the major dog people recommend dogs should never be put in the position of even thinking they might have to defend their food against another dog – you're supposed to feed them separately just as a matter of course, even if they've never fought over food before.
Anyway. The Jeeps's nose bled a lot, as those kinds of wounds always do, but it isn't a deep cut and I hope if I keep it clean it will heal quickly. I keep looking at it to see how bad it really is ... it might be possible that Mr. A would not notice the injury, and I would never have to tell him what happened.
I really wish I didn't have to tell him. Mostly because I feel like the whole thing was pretty much my fault. It would never have happened if I'd been paying attention to them as I should have been doing. But my shame as a negligent dog guardian has to take a back seat to his need to know, because we're both going to have to be even more structured and vigilant about their food from now on.
I'm also starting to think maybe we shouldn't get another dog when the Jeeps finally goes. Some dogs, they say, are better suited to be the only dog in the house; maybe Tater is one of those dogs. I hate to think of him all alone all day while we're both at work, but I also hate to think of more blood on the floor, or coming home to a dead puppy. That happened with some friends of mine about 12 years ago and it was way beyond awful. I don't want any of us to have to deal with that kind of stress and horror.
A couple of hours have passed since "the incident" and neither of the dogs seems fazed at all. Amazing.
Labels: dogs
1 Comments:
That's the great thing about dogs - they don't hold grudges. Or maybe they just don't remember it.
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