Well, the morning started out kind of rough. The stupid thing about dogs are they can be food possessive. Morningstar is food possessive. She will go up to whatever dog is around and instigate a fight just in the name of food that isn't going to be stolen in the first place.
So this 17 pound Chug of my mom decided to ball up and go after Cloud for trying to go to his crate. He, of course, laid the law and it freaked her out. Poor girl didn't want to leave her crate for a few hours after that.
Finally, I get her and Freya ready for a great food adventure. I have pics but I need to get a card reader so that will have to wait till later. All was great, we did a bunch of walking when we got home and they got a special treat (a Natural Balance food roll Beef flavored.)
I noticed that Freya began guarding the bag of Canidae that was sitting on the chair. Since I'm going to slowly introduce it to them, there's no point mixing the food up. She was guarding it from Cloud, who was on the other side of the gate and couldn't get it.
Do you see where this is going? Maybe there's a surprise twist.
Come 10 minutes ago and all of the dogs are out and free. Morningstar happens to walk by the food bag and Freya lost her mind! I mean it--lost her ever loving mind! She attacked Morningstar and I mean--she was going for the neck and kept grabbing the ear.
Boyfriend tried to separate them but Freya wouldn't let go even with the kicking she faced. I scrambled to find the water bottle (that manages to move and disappear all the time--maybe the dogs are doing it?) and finally started spraying Freya. That was the only thing that got her to let go. No amount of kicking didi it. He got her by the scruff and tossed her in her crate as I grabbed the shaken Morningstar just as Cloud tried to attack Freya first cause bf was getting her and then Morningstar cause I'm getting her. I yelled at Cloud to get out and took Morningstar to her crate.
No open cuts--except on boyfriend who got bitten by Morningstar in the middle of the fight. She is very shaken up and I'm hoping that she isn't too brusied. We'll have to see how the girls are going to act tomorrow.
Tonight...I'm going to bed.
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Corgi Chaos, and then some!
ReplyDeleteOh man...when food is involved...it gets ugly!
I'm sorry to hear that :( Unfortunately, I do not have any advice on this.
ReplyDeleteOh my... not a pretty picture! How long is Morningstar staying? From the sounds of it, things are exactly getting better between them - gotta really be careful after a full-blown fight like that. Food guarding is easier to fix against humans than other dogs. I'd keep all food away when they are together, feed separately in crates or different rooms. If not, I'm afraid we'll all be reading about a vet visit soon...
ReplyDeleteHope today is a better day!
Michelle & Brutus
Ugh not fun :( I hope you have a better day today!!
ReplyDeleteOh man. Food always seems to be a problem among animals! Sadie is like that with the cats in our house. If they go near her food, she freaks. We haven't had any brawls like this though...Hope today is better!
ReplyDeleteOh no!! Mayeb nove that food into a closet or onto a counter? That way none of them get close enough to even think about guarding it.
ReplyDeleteIndy used to be a sporadic eater, sometimes her breakfast wouldn't get eaten until late afternoon. When we got Gus, he would dive right into her leftover kibbles so she would start to eat them all. She takes way longer then he does so he he started trying to body check her out of the way.
It did get ugly and now he knows that it is her food, her bone, her treat. For a little dog, she can be viscious!
I hope you get things settled down, maybe feeding them in seperate rooms might help too?
Yikes...that is scary.
ReplyDeletePossessive corgis CAN be a problem... I know, and if you've followed our blog at all, you know that OC and Sadie don't get along and that they have tiffs every once in a while... whenever Sadie gives OC even the slightest provication!
ReplyDeleteYou have to figure out who is the alpha dog in your pack... behind YOU! You always need to be the absolute alpha, but there will be a pack order that needs to be worked out. If you've brought in an only dog that's used to being treated special, then it will figure IT is the alpha and if you already have an alpha in your "pack" you WILL have trouble.
You need to be the absolute alpha and treat the dogs according to a pack order that will need to be worked out between you and the dogs. You can't just treat them all "equally" because dogs don't understand that and they will compete for pack leader.
Our problems arise from the fact that OC is and always has been the pack leader and now that she is getting quite old and has hip and back problems, the younger dogs are starting to vie for alpha, so she is continually trying to "Prove" herself. I try to back her up on the alpha position and also to keep her seperated from the others if I have to leave them alone.
I'd use a combination of putting the food out of the way and feeding in seperate areas (maybe even rooms) while watching closely and enforcing the "no one goes near someone else's plate while they are eating" rule. I'd probably use a squirt bottle of water to enforce and lots of praise when they veer off from each other in the various "sticky" situations.
When ours DO have a problem, they are put in seperate rooms/yards AND IGNORED for 15-30 mins. at least. Then they are only allowed together for the next several hours with constant survailence, using the deterrant/reward system to "retrain" (remind of the rules) for a while.
CORGIS have a LONG memory for both good and bad, and some of them (like OC) hold major grudges for a LONG time!