We knew to curb food fighting issues from the get go so we set up a gate in a hallway, effectively separating our home in two. We keep Jaco's food and water on one side and Juniper's on the other. And while Jaco eats all his food immediately every feeding, Juniper has always been picky (her breeder even noted it when she was a young pup) so while we use to free feed her we can't do that now because Jaco will eat her adult food leftovers. So as soon as we brought him home and saw how food motivated he is, we've been picking up her bowl after she's stopped eating (though she never finishes) and then open the gate. The first thing Jaco does is run to where June's food bowl would be, he acts so famished. And now Juniper is eating more food for the few minutes her bowl is put it down, not surprisingly!
Thankfully they don't fight over the toys we have that we put treats in even though it's food. And the first time Jaco caught us off guard by going after June's food before she was done/before we had picked up her bowl Juniper didn't get aggressive with him, she just shared. She's still half pup in her heart and has never really gotten violently aggressive with any dog even though she has had to defend herself at the dog park more than once. In fact Jaco's rescuer gave us some of the Fromm kibble she was feeding him so we could ease his transition to Orijen puppy kibble…and when Juniper smelled the new-to-her food in his bowl the first time we fed him, she went and shared with him from his bowl. Juniper is very saintly...but we know that in a few months when Jaco is larger, stronger, and potentially testing her dominance she might feel threatened then and get food protective. So we're keeping their food separate even now in anticipation of that.
