Dominance Issues

[huski]

Hey everyone

Just wondering what you all think of this. Daisy our 8 week old Beagle (we haven't even had her a week yet) is dying to play with our eight year old Tibbie. Cherry (the Tibbie) is definately not interested in playing with her. If Daisy is annoying Cherry, Cherry will tell her off by snapping at her or growling. I have always assumed that Cherry was the alpha dog in our house, she is the oldest and definately seems to be the boss of our husky. When she snaps at Daisy, I was assuming she was also putting Daisy back in her place and telling her who's boss, as well as saying "leave me alone". However, this morning Cherry was eating and Daisy went up to her bowl to get her food. Cherry just moved aside and let the pup have her breakfast! Up until that moment Cherry had been acting like the boss (not just not wanting to play), but now I'm not so sure? Does this mean she is letting Daisy take her position in the pack?

[sas]

My girl is the dominant bitch around here but she has sometimes moved aside at the food bowl also in the early days of a foster dog.....they'll get themselves sorted in another couple of weeks

[peibe]

I have dominant Shar Pei and they always allow a puppy under 16 weeks or so, depending upon size to eat their food

[Kelpie-i]

Husky87, no it doesn't mean that Cherry is relinquishing her pack status. There can be many reasons why she has allowed Daisy to eat from her bowl. Some older dogs grant young pups with a "puppy permit", meaning they allow the pup to do certain things that they would not normally allow them to do as grown dogs.

Some dogs just don't see their food bowl as a high resource, and as such will allow others to eat from it. Was Cherry fed en-masse as a pup?? This would probably answer some of the questions.

You will find that Cherry will communicate to Daisy what she can and cannot do, the rules of which will change from day to day. Don't try to analyse it too deeply, just enjoy them.