Question - I have a question about sibling dog rivalry. I have a 2 year old border collie who is the smartest, most perfect dog. A little under a year ago we adopted a golden retriever chow mix. He was not friendly to my border collie at first but then warmed up. Now it looks as though my border collie feels over powered by the golden/chow. We tried making the border collie the dominant dog by giving him his food first and other things but i feel so bad. The border collie has been looking sad lately and i'm afraid he think's we favor the golden/chow over him. How do i make my border collie feel more dominant?
Answer - With this situation, don't take control of their heirarchy between the two dogs, they will sort this out amongst themselves. You are better off leaving them to their own devices as long as you are still pack leader, top dog or whatever you want to call it. Your dogs will work out their order and once they do, its best to feed them in that order, don't try and disrupt what they have sorted out. Its important you understand this, the dog sibling rivalry will then settle.
Please don't humanise your dogs and put your feelings into what they are thinking. Dogs do see things differently and think very differently. Remember they are a different species.
Dogs don't feel sorry for each other.
You need to look at getting a behaviourist into your home to sort the problems out so that you understand more about how to give your canine(s) the correct leadership.
The work required will be quite easy and you will enjoy it as long as the methods are gentle and all very positive, the sibling dog rivalry will ease.
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