For those of you with multiple dogs, do you have any sort of “pack order” as far as feeding, walking, handing out treats, etc.?
I know the word “pack” will make some people defensive. All I’m trying to say is do you give priority to one dog vs. another?
Do you always reward the calmest dog? Or do you reward the pushiest, strongest, “most alpha-like” dog?
Or if you’re like me, do you try to reward your oldest dog?
Rewarding calm behavior
I would think most trainers would suggest rewarding all dogs for calm, polite behavior.
Calm dogs get fed. Patient dogs get attention and treats. Dogs that aren’t being pushy get let outside.
Dog behaviorist Dr. Patricia McConnell covers this issue so well in some of her short books, How to be the Leader of the Pack and Feeling Outnumbered? I recommend both little books (they’re very short), and included my Amazon affiliate links.
I also found a great article by McConnell originally published in Bark Magazine. You can see the pdf here.
In it, she warns dog owners not to “support the alpha” (meaning, the strongest, pushiest dog) because some “high-status” dogs rule with “terror and intimidation” and “supporting the alpha” can end up making problems worse between dogs.
I could see how this would be the case with my dog Ace and my former foster dog Lana. You can see in the picture she would place her body in front of him, pushing him back from me. He allowed her to do this and actually turned away. It wasn’t exactly a problem, but I’d rather not encourage a dog’s pushiness.
Ace is sweet and sensitive and allows other dogs to push him around a bit if it means avoiding conflict. Lana, on the other hand, would barge her way to whatever she wanted. If I were to support her as the clear “alpha” of the two, I would only be encouraging more chaos.
“My advice to people who live within a pack of dogs is to teach them that you get what you want by being polite and patient, not by throwing your weight around,” McConnell wrote in the article.
Oh, you want to go out the door? Then please pause rather than barge into me, she wrote.
You want attention? OK, well sit and wait for a second while I finish petting the other dog first, she wrote. If you don’t, I’ll ask you to lie down and stay for a minute.
Oh, this is the story of my life right now!
Of course, this is easier said than done, so McConnell offered these tips:
1. Make each exercise (each problem) a fun game.
2. Work with each dog individually when you can. (I wrote about that here.)
3. Be patient!
So, what do the rest of you think about managing multiple dogs?
Are you dealing with any pushy dogs right now?
Reina
Monday 29th of September 2025
I have a Pit/Corso 5yr old male, Chihuahua/Maltese 15yr old male, Chocolate Lab 3 yr old male, and a Black Lab/German Shepard 5yr old female. Miklo, my Pit/Corso I would say he is the alpha out of my 3 big dogs. All are fixed with the exception of Miklo. He was here before the other 2 as well. I believe establishing who the Alpha is in the household is important for harmony. All are fed at the same time. I make sure I keep the food bowls separate, and I stand there and make sure no one tries to eat the other's food. Once they're done, I remove the bowls. I also have treat time. When giving their treats, I make sure they all sit in front of me. I always give Miklo his first, Roxy the female second, and Coco my Chocolate Lab last. Papi, my 15 yr old is fed and given treats completely separate, due to him needing soft food. All the others want his food, so my daughter keeps the food bowls, etc in her room. So far, this has been working. I also only let Miklo and Papi on the bed at night. Roxy and Coco sleep in the living room. It's a lot of work, but worth it!
Before I got my other 2 big dogs, I had Miklos nephew, another Pit/Corso mix. He was 8 months and not fixed. I thought by treating both equally with food, treats, attention, etc. It would keep the peace. It did for a few months, then the jealousy started kicking in with both. I would be giving one attention and the other would come up, then the growling would start. The resource guarding got really bad with Miklo as well. They started getting into small fights here and there, but would still play and love eachother. One day a fight broke out, over a bone left on the floor. I tried everything to get them apart, and nothing would work. They were both in kill mode. I was finally able to separate them. I was devastated, I loved them both so much. I couldn't chance it happening again, so I gave the puppy back to my friends. We tried a couple of times to get them together to see if we could make it work again, but the trust was broken. They still have him though, and he's happy! I feel if I would have established with the puppy that Miklo was Alpha, this would have never happened.
Michelle
Thursday 29th of September 2016
I feed the dog who takes the longest first. That's all there is to it. I have two dogs. One (Dahlia) is about 11 and takes her sweet time doing EVERYTHING. The other (Ben) is about 3 and will eat his food in about 2 seconds flat. We're also constantly working on impulse control with him while I work on getting the other dog excited (they could not be more opposite, the fact they get along so well amazes me). So if I'm feeding them out of a bowl, I make Ben sit and wait while I go to the other room with Dahlia. I make Dahlia bark (because this gets her all excited and happy!) and she gets her food. Then I go back to Ben, set his food down, and release him to it (he still finishes first but at least the finish times are closer!).
If I'm feeding Ben out of his Kong wobbler, HE is going to take longer. So I feed him first. We run to my husband's study. He has to back up and sit down. I set the wobbler down, and then release him to it. Then I go and feed Dahlia, who only eats out of a bowl because her reaction to the Kong wobbler was "what is that?" And I want Ben to get started first because Dahlia will go down into the study and help him eat the food after he bats it around and while Ben doesn't mind, I don't want her eating extra! So in that case, he gets his first.
So basically, I don't really buy into the pack leader, alpha dog stuff. So they get fed in whatever order seems to work best for them.
Lori
Wednesday 11th of March 2015
I feed the dog I had first, first, and then the second one I adopted. They are perfectly fine with this. They both sit while I put their bowel down (or if I use food toys) and wait until I say okay before they can eat.
Kimberly Gauthier
Saturday 28th of February 2015
I support the dog who (1) does what I ask and (2) is calmly waiting for their reward. For instance, each morning before work, the dogs go to the "puppy condo." I say "go to the condo" and everyone runs to their area of the garage (Bay 3 with a door to their yard). The dog who does this without jumping on me or returning to rush me gets their treat first. Eventually all the dogs pick up on this :)
By the way - GREAT POST!
Rebekah
Friday 27th of February 2015
I am ok with admitting it, but Neeko gets everything first in my house. We have had her the longest, she's the calmest, and let's face it-she's a princess...
Lindsay Stordahl
Sunday 1st of March 2015
Haha! :)