Dogs share food with other dogs even in complex situations
Dogs also share their food, albeit mainly with four-legged friends rather than strangers. A new study has now confirmed this prosocial behavior among canines. The more complex methodology of the study, however, showed that the experimental set-up has an impact on the dogs' behavior and that even the mere presence of another dog makes the animals more generous. Ref. Source 5m.
Yes I know this when you go to house that has one dog only. Currently my house has a small pack of five dogs. They are fun. I have always raised my dogs to be willing to share their food. From when they were puppies I would feed them and then reach down and take the food way. This way I ensured they would be fine with it and also if my grandkids were running around I did not have to worry about them making the dogs upset by interrupting their food breaks.
Yes, we have a Golden and just got a puppy for Christmas for my youngest girl. The adult shares her water with the puppy, actually letting the puppy go first and let's the puppy eat her food, although I stop that and now have the puppy eating solely puppy food from the puppy bowl. Of course, I worked hard with our older dog, socialized her in the family and with other dogs, and trained her how to part of the pack, aka my family, and my kids how to act around her.
This is surprising to me. My dogs haven't shared. I feel they were pretty well socialized. I feed mine from different bowls spaced out so they will leave each other alone. If I put out one bowl the alpha dog will eat their share then let the other dog have a turn only when they are full. . In the past I had a female Akita who was a real handful. I would put food out for her and another dog on opposite sides of a room. The Akita would race back and forth across the room to make sure the other dog didn't eat food from either bowl. I eventually had to feed them in seperate rooms.
Edited: Kyrroeth on 19th Feb, 2017 - 1:39am