I know a lot of you have several goldens, so I have a question
for you. I just brought home second golden and am having
some feeding issues. They are only 2 months apart, 6 months
and 8 months. My first, Remy is a nibbler, he just eats when he
feels like it and I can leave a bowl full out for him and it might
last two days. The new one, Kota, is a hoover, and will eat
everything in sight! The problem is that when he finishes,
he will then eat Remy's food, too. How do some of you keep
your dogs from eating each others food? Do I need to keep
them separate during feeding, or what?

Oh boy. That can get scary if the other starts to fight over the food. I know a lot of people who FREE FEED. One lady I know has 12 dogs. I have no idea how she does it. She hasn't had any problem. My sister has two Rotties and they just go to the bowls and each one eats when ever they want. You must have to start when the puppies are young.

I have 8 dogs and they all have their own bowl. I don't really have any problems with them except for once in a while one might leave his bowl and the other eats it. I always stand by them while they are eating. I either pick up the bowl or I give it to the one who left it and make the others go outside while he eats.

I hope that works out for you. I wish mine would FREE FEED. They would be fat as ever.

When I only had Bailey, my first Golden, I would free feed her. She was a nibbler and would snack on a bowl all day long. But when Shiloh came along all that changed. Now with 3 I feed them twice a day, in seperate bowls. I actually like it better that way because I know exactly how much each one is getting.
Spirit is a slow eater but when Rookie came she started to wolf down her food. I used to have to stand over Spirit and tell her to slow down, and make sure Rookie stayed out of her bowl. But now things seemed to have settled down and Spirit is once again taking her time and eating slowly and Rookie knows to stay away from The Big Girls till they are done. She was nipped at once or twice for getting to close when she first came home--apparently it made an impression on her because if she finishes first---she makes a point of walking away from them till they are done.

You might have to start feeding Remy & Kota twice a day and keep a watch over them till things settle down.

I think free feeding can be a problem if you have more than 1 dog. There are several problems here, one is food aggression which can escalate. Another is the amount of food that each dog gets. If Remy doesn't eat all his food, his food will most likely go to Kota, which will leave Kota overweight. Dogs actually like schedules, this is walk time, this is eating time, this is bedtime, etc. I think I would work on training Remy to eat on a schedule, it will be easier to do that than training Kota not to eat everything in site. Put the measured amount of food in the bowl, and put it down. You can either separate them by putting Kota in a crate while he eats, or by standing between them making sure that Kota can't get to Remy's bowl. Leave the food down for no longer than 15 minutes, and then anything that is uneaten comes back up. Feed them twice a day.

Remy may be hungry the first few times you do this, but he will be OK. He needs to learn to set his mealtime. Don't give in and put the food down at other times. The second time you feed, Remy will probably eat more than he usually does because he will be hungry. I would limit treats during this time so Remy builds his appetite. My first dog, a lab, was free fed when I got him. He was about 25lbs overweight. It worked well when he was a pup, but once he grew up, he started putting on weight. When I switched him over to eating twice a day, he adjusted fine, and was able to lose the excess weight. You haven't seen the excess weight part because Remy is still a growing pup.

I had one foster, a black lab female, who had a reputation of being food aggressive. The people who had her also had a golden, and they would put the food down, their golden would finish first, and then go over and help the lab eat. It turned into a problem because she didn't want to share her food, and when she protested, the golden would assert his right to eat from her bowl, and she said that she didn't want to share. The dogs got along great the rest of the time.

The rescue called me up and told me a little about the problem, but I didn't learn that the woman who had them just let her golden help himself to the lab's food. I put this one down to stupid people causing the problem. When I got her, I started feeding her in the crate, it was really necessary with her because she was food guarding. So I put her in the crate with the bowl of food, and I fed Gus in the kitchen. She wouldn't eat while Gus was eating in the kitchen, because she was too worried about him coming to take her food. The crate was in a separate room, and when Gus was finished his food, she started barking and growling to protect her food which he couldn't even get to. Gus is sooo good at fostering, he went near the crate and laid down and ignored her, basically turned his back on her. She finally relaxed enough to eat, but she kept an eye on Gus. When she finished, she got praised and let out of the crate, and played with Gus. After a few days of this, she gradually relaxed and ate when her food went into the crate and wasn't guarding her food anymore. I kept this up for about a week, and she was fine. My friend brought her dog Holly over, and Holly would go up to the crate and see what was going on, and Emma (the foster) accepted that without a problem. That went on for about another week, and I decided to test her out to see how her progress was coming. I used Holly because she is a food hound but she won't fight about anything, and she got along great with Emma. I put her food bowl down outside the crate empty, and both Emma and Holly gathered around. I put a small handful of food in the bowl, and Emma ate it without even looking at Holly. Holly was standing right beside her, but didn't try to take the food. Then I moved the bowl to in front of Holly, and put a few pieces of food in it, and Holly ate it down, and Emma just stood there and watched. It was a triumphant feeling that I had gotten this girl through it. We went to adoption day the next weekend and she got adopted by some people who had a swimming pool and a boat.

Sorry for the long story, but like I said, the problem was caused by stupid people, and their dog. This was a special situation that the President of the rescue asked me to take on, and she was quite pleased with the progress that Emma made with me, and they were able to take the food guarding label off of her. So just be careful and make sure there is no friction during this adjustment period.

Well, I've come to the conclusion that Kota was just plain hungry! By today (day 3), he will just eat what he wants and leaves Remy's food alone. I'm now cutting down on the amount of food, as I see what they will eat at one sitting. There has never been any food agresion, plus it's funny to see them both with their nose in the same dish, side by side, even though there is a second bowl nearby! So far, they don't want to be seperated by more than a couple of feet at any time!

My dogs get their food once a day, in different rooms. Muffin goes and eats what Emma leaves, which she sometimes does, so I have to take it away immediately.
Now I have a puppy that eats 3 times a day. I feed him in his crate with the door open, the other dogs are not interested, which I find very funny.