Sibling Rivalry

Our dog Nash is a stinker, no doubt; he’s not ashamed of it. Our dog Dasha, on the other hand is an undercover scoundrel. She tries to pretend to be a perfect angel, but she has a few dirty tricks up her sleeve.

I tend to come to her defense when Nash harasses her because he’s bigger and younger, but she has learned to use that to her advantage.

When I feed them, she will stand and watch him eat his food. Then as soon as he is done, she will casually wander over to her bowl and slowly eat her food while he gazes longingly at it. If he tries to bully her and eat even one bit of her food, she snarls at him loudly to be sure I hear. She knows he gets put in “time out” for this (in the bedroom with the baby gate up) until she’s done. She seems to enjoy seeing that happen.

The interesting thing about it is that she doesn’t pull this stunt when there is anything better than dry food in her bowl. Apparently it’s not worth the risk.

This whole scheme is annoying to me, because I have to supervise them while they’re eating, and the process gets very long and drawn out when she goes through this procedure. I’m trying to come up with a good solution. Any ideas?