Meal time is a great opportunity to establish leadership. The food belongs to me and I am simply allowing the dogs to eat it. Therefore, they don’t fight over it because it doesn’t belong to them. I am showing Minnie that she does not have to guard her food because I will not allow the other dogs to steal it. This builds her trust in me as well as the other dogs. If she is nice, she gets to eat, if she gets snarly, she loses it and I give it to the other dogs.
