Millie, my chihuahua is getting a bit tubby and rileigh, my medium sized mix is getting fairly thin. I dont know what to do because they are so bonded to the point where rileigh will refuse to eat if they are separated, even for a few minutes so I cant feed them in separate rooms. If they arent together, rileigh gets nervous and looks frantically for millie. Rileigh is a "grazer", so she prefers to eat slow over a period of time and millie horks her food down and moves in on rileighs food. We dont have the time to watch millie for like 6-7 hrs until rileigh gets her fill cause we both work. We have been working on descensitizing rileigh to millies absence since the second month we had rileigh and began noticing it was a problem. We have made SOME progress, but its not to the point where rileigh can eat alone.Rileigh has been with us 11 months now.
A bit of background info for millie & rileigh:
Millie is my first rescue. She was completely emaciated when I adopted her. Now, shes an absolute chow hound. She will gobble everything in sight. I assume its because she was so emaciated when I got her. Now she is obsessed with food because of her past. But she is NOT food aggressive.
Rileigh came second. We rescued her as an 8 week old puppy. She met millie at the shelter before we got her to see if they would get along. After smelling her and reading her body language, rileigh curled up next to millie and went to sleep while we filled out paperwork. We think rileigh became attatched to millie because millie is a very calm, gentle dog (unlike the other loud, barking, hysterical dogs at the shelter). Rileigh is VERY passive when it comes to food. If millie wants it, rileigh sits down and waits till millie is done.
Rileigh usually eats half of her food and millie usually eats all of her food and finishes rileighs other half. Any advice from trainers or anyone else with experiences like this, pls help!
A bit of background info for millie & rileigh:
Millie is my first rescue. She was completely emaciated when I adopted her. Now, shes an absolute chow hound. She will gobble everything in sight. I assume its because she was so emaciated when I got her. Now she is obsessed with food because of her past. But she is NOT food aggressive.
Rileigh came second. We rescued her as an 8 week old puppy. She met millie at the shelter before we got her to see if they would get along. After smelling her and reading her body language, rileigh curled up next to millie and went to sleep while we filled out paperwork. We think rileigh became attatched to millie because millie is a very calm, gentle dog (unlike the other loud, barking, hysterical dogs at the shelter). Rileigh is VERY passive when it comes to food. If millie wants it, rileigh sits down and waits till millie is done.
Rileigh usually eats half of her food and millie usually eats all of her food and finishes rileighs other half. Any advice from trainers or anyone else with experiences like this, pls help!