I could very easily have been in this situation with Oz and Gull. My head logically wants to treat Oz as alpha, because he's my right hand man and older, but the reality is Gull has a more dominant personality. Since I don't want life to be miserable for Oz, in the things that Gull cares about, Gull gets preferential treatment. Doesn't mean Oz and Murph miss out on anything, they just don't get it first.

As an example, Gull is very, very food oriented, so he gets all food, treats, bones first. When I do that, he's fine with Oz and Murph getting theirs after him and we have no issue.

About a month ago though, I wasn't paying close attention to how important some philly cheese steak dippings was to him and I almost had a full blown dog fight on my hands. I was letting him lick the plate and Oz came over and tried to lick at the same time and Gull turned and went after him. Since Oz backed off immediately there wasn't any bloodshed. It was mainly for show, but boy it sounded bad. All I got out was an "Unt" though and it was already over. I did not go off on Gull though. I didn't even separate them. IMO, punishing or ostracizing Gull was only going to make things worse for Oz in the long run. I wasn't going to reward the behavior though, so I calmly put the plate away and said to both of'em that nobody was getting anymore today and I went off to do something else, ignoring them. Incident over.

Then the next day, I had cheese steak again, on purpose. I put both of them in a "Stay" with at least 10 feet between'em. I then let Gull lick the plate for a few seconds, then went over and let Oz lick for a few, then Murph (I can't count on him to stay, so I think he was safely on the bed). I then made the round again, with no issue. I told everybody what a good dog they had been and that there would definitely be more cheese steak in their future for being so good, and then I put the plate up. No issues at all.

It's not all black and white though. There are things Gull doesn't care about, like sleeping on my bed, which is good, because that's one thing Oz does care about. So Oz and Murph sleep on my bed with me and Gull sleeps on his own bed that's on the floor next to me. I try and read each dog and situation and do what'll result in the most harmonious outcome. Not get so caught up on forcing human dynamics on them.

Anywho, that was a very longwinded way of saying I think Dixieland had some very good advice on the issue.

Par...