Stop puppy stealing senior dog's food

A puppy raiding a senior dog's bowl is one of the most common problems in mixed-age households — and it's genuinely stressful because the older dog often just backs off rather than competing. Before I get into solutions, a quick note on what matters most in any automatic or controlled feeder: portion accuracy, ease of cleaning, and mechanical reliability. Cheap feeders jam, drop inconsistent amounts, and harbour bacteria in crevices you can't reach. Now — tell me a bit more: how old is your senior dog, roughly what size are both dogs, and is your main concern making sure the senior gets their full portion undisturbed, or is there also a dietary or medication element involved?

That supplement detail is important — if she's only eating two thirds of the bowl because the puppy muscled in, she's consistently underdosed, which matters for joint health long term. The size difference actually helps here: the Spaniel pup is small enough that a microchip-locked feeder lid will physically stop it accessing your Lab's bowl, even if it tries. What I'd recommend is the SureFeed Microchip Pet Feeder. It stays closed until it detects the registered microchip and opens only for that animal — the moment the wrong animal approaches, it closes again. It's been widely used in exactly this kind of scenario. Has your Labrador already been microchipped?

You'd ideally get two SureFeed units — one locked to your Lab's chip, one locked to the puppy's chip once it's microchipped (which it should be by law in the UK before 8 weeks, so it's likely already done). Each dog eats only from their own bowl, neither can access the other's. For your Lab this completely solves the supplement problem — she gets her full portion with the full dose every single time, no supervision needed. The SureFeed bowls are also genuinely easy to disassemble and clean, which matters because wet food and supplements sitting in a feeder that can't be properly cleaned is a hygiene issue you don't want. The lid mechanism is robust and doesn't rely on batteries running a motor to dispense — it's a simple open/close, which means far less to go wrong.

Fair observation — the standard SureFeed bowl is on the smaller side, around 400ml. For a 32kg Labrador eating a full meal that could be tight, especially if she's on wet food or a mix. The good news is SureFeed make a Connect version with a larger bowl, and you can also use the unit with a separate larger bowl placed inside the sensing area. Many Lab owners do exactly that. If her meals are dry kibble only and portioned at around 300–350g or less per sitting, the standard bowl is workable. What does her current meal size look like — wet, dry, or mixed?

In that case I'd go straight for the SureFeed Microchip Pet Feeder Connect rather than the standard version — it has a larger capacity bowl that will comfortably fit a mixed meal for a Lab, and the Connect version also lets you monitor feeding activity through the app, which is genuinely useful for an older dog on a health supplement. You can see exactly when she ate and whether she finished the bowl. Get one Connect unit for her and a standard SureFeed unit for the Spaniel pup — the pup doesn't need the larger bowl or app monitoring at this stage. Both are available on Amazon UK. That combination will completely stop the food theft and ensure your Lab gets every drop of her supplement.