I know you asked Red, but figured I'd pop in if that's ok?
Tenchi is a poor eater and I find that he eats better when with the rest of the crew instead of seperated. If they're not having issues, then I don't see why you can't feed them together. Just make sure each puppy eats out of their own bowl. Then when they're done make sure that their bowls are picked up. You don't want to inadvertantly teach them to be food guardians.
If there was already a problem, then I'd feed the dogs seperately, but as close as possible that they can get comfortably. Clicker training works wonderfully for teaching these kind of behaviors.
If the problem is food aggression, I'd feed the aggressor OUT of the crate on a loose leash and the other one in it. Don't need to redirect food guarding to space guarding also. Occasionally treat the aggressor for good behavior and slowly increase the distance over a period of weeks.
I've heard that a wonderful book to learn more about resource guaring is "Mine !" by Jean Donaldson. I haven't read it personally, but have heard it being recommended to others by many people that I respect.
As far as who's the alpha in our pack? I am. They don't get doled treats, attention etc in any particular order. If there is a scuffle(which there rarely is), whoever's involved gets a downstay timeout and a glare. As far as pack order, I find that mine is pretty fluid. Depending on what's involved, different dogs get "first dibs".
My guys usally eat scattered around the kitchen now, but they ate like this for the first couple of months living here.
