Dogs playing together when is it too rough

Their early play interactions burgeoned into a lifelong friendship. Even today, the two middle-aged boys will sometimes play together for five hours at a stretch, stopping only occasionally for brief rests. When they are finally done, they often lie together, completely relaxed, with their bodies touching. Their faces are loose and smiling, and they seem almost drunk in an endorphin-induced haze. This relationship shows that play does not necessarily have to be fair or balanced in order for two dogs to want to play with one another.

Scientists thought that if one dog was too rough or forceful e. Until our research, this proposition was never empirically tested. Over a year period, we studied pair-wise play between adult dogs, between adult dogs and adolescents , and between puppy littermates. Dogs do not need to take turns being assertive in order for play to take place. Safi, a female German Shepherd, and Osa, a male Golden Retriever mix, were best friends for many years. When they played, they snarled a lot, lips curled and teeth exposed.

The snarls looked fierce, but they often preceded silly behaviors, like flopping on the ground. Then, as though on cue, Safi and Osa would put their scary faces back on, almost as if they were Halloween masks, and turn toward one another.

Their expressions were so exaggerated and obviously fake that they always made us laugh. Some dogs can even be trained to show a snarl on command in a context that is otherwise perfectly friendly. These observations show that dogs can exhibit nasty faces voluntarily, just as we do when we are only pretending to be mean. Growling , like snarling , is a seemingly aggressive behavior that means something different during play than it does in other contexts.

We have often videotaped play between another female Shepherd, Zelda, and a male mixed-breed, Bentley. When watching these tapes, we noticed that, following brief pauses in play, Zelda often stared at Bentley and growled fiercely.

Whenever she did this, Bentley leaped toward her and the chase was on. Bentley moved toward rather than away from Zelda because he knew her growl was not real. This phenomenon was also noted by other researchers, who recorded growls from dogs in three different contexts, including play 4. Play growls have different acoustical properties than growls given as threats, and when researchers played the growls back, dogs distinguished between play growls and growls given in agonistic i.

Surprisingly, in some of the relationships we studied, individuals initiated play and preferred to play with others who were consistently assertive with them. For example, in a litter of mixedbreed puppies, one female, Pink, initiated play with a female littermate, Blue, more than twice as often as she initiated play with any of her other littermates including another sister , even though Blue adopted the assertive role during play percent of the time.

Similarly, in our study of adult dogs, when the female German Shepherd, Safi, was playing, she was virtually always in the top-dog role. They will run and race each other and bark loudly but there is little physical contact. Bones, however, when playing with his half brother, Poncho, plays much rougher.

Sometimes, though, especially during adolescence, dogs play too rough. All is not lost, though. You can help your dog learn better play skills. It does, however, require a foundation of obedience training.

Not only will this training teach your dog the foundation obedience exercises sit, down, stay, come, and walk on a leash nicely but this training will help you both to communicate better with each other.

Plus, as you learn how to teach your dog the basic obedience exercises, you will also be able to teach him additional things, including better behavior during play. No matter what games you play with your dog, stop the game before your dog becomes so excited that he begins jumping, biting, or otherwise plays too rough. Watch his body language and actions to see if you can pinpoint when he crosses the line from acceptable play to over stimulated. Ideally, interrupt his play before he gets too excited.

Stop the game, put a leash on him, ask him to lie down, and give him something to chew on. Instead, help him calm himself. Comments 12 Reply. Post Author Reply. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published.

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It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Thanks to the author for taking his clock time on this one. Related Content. Dogs That Hate Men. Ask Dr. This is Ever wonder why your dog gravitates towards some of your friends and Puppies are sponges. They absorb many life lessons during the Sign up for our fun, free emails about cool dog stuff! Helena St. Search form. Dog of the Week! Meet: Tucker. Tweets by ModernDogMag.

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