When is too much, TOO MUCH??

Malone and Emerson play together all the time. They play rough and tumble, romp and wrestle, bite and growl. Usually they are just fine, but once in a while, it gets to a borderline of agression. Real baring teeth, and real growls.

I get concerned about it, but Mark always downplays it, and says it's normal, it's natural and don't worry about it.

Well tonight, I was brushing Emerson outside, and the brush caught on something. I looked, and he has this big open mark on his side, and I had ripped what was the beginning of a scab off. :eek: :( It's about the size of a quarter.

So anyway, my question is, can their playing get out of control and become agression? Is it normal, and something they just have to "work out"? Should I allow them to play, and just make them stop when I notice that they are getting out of control???

Any advice is appreciated!! ;)

I had two dogs years ago that once in awhile their play would turn too rough and they'd get into it. Just hollering at them usually broke it up.
Now with Lacey and Mandy, it's usually Mandy that goes off on Lacey, probably because she's so spoiled (because she's sick) and possibly because she's not fixed. I have to pull Mandy off Lacey. I just grab her back legs and pull. Lacey doesn't seem to want to fight ,only defend herself, so she backs off once I intervene.It's not an everyday thing but it does happen.
Anyways I don't tolerate anything that seems to be too rough.I would say you be the judge, if it seems too rough break it up.

Malone & Emerson are trying to assert their dominence over one another. It sounds to me like they are on equal terms, and need to work it out between them, who will be TOP DOG? :eek: It may take a while, but eventually one will understand where they stand in 'the pack'. Are they both fixed? If not this can cause extra aggression between them. 1-800-321-PETS is a low cost spay/neuter program run by Friends Of Animals. I highly advise getting all dogs altered males & females. It cuts back on aggression, territorial disputes, cancers associated with unaltered animals, and makes them easier to contend with. ;)

Kai and Kae do this. They always play but every now and then, they start getting a bit grouchy (mostly Kaedyn). Since I'm "top dog", I just make a low growl (Kaedyn understands it better than a "no"). If one starts getting grumpy, just tell them to knock if off cause even if one fought for highest position, you're still the overall alpha.

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Originally posted by binka_nugget
Kai and Kae do this. They always play but every now and then, they start getting a bit grouchy (mostly Kaedyn). Since I'm "top dog", I just make a low growl (Kaedyn understands it better than a "no"). If one starts getting grumpy, just tell them to knock if off cause even if one fought for highest position, you're still the overall alpha.

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Thats what I do & it works wonders.

Hi cookieb!

Gully and Oz rough house and wrestle quite a bit too. I haven't seen anything aggressive from either yet, but I usually stop them before things get too out of hand. Mostly because I'm afraid Gully's going to get hurt, because he's so much smaller right now. I usually grab Gully to stop the action. Tell'em both to "Calm it down a lil'". Once they're both calm, I set Gully back down. So they never really get a chance for things to escalate to an aggressive level and also it's reinforcing that I'm the one in control and teaching Gully to be calm when asked to. That was my round about way of saying I more or less agree with binka_nugget.

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