How to teach the dogs when to play and when not to?

[Vette]

My brother an sister inlaw have a Lab/Healer mix named Abby whos 10years old an they got 2Daschund puppies recently. the puppies are around 3months old now i think. both puppies treat Abby as if shes their own personal living toy or something as they jump all over her nip at her legs/ears or licking at her mouth an if she ignores them they bark at her till she plays an Abbys a very patient submissive dog. she goes easy on them cuz she knows theyre puppies an the puppies make her day what the humans around view as living hell almost every second that the puppies are around her. ive heard both my brother an sister inlaw say "poor Abby" but they do nothing about it. at first i was like 'O_o why?' but one time i was watching my nephew an as he was watching TV beside me i was watching the dogs play. i could tell Abby was getting close to her last nerve cuz her patience was gradually getting shorter as she was trying to enjoy chewing on a bone but one of the puppies kept biting at her legs/ears even trying to take the bone away from her an etc. this went on for 10minutes or whatever an then Abby let off a growl an snipped at the puppy. the puppy yelped an ran off an hid behind my legs for a moment or so. then returned to trying to play with Abby again,, but this time not trying to take the bone away from her or biting at her but more of trying to distract her from it so they could play together instead an Abby was fine with that. if she wasnt the puppy would of very easily been put in her place again.

i hope this doesnt come across as bitchy or mean cuz im not meaning it to an if it does i apologize in advanced as im not really sure how to word it. but sometimes we just have to leave animals alone cuz animals have their own languages only they understand. if theyre unable to voice to the other animals(especially with dogs since pack order is very important to them) of whats what an who belongs in what place then it only makes it worse for them an in turn worse for us cuz they cant establish anything for beans with the other animals cuz we keep interfering. we established we are pack lead. they need to establish their places in the pack now with themselves. hopefully that makes sense

[Roxyluvsme13]

I'm dealing with this problem right next to me at this very second with Brennan and Lilo . Lilo is energy to no end and Brennan might as well think he's a puppy too. So yeah, they're a pain in the butt. I'm going to try to teach them the settle command. Brennan will go lay down on command but Lilo follows after him so it's useless.