It is common for humans to misinterpret dogs who act out in aggression. Often when it happens once or twice owners will make sure their dog never gets near another dog again. You can’t blame them. We live in a world where people are out looking for reasons to sue someone else. Especially here in California. However, by scolding your dog or preventing him/ her from being around other dogs you could be preventing your dog from having healthy interactions with its own species.
Now don’t get me wrong. Some dogs have issues. Just like people. For whatever reason, and it usually falls back into the dog protecting the owner, a dog may consistently try to hurt other dogs. This sort of behavior requires another discussion. In this article we will focus on how to identify healthy rough dog play vs straight out aggression.
When dogs are playing(not fighting) you should notice that they are taking turns. One dog is on its back and then after an interval the other dog will get on its back. There is always a pause in the playing at certain intervals. The important thing is to recognize these intervals. If you notice one dog is not following the unspoken interval rule, just yell over to them. At all times they should respond to you. If not, you should read the article on consistent treats. Usually when you yell(sternly talk) over to them you get a pause, they look at you, and then return to playing. You may notice the playing is getting rough, and they could be growling and snapping but none of that matters as long as they are taking turns. Some dogs are just vocal and some dogs are just rough. If you have a dog that plays rough, realize that eventually that dog will get enough cues from other dogs and he/ she will realize that they will need to tone it down a bit. Until this time you should always chaperone your dogs playing to ensure it is healthy play.
The following two dogs demonstrate healthy play that some may see as being a tad on the rough side. Dragon, the Corso, usually plays rougher than this but she is respecting the Samoyed’s boundaries. Corsos are amazing dogs! These two go at it like this for hours:
You can see Dragon getting on her back around 20 seconds into the video, and then Ghost gets on his back at around 40 seconds. They then pause at about a minute. They are on a 20 second interval. They then go a little past the interval, things seem to start to get into rougher territory and then after a longer 40 second interval they pause for a longer time. Then the video stops but they go on like this for the entire day and into the night. They really enjoy playing together. A few times throughout the day I would see things escalating and I would yell their names, they would look at me as a bit of a saviour because in the end, they want to remain buddies… Truth is though if I was not there they would have worked it out.
Recognizing these healthy play patterns and subtly alerting your dogs at the right times, when you see its going past the interval, will make them respect you. They will see you as being on the same page as them and you will gain Alpha status. Now you just have to keep it…
To learn what to do during a dog fight click here.
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