Briar is coming out of his shell. The dogs were in my office with me this
morning and the play has started getting rough, to the point that Roxy
whimpers and whines and tries to get away. I'm pretty sure Briar is
playing... He's definitely showing a lot of signs of dominance (putting his
paws on her, standing over her, biting the scruff of her neck, even laying
on her).

When it gets to the point that Roxy is obviously scared, I've been doing is
saying "okay, enough!" and then sending them both outside (where I
supervise them). They generally go out and run around like crazy and then
when I deem to let them in, I have either brought them back into my office
(once) or seperated them (the other time).

Should I let them work this out on their own? Or if not, at what point
should I intervene? Please note, they are not fighting over toys (they
only get these seperately right now).

--
Lynne

Lynne wrote:

Should I let them work this out on their own? Or if not, at what point
should I intervene? Please note, they are not fighting over toys (they
only get these seperately right now).

It sounds to me like Roxy is calling Uncle and Briar is not
listening. I wouldn't be at all shy about telling Briar to knock it
the hell off. If he didn't listen, I'd isolate him until he settled
down. Lather, rinse, and repeat, until he gets the idea that he
doesn't need to be a bully.

--
Shelly (Warning: see label for details)
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

On 2006 11 20, you wrote in rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

Should I let them work this out on their own? Or if not,
at what point should I intervene?

I stop this *right away* and do a time out (a few minutes of
separation) with the initiator, even when it's one of mine.

I find that it's almost always a result of one dog getting
carried away with play and not an intentional dominance thing,
though I don't want to downplay the latter.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

Lynne wrote in
. 97.142:

Briar is coming out of his shell. The dogs were in my office with me
this morning and the play has started getting rough, to the point that
Roxy whimpers and whines and tries to get away. I'm pretty sure Briar
is playing... He's definitely showing a lot of signs of dominance
(putting his paws on her, standing over her, biting the scruff of her
neck, even laying on her).

When it gets to the point that Roxy is obviously scared, I've been
doing is saying "okay, enough!" and then sending them both outside
(where I supervise them). They generally go out and run around like
crazy and then when I deem to let them in, I have either brought them
back into my office (once) or seperated them (the other time).

Should I let them work this out on their own? Or if not, at what
point should I intervene? Please note, they are not fighting over
toys (they only get these seperately right now).


I would start to look for the signs that Roxy is getting stressed
*before* she starts whimpering and give then a little break from the
play at that point. If Roxy always ends up scared or hurt, she might
start preempting Briar's overtures by getting snarky before she needs
to, which just ends up making the "play" more and more intense. Plus,
you don't want to inadvertantly reward Briar with outside play for being
too rough, but if you see it coming earlier, then you can still take
them outside for a few minutes without rewarding his overstimulated play
style.

But, in general, I think interrupting play that is too rough for
*either* dog BEFORE it gets too rough, and doing a few minutes of focus
exercises and then letting them go back to playing for a while (rinse,
repeat) helps build both dog's tolerance and ability to extend calm
playing styles almost indefinitely.

Tara