To rough or asserting selfs??

[Dogsareme]

I have a dog staying here for two months, a doberman, who's 8 months old.

Him and Mudd play often but sometimes I find it gets way to rough (growls sound way to serious, or someone starts whinning/yelping for a second). This play is not all the time but it happens at least two times a day. Are they just playing way to rough or trying to assert rank order? Ruff (doberman) during play also trys to constantly mount Mudd, and then she gets really really mad at him then and gives him a very sharp correction, always twice, then stops.

Also his mounting her (he's fixed, she's fixed) is not just every now and then, it ALL THE TIME. She can be laying down and he will bump her head or something. It's getting tiring and we have been correcting him, but I don't see a decrease.

Could the to rough play be linked to Ruff's always trying to mount her? Maybe he tries it during play and we don't notice it so the play sounds start to escalate?

We do place Ruff in his crate often to give Muddy a break from him because he is constanly on the go and wanting to play, where as she is more laid back and likes to cuddle.

Is the play being to rough or is it alot to do with pack order placement??

[Rivsky]

How old is Mudd?

It sounds to me though like the dobe is just trying to assert himself as head of the pack with Mudd - at 8 months old he's starting to reach maturity which would probably be why he's suddenly started doing this.

River (who is also desexed and 14 months old) also mounts my sister's dog Zeta - in desexed dogs it's a dominance thing and sounds like the play might be the same. Although if it does get too rough (or the mounting is excessive) and one of the dogs is obviously distressed I'd be stepping in as it sounds like you are.

If they are both enjoying the play though I'd just let them be - too much interference will just disrupt the heirarchy they are trying to establish with each other.

[fancychicken]

Mounting can also be a play behavior as well. 8 months old obviously a plyful puppy. He probabaly hasn't learned jsut yet what will get him playtime and what won't. Breaking things up and having them try and settle down if things get to rough is good. Sometiimes you have to just sit there and watch to get a good enough idea of what actually is going on. Look at postures, reactions ect. My 2 sound like they are killing each other, it freaked me out at first and I kept breaking it up. But they kept going right back at it and after watching I realized they really are just playing..they switch the "invite" between the 2 of them, and if it does get to rough one will walk away for a second.

[Dogsareme]

Okay that doesn't sound so bad.

Mudd is 16 months old.

Hopefully Ruff will learn soon that mounting is not what he wants to do. I have been socializing Ruff alot, and he seems to do this to every dog he meets within seconds of meeting them (just big dogs, not small ones). They all get mad at him right off the bat, but so far he has been lucky that I have socialized him with all well behaved dogs that no one has hurt him.

[sammy]

It's not fair to your dog to expect her to put up with a bunch of rude behavior all the time- especially if her correcting him isn't putting a stop to the behavior -which it obviously isn't in this case.

It doesn't matter if it is just play behavior or what his motivation is, it's obnoxious & innappropriate. Besides, it's always dangerous to assume we know what motivates dogs anyway.

If she is enjoying playing rough with him, fine. If it seems too rough or that she has said she's had enough and he isn't respecting that then they can either tone it down when you tell them to, or he can go somewhere to cool off like his bed or crate.

Sometimes young dogs get so wound up that they really can't settle down on their own-- it's the old kids at disneyland with too much sugar and too much stimulation scenario.

I'd probably spend some time teaching him to "settle" on cue and a "go to place" / go to crate cue so that you can send him to his bed or crate without having to physically intervene. I'd probably have them settle BEFORE things get to crazy rather than waiting to intervene when he's really amped up.