Dudley

[aquarian215]

We recently adopted a corgi/golden mix who is about 8 months old. I am a first time dog owner (aside from a couple a had as a kid, never for long), so I don't know a whole lot about normal behavior. My concerns are about his interactions with other dogs, sometimes he is fine, some rough play, but not bad, and he will stop when he is tired and lay and pant, but there have been a couple of occasions where it seems to be too much. Last night for example my friend came over with her pug/poodle mix who is about 1 1/2, and they ran after eachother for awhile, then my dog got kinda rough, he pinned him to the ground, with his mouth around the others throat, and we had to pull him off, he kept biting the others cheek and holding on, and when we tried to seperate and chill them out, the other would come up to sniff and he would go straight for his legs trying to bite them. The other dog never yelped like he was in real pain, and aside from the chasing game (mine chasing hers), he didn't real run away or seem overly frightened, and would come back to play, so I don't know if we were overly concerned or if my dog was being a bully. He shown toy aggression as well, but some dogs he plays nice or ignores. He is a good puppy, I have a one year and a nine year old he's great with, though the dog seems to bully my nine year old a little, but I think this is because my son is a little fearful, and the dog thinks he is higher up on the chain, but we are working on this, the one year old and Dudley get along great, the baby crawls all over him and he's fine with it, though he does tend to steal stuff the baby is carrying, but the baby is always giving him stuff, so the puppy is confused I'm sure. But anyway sorry about the book, but what are the signs that its too rough? Should I not let him play too rough?

[britishbandit]

To help with the meeting of other dogs, do it on leash and off of your property to start with. Take them for a walk in the park or something like that. He's bound to "defend" his territory (prove his rank, and that it's his house) from strange dogs, so let him get used to a specific dog away from the home first.
Also, if he won't share his toys with another dog (after trying him out meeting off property and they are acting friendly and playful towards each other), then don't leave the toys out when there's another dog in the house. Is this just toy aggression with dogs, or is he doing it with family members too?

Can I ask what you mean by "the dog seems to bully my nine year old a little"? How so? What does the dog do? What does the child do? It's a good idea to have your child participate in training and doggie duties as well. This will help your dog see that even the small humans are alphas. Have him/her help feed the dog, walk the dog, get him to follow commands....etc.

[IceyBlueSibes]

The play sounds completely normal to me. If the other dog was not yelping, trying to get away, and WAS coming back for more -- it seems safe.

However, there's nothing wrong with teaching your dog what type of play you feel is too rough. If you think things are getting a bit too much, you can seperate them but make sure you are consistant with it.
My dogs sound/look like they're mauling eachother, but it's all complete play and they have their ways of saying "Hey! That's enough!" and they'll settle. Usually that last two seconds and their back again for the teeth clanking, growling, and playing bitey face.

I would do as BB said, and have them play while on leashes. You can have better control over the dogs. Teach them what YOU find is acceptable play. But be consistant with it. Don't allow him to be playing rough one day, and then the next don't allow it. When you remove him from playing, you can tell him "Settle!" or "Easy!" so he understands that when he gets really riled up like that -- play time stops.

I'd also like to know what you mean about the "bullying" your 9 year old. Whoever lives in the household with a dog should ALWAYS participate in the daily duties. This will help to establish that they are leaders also, not just the adults, and can control their resources (food, play time, etc).

[aquarian215]

Well mostly when we first got him, we have only had him for a month now, he mouthed hands, and nipped at your clothes, sometimes in play, and sometimes when he didn't like what you were doing, but we have mostly trained that out of him, and when he did it a lot my older son would jump, act scared, push him away, and Dudley, (thinking it was play?) would do it more, while the one year old wasn't scared a bit and if Dudley mouthed him he did nothing ( it never hurt). The training has worked for the most part, but he slips still, and usually its with my oldest, who we are trying to train as well to ignore any mouthing and stopping play. River (my 9 yr old) does help out, walks him, plays with him, ect. The toy thing is just with dogs, he doesn't like us taking his toys, he'll usually hang on tight, but he doesn't growl or bite, the baby can grab on to stuff in his mouth, and Dudley will just do whatever he was doing.

[IceyBlueSibes]

The nipping is more than likely just instinct from his mix of breeds (corgi being the one). But being mouthy is typical of a puppy, especially one who has had no guidance.

Be persistant with the nipping. What do you do when he nips your son?

I think Dudley probably senses that your son feels uneasy around him. That probably has a lot to do with the "bullying". Try to explain to your son that Dudley (and any dog for that matter) can sense when they're fearful/uneasy about a dog, and dogs will act on that. Many react to it in different ways. I've seen dogs act fearful towards the person that's afraid, I've seen them become aggressive, I've seen them become a "bully" (my boxer/GSD acted this way -- he'd try any way he could to intimidate you but was never aggressive), and I've seen some dogs become extremely calm/mellow trying their hardest to "make friends".

It's good that your 9 year old helps out. I think allowing them to do a lot of the caretaking will be a big help.

As far as the toy thing goes, IMO, his holding onto the toy is still his way of telling you "No this is mine. You can't have it".

I'd suggest teaching him the command "drop it". You can play the "trading game" to show him that when you put your hand down there to take the toy, it means GOOD things are coming. Start off trading his toy for a nice piece of hotdog or cheese (something REALLY yummy and rewarding). Then give the toy back to him after he allows you to take it. So when you do, he'll start to understand that even though he had it taken away, he still gets it back.

That is one behavior I don't allow in my house. If they have something in their mouth that I want, I can have it -- whether they like it or not. I have successfully taught two of my dogs the "drop it". They stop dead in their tracks, or quit what they're doing and allow the item to fall right out of their mouth. The others will give up whatever I ask for if I put my hand down there. But they just look at me like "What's up mom?" lol

[aquarian215]

Well we are trying the drop it thing, because of he likes the babies toys a lot better than his, and the baby loves to share, so that makes it tough, it is getting a little better, but much work is needed, and we have only had him for a month. But he we have trained him with the basic commands, sit, lie down, paw, roll over, and we had to housetrain him as well, so a little bit at a time. My nine year old is on the timid side as it is, and we have told him that the dog senses his fear, but sometimes he just can't help it, and he reacts the wrong way, but things are coming along, everytime the dog tries to nip, now its mostly just opening his mouth, and not really making contact, we take away the hand and ignore him and then put our hand back and tell him "kisses", and he will lick, that works 95% of the time. I am also trying "leave it" by having cheese in both hands, hiding one, and showing him the other, lying it on the floor in front of his nose and telling him, leave it, and he is doing pretty good, and when he ignores the cheese he can see, I give him the other piece. He was a shelter dog, and the SPCA didn't have much info on him, just that he was shipped from Alabama, and he was part of an unwanted litter, so I think most of his life was in a shelter, with little training, and not a lot of interaction. He is scared of vaccums, and cars, which he tries to attack most of the time, and he seems frightened of people with stick like things in their hands (canes ect), so I don't know if he was abused, or if everything is so new and he is scared, but he is friendly, and he doesn't bark when new people come over, he was great at the vet.

[aquarian215]

Just a little update on Dudley, I took him to a dog park yesterday for the first time, there was only one other dog there at the time, but Dudley played nice, ran around, shared the toys and water bowl, he started to play a little rough, biting at the other dogs legs, which she didn't like so she (the other dog) layed down and turned her back on Dudley, and he took the hint she didn't want to play rough, so he left her alone and ran around by himself. Of course I did take him for an hour and a half off leash walk through the woods, and he went swimming, so he was tired.