You and Your DogTeaching your dog to play nicely without biting, jumping up on you, or otherwise playing too roughly doesn’t have to be difficult. It does, however, require a foundation of obedience training. Not only will this training teach your dog the foundation obedience exercises sit, down, stay, come, and walk on a leash nicely but this training will help you both to communicate better with each other. Plus, as you learn how to teach your dog the basic obedience exercises, you will also be able to teach him additional things, including better behavior during play. If you’ve already done some obedience training, think about a refresher course to fine tune your skills. If you haven’t done some obedience training, talk to a local trainer about a basic obedience course.No matter what games you play with your dog, stop the game before your dog becomes so excited that he begins jumping, biting, or otherwise plays too rough. Watch his body language and actions to see if you can pinpoint when he crosses the line from acceptable play to over stimulated. Ideally, interrupt his play before he gets too excited. Stop the game, put a leash on him, ask him to lie down, and give him something to chew on. Or, if he’s already too excited, walk him on the leash and ask him to do some obedience exercises until he calms down. Don’t yell at him or otherwise punish him; that’s counter productive. Instead, help him calm himself.You can also prevent unwanted behaviors in other ways. Teaching him to do something that prevents him from doing the unwanted behavior is wonderful. For example, if your dog likes to grab your clothes or hands or just plain bites at you during play, teach him to grab one of his toys instead. As a general rule, this type of mouthiness isn’t aggressive but instead is more like the type of play he might do with another dog. After all, dogs bite and chew on each other and one will let the other one know when the biting is too hard. People, however, don’t appreciate being bitten no matter what the reason. And, of course, biting is unacceptable for many other reasons. So hand him a toy when he’s playing and encourage him to hold on to it and play with it. With a toy in his mouth, he won’t be biting or grabbing you.
Adrenaline – Fuel to the Fire
Because puppies have no impulse control they get excited quickly. Once adrenaline kicks in their play turns intense and can turn into a fight if allowed to continue.
When puppies are allowed to play roughly they quickly learn how to use their bodies in ways that overwhelm their partner. It is in this rough play that puppies learn how to fight.
You can tell when a puppy is about to go ballistic during play. His energy level will become increasingly intense and explosive. As his brain fills with adrenaline he quickly moves into a state he cannot change or stop. This is when play turns to sparring and mock battle, when the competition starts to feel too real and puppies (like dogs) slip into fight mode.
A woman in her seventies once told me a story that I will never forget. She was taking care of her son’s dog while he was on vacation. All she had to do was go to his home a few times a day, feed the dog and let him out. The dog was a friendly 70 pound yellow lab named King. On her third visit, as she was heading towards the front door, she fell on the floor. King immediately pounced on her, tackled her and started mouthing her. She was clearly emotional as she was recalling how humiliating it was to be manhandled as such, even humped over and over. Due to her age, she wasn’t able to push the dog off and her ordeal lasted for close to 45 mins!! Why did the dog act in this way? She had figured it out right away. Her son’s favorite game with his dog was roughhousing. He would get on the floor with King and wrestle on a regular basis. From the dog’s perspective, a human getting down on the floor was his cue to play rough, and he did, regardless of whether or not the human in question was prepared and willing.
Roughhousing with our dog is a personal choice. If we’re training for a specific task, in which speed of reaction and hard actions are needed, like in police work, playing with the dog this way could develop those needed drives. If we’re not, we have to fully understand what behaviors we are encouraging and what consequences could occur over time. Just like children, dogs need us to be consistent. If one moment we’re allowing jumping and mouthing, we can’t expect them to understand that just because we’re now wearing expensive work clothes, that behavior will no longer be tolerated. Certain movements that we make or things that we say, that are similar to those used during roughhousing could trigger rough responses from the dog.
If we still chose to roughhouse with our dog, a few rules will help keep the situation under control:
There are many fun and dynamic ways to have a good time with our dogs, like playing fetch, that don’t encourage behaviors that are considered problematic in all other instances. The choice of roughhousing or not has to be taken wisely since it may have negative implications for the dog. Any behavior that has the potential to hurt a person can lead to injuries or lawsuits and the dog will pay the consequences. The question becomes: how important is it for us to roughhouse? Keeping everybody safe, the family, the visitors and the dog should always be the priority when making the decision to roughhouse or not.
Dogs chase, grab, push and sometimes play rough with other dogs. When dogs have all the right social skills, they have many ways to keep the situation under control. They stop and pause regularly, allowing for the excitement to go down and adapt to the size and strength of their playmate (self-handicap). Some dogs however play too rough, in a hyper-aroused state. Playtime with others takes the dogs to very high levels of energy, increasing the chances for things to turn bad. When we roughhouse with our dog, because we’re not dogs, we don’t master the rules of play and will often bring the excitement level out of control.