Chewing on each other - playing or fighting?

[Gooby]

Goober plays with luna like this. It is very annoying when you are trying to sleep.

[luzmery928]

My boy likes to play rough with our girl. At fist I was worried because she never played back (we've had her now for 3 months and she came from a home where she was neglected) but now she rough houses with him as well. We do stop it when we see one or the other getting really rough, usually it's Champ being rough with Belle but I do agree when they play nice it's great fun to watch. I literally just stare at them for whatever time they play. It's great to see them interact together.

[luzmery928]

BUt it can get a little stressing for example last night my husband and I were having some wine on the sofa and suddenly they jump on top of dh and the wine goes everywhere. Luckily we had seltzer so no damage was done to the new red leather couch..lol

[RedVelvetLynx]

This thread answers many of my questions - but how does one know when the playing is turning into fighting? My baby B has a set of bite marks on his neck & a couple of scratches on his chest. Last week I found a big scratch on his belly. My Bs get crazy all of the time, but sometimes it looks like Trinity is pulling Denver's coat off of his body at the neck. Sometimes Trinity will just stare at Denver from across the room for a minute, then charge at him & slam him right into the wall; or at times he'll jump in the air while they're playing, but she jumps higher & body slams him to the floor. They get along quite well - groom one another, sleep right next to each other, share toys & one can even dip his nose in the other's food dish without incidence. If I think Denver needs rescued, I'll whisk him up from the floor, only to have him squirm to get right back to the action, attack & then run behind my legs 10 seconds later after I hear a loud yelp. Obviously dogs can't talk, so can anyone tell me what behaviors will tell me when to break it up?

[tanza]

Typically when you hear "noise"… you don't need to step in... a silent fight is one that is usually the problem...
The situation you present... I would not step in

[RedVelvetLynx]

Silent fights like what? I've observed them rough-housing without much noise, which then turns into a yelping situation….

[tanza]

Silent fights.. there is no noise at all… just fighting..... it is easily seen as not rough-housing.... yelping is a reflex and used to let the other know that they have gone too far... silent fights are typically between same sex, in-tact dogs.... and draws lots of blood... and if you see a dog go after another it is for no real reason... and just look at their eyes... glazed and determined to "kill" the other.... that is so different then rough-housing...

[RedVelvetLynx]

Blood - that I've not seen, nor do I want to. So, Trinity will get a crazy-wild look in her eyes while she is breathing hard, long breaths - much different than the glazed look you spoke of? I don't mean to sound slow, but I've not been around animals much my whole life & have ever owned only these 2…

[snorky998]

I know an intervention is at hand when the tone of their voices change. It's not just a change in volume, it's like a half octave leap up and what you could almost say is a major chord change to a minor chord. My 2 always have the voice change when one or the other has gone too far when rough housing.

[Quercus]

@snorky998:

I know an intervention is at , it's like a half octave leap up and what you could almost say is a major chord change to a minor chord. My 2 always have the voice change when one or the other has gone too far when rough housing.

I agree with this. My bad fights (where I thought they wanted to kill each other) haven't been silent…but it is a different kind of noise than warning, or playing or complaining...it just sound SERIOUS....it might be hard to know what we are talking about until you experience it, unfortunately....

[tanza]

The silent is when there is ongoing "hate" between two or more dogs… and is usually a build up after a fight when you did have the change in voice.... but sometimes, such as with two bitches it is just all out for blood... when one thinks the other should be gone...

[MacPack]

Once you see a 'real' fight, there is no question. It is not rough play, it is deadly serious. Basenjis can play so rough it is amazing, but as long as tails are wagging and they keep going back for more, let 'em have at it. Scratches are bound to happen, just think of a yard full of 2 or 3 year old kids, they play and yell and scuffle and get a scrape or two, then are best friends in 2 minutes. When the tone changes, or one seems to be getting serious, it's time to distract them with a walk or something.

[RedVelvetLynx]

Well, ok - thank you all for your replies. Since I have no idea what any of you are talking about, I'm assuming I've yet to experience a real fight. I'm protective of Denver because he's little (at times he still falls over when he tries to reach somewhere on his backside or far underside :)). Sometimes I can't wait until he's bigger than Trinity - then we'll see who romps on who! What goes around comes around! - that's the mamma's boy side of me coming out…

[MelissaK]

I know this is an old thread, but it seems to be what we are experiencing…so rather than start a new one, I thought building on an old one would be best.

We adopted a brother/sister pair of 5 month old Bs. They do well with other dogs, rarely nip at other dogs (unless they are overly excited and the other dog is a little too friendly - nothing serious so far), but my goodness do they roughhouse with each other.

They will start the B-500 while taking them for a walk, and wrestle and tackle, nibble, grab each other by the throat, ear, leg, etc. Sometimes there's noise, sometimes not, lots of legs flying everywhere as they wrestle each other to the ground. By what I've read so far using the search feature, this seems pretty normal B behavior. But occasionally we fear someone's going to call the police and tell them we have a dog fighting ring going! Luckily for us it's only with each other that they wrestle. Other dogs don't interest them except to prove they can run faster.

So the $64,000 question is...should we try to train this out of them, or do we just need to learn to live with it - as long as they keep it to themselves and don't involve other dogs.

Many thanks!