[tpolley]

we have a 6 week old boxer, morgan. as some of you read in an earlier post we got her a week early. she's starting to come out of her shell. she'll chase jack, our 100lb lab around and bite his tail and his feet. jack gets anoid pretty quickly. he's growled at her twice to get her to stop. he hasn't nipped at her. i don't think he would unless she really hurt him.


right now we're babysitting a 4 year old border collie, guinness. guinness was affraid of morgan at first. now he wants to play with her. she wants to play to. she chases him then he'll chase her. she does the little boxer thing where she'll but her butt in the air and hit the floor with her front paws. when they get into it guinness will hit morgan with his head and knock her over. she'll roll on her back and he'll kinda nip at her belly. i can't tell if he's biting her. she'll get up and he'll immediately knock her down again with his head and nip at her. some times he nips at the back of her neck. i call it nip, he's hitting her with his open mouth, i don't think he's biting down. she hasn't yelped yet to indicate she's geing hurt. occasionally guinness will hit morgan kinda hard and she'll retreat to under the ottoman, hide, and fall asleep for an hour.


this afternoon i went home for lunch and watched as they played. a few times i tried to sepparate the two i told guinness to lay down and i picked up morgan and put her in my lap and gave her her favorite nylabone. she tried to take a few shots at my hand so i pinned her to the floor untill i felt she was calm, as recomended by our vet. of course she immediately jumps up and runs over to guinness and procedes to mess with him and they start at it again. i ended up taking them outside to expend some energy.


at what point do i say enough and separate the two untill they calm down. or do i let them play and let her learn by getting hurt? i don't want morgan to get hurt. i don't want her to grow up thinking its okay to beat the s**t out of other dogs or people. she's not being malitious or agressive. she's just being a playfull puppy.

 

[Kendalle]

if he hurts her she will let him know by yipping and he will probably back off. They will communicate in dog language. IF he keeps going at her when she is yipping and crying then you pull him off and tell him a firm no. Make sure you have his attention by forcing him to sit or body blocking him from her.

Your older dog probably wont snap at her until she is older. He will also let her know when is too much in dog language, it may sound mean to you but her feelings won't be hurt long.

give her some space and remove her to her room some times when you see she is getting tired he should know not to pester her when she is sleeping.

 

[TinyTimmy]

Things get rough if your dog shows to step out, do some simple observation to your dog

 

[Cynster]

I think if there is a lot of yipping and hiding/cowering, it's time to stop. My papillon does it a lot when she is playing so it took some time to figure out when she was just playing and when she had enough.

 

[Degu gal]

If i were you i would try and contact a dog trainer or even better cesar millan ( aka the dog whisperer ) or you could start watching some of his shows.

 

[wishbone]

At young age, there is always tendency to become rough, supervision and being leader of the pack is what you need..