Teasing dogs

Denerick

Hi, I'm just wondering 'how much is too much' when teasing your dog.

I've a middle aged labrador and she's always loved the rough treatment. Like you'd pretend to charge at her and she'd take off at top speed to run around the garden in a circle. Then you get down on your hunkers and she literally jumps up at you landing her two paws on your shoulders, almost knocking you back with her weight.

I don't know how she figured out this routine, but its tremendous craic!

Another thing I do is to pretend box her, like punching the air around her, she starts jumping up and down with irrepresible joy and does that running-around-the-garden-in-a-circle-at-top-speed thing (Barking all the time of course, with her tail wagging.) I don't actually hit her or anything!

So is this too much? She seems to like it, so I never questioned it, but a friend expressed reservations...

anniehoo

I love how you describe your "rough play" with her..class

Ok, your main thing is, how obedient is she with you..outside of "playing"?

No dog is perfectly well behaved and never will be! But, does she respond to basic commands (sit,stay,come?) If shes responding to these commands thats excellent.

"Playing" is brilliant as long as it doesnt become a dominance issue.Your dog wont understand this, but you should. Stop when the play becomes too rough and you should set the boundaries...and stick to them.

Ill be shot for saying this,but..!!!!!!!!! I love dogs...love them, but you can never EVER trust another animal implicitly.....EVER!You may have the best,most well behaved dog for years and swear blind that they know the rules but they may not.

So many dogs love what you've described (i looooove it too, it so much fun). As long as you both know that "stop" means stop then you're ok.

Sigma Force

Not sure if you mean how far can you go in rough playing in case it affects the dogs behaviour or how far you can go in rough playing in case it affects an older dogs health.

As said if you are worried that the dog shouldn't be allowed to get too pushy when playing then you will probably be able to guage that yourself in that if the dog is in general still well behaved and you're just mucking about and the rough play hasn't made your dog any more pushy or demanding etc. then I wouldn't worry about it.

Or if you think that the dog might be a bit old for all the running about then unless you find she's slowing down in general or has aches and pains or joint pain etc. I wouldn't worry about it. One of our dogs is 11 now and she still runs around like a pup, her hips, joints etc. are perfect and she can twist and turn and run like crazy with no problems. If a dog is sore in any way most dogs don't tend to hide it like other animals and they will let you know soon enough.

Either way perhaps use toys like balls and kong toys (not the kongs but the wubbas and all that or floating ones if the dog likes the water) and play in that way mainly because if there are any small kids around the dog you don't want the dog knocking them over when the dog gets a bit too excited.

seamus

There should always be very well defined boundaries with play - when you decide to stop and give the dog a command, she should stop immediately. Now, you may still need to calm her down with some gentle rubs and the like but if the dog gets so excited that she's not responding to your commands, then you need to teach her that you're in charge of the play - it starts and stops when you want it to.