puppy play or hurtful play

[2rottiesmom]

I have two new babies that are 9 weeks old. They get playing sometimes with each other pretty violently. They sound horrible. I let them play for a little while and then break it up. Should I be letting them play like this?

[mmgy]

I'm on my sixth brother/sister pair.....I've only had one pair that ever drew blood, and they were in a large foster group of ten, so I consider that an extenuating circumstance. It can just sound awful! My current youngest pair, now age 2, consists of a forward, but not alpha, female and a runt male. She spent the first year and a half beating the hounddog out of him, and now she's getting her due. But they do know how to settle down and play nice.

Generally I've found that when they start baring their teeth like a wolf you might want to get involved, but usually the other will back down at that point. Once they develop their strengths and weaknesses (ie one is stronger, but the other is faster) you'll get a better feel for the situation.

By the way, my dogs have been crated together since they came to us, contrary to popular opinion. That concept about them bonding more to each other than to you may hold for the first few months, but after that I find it pretty bogus.

Mary Mac