Too much playing?

[I30tMikeD]

I have searched the forums extensively but have not found exactly the question/anwser what I am looking for.

13 week old male (Cru). He has been great so far. 90% potty trained and crate trained. Will come, sit, and is leash trained. Enrolled for training classes next month.

I don't know if I am having a problem or not, but my Rott pup and my 1yr old female lab mix play bite non-stop. If they are not seperated they will wrestle and bite each other for hours. They both seem to like it just fine and there is no aggression but I am concerned that it is excessive and could lead to other problems when he is older.

Cru (the Rottie pup) does not nibble on humans for the most part. We have been able to break him of that. But when it comes to playing with other dogs he is a nipping machine.

Normal? Let it go? Let him do it sometimes? Try to put a stop to it totally?

I know dogs will play, but it just seems excessive.

This is a 3 dog and one cat house. Cru (the male rott pup), Bella (1yr female lab mix), Abbie (3yr old female Rott mix), and Buddy (1yr old cat). All dogs are walked 1-2 times a day. Parks on the weekend. Fenced back yard for playing. All dogs in crates at night or when not supervised.

[brunie's mom]

They play non-stop because you have 2 puppies.
It would have been much better to wait till your Lab.x was at least 2-3 years old and fully trained before you brought in another puppy to the home.

Let them play for short amounts of time, but do keep them seperated. There is a good chance of your puppy getting hurt also playing with a bigger dog. Also you want the puppy to bond with you, not with your dog.

Spend time alone training each dog...and once you are in classes...he will start learning how to work with distractions around.

Gina

[I30tMikeD]

Originally Posted by brunie's mom

They play non-stop because you have 2 puppies.
It would have been much better to wait till your Lab.x was at least 2-3 years old and fully trained before you brought in another puppy to the home.

Let them play for short amounts of time, but do keep them seperated. There is a good chance of your puppy getting hurt also playing with a bigger dog. Also you want the puppy to bond with you, not with your dog.

Spend time alone training each dog...and once you are in classes...he will start learning how to work with distractions around.

Gina

Thanks, and I agree that having the younger lab mix and the Rott puppy is not ideal. But we knew the work it would take going into it and we dedicate alot of time to our dogs. The lab mix is very much a mix, only 25Lb. Looks just like a lab only very small, so I am not worried about the size issue since the pup is almost as big as the lab at this point.

What you stated to do is how I have been hadling it so far. I let them play for 15 min or so and if they don't stop on their own then they get seperated (lab in the back yard and puppy inside with me). Getting in an extra walk a day has helpd as well.

So let them play but just monitor? Any other suggestions?

[AngelBunny]

The situation is as brunie's mom describes--two puppies playing.

I'm with her on wishing you'd waited until your Lab mix was older. Now, you have two puppies to train.

Tell us the Lab and you are in class...and that you and Cru are soon to start class...

[Shelby427]

Hudson does this to Shelby all the time when we let them play together. She's 4 years old and she'll tolerate it for a while, then she gets tired and wants nothing to do with him. At that point, we have Shelby lay down on her bed or wherever she wants and we get Hudson interested in something else. A toy, a treat, outside for a short walk. Stuff like that. We want him to know that when Shelby is tired, it's time for him to stop. So far he's doing ok. He's still very much a puppy and has a ton of energy, so we try to curb is behavior to something else.