Not Allowing Your Dog To Play With Other Dogs...

[Loves Dogs]

I answed other as I have 2 very different dogs (personatlity wise). My male is 22mths old and I have now reverted to only letting him play on lead. His excitment can get over the top and turn to dominance aggression. If the other dog is submissive thats ok but if not we have problems. He loves to play with dogs and is friendly but if I let it go on to long thats when the over excitment happens. My girl who is 5 would prefer not to play with dogs and will walk away if a dog comes up to her when she is off lead (usually they get the picture and leave her alone). On lead I only let her say hello to dogs she knows (and I know) as she gets cranky with new dogs she cant get away from(she feels trapped by the lead I think). I now know my dogs and their behaviours very well so am lucky I dont have many incidents. I am aware they are not perfect and I think that is the key. I do get a bit upset if people have their dogs off lead and allow them to come up to my dogs on lead as I think it is unfair to assume that because their dog isnt aggressive its ok. Im sorry but its not and thats where I find I have most of my problems. I think it would be so lovely to have all dogs off the lead playing all the time but my dogs are just not like that which is a shame as they have been socialised since 8 weeks of age very regulary to try to avoid these behaviours. I have excepted the way they are and now try to work around them. Dont get me wrong they are still punished for showing any aggression but its in them and better to avoid it in the first place I say

[The Spotted Devil]

My dogs can play with each other as much as they please. In fact, one game of self-control for them has them playing and wrestling hard, then I call out "sit!" and the quicker they stop playing and sit the more quickly they get released to play again. They learned it first by playing with me and with toys and it transferred to dog-to-dog play really well.

Ziggy is an entire male with a very upright stance and tendency to make eye contact that attracts the ire of the majority of male dogs (entire or desexed) that we meet. Thus I am very careful about who he walks past or stands next to let alone plays with! If he is training with me or on lead he pays no attention to dogs lunging and growling at him (case in point at training yesterday!) He knows his own strength, though, and won't back down if he is threatened particularly if I'm not close enough to back him up - I have stood up for him enough times that he looks to me for direction first. He LOVES girlies and is excellent with puppies - just no playing or sniffing pretty girls until we have finished training or competing ;)

Em is still a relative youngster and comes from working lines that have been selected to ignore other dogs in the field - makes her completely disinterested in playing when there is fun to be had training. She is very submissive with dogs she doesn't know and plays best with other spaniels (especially Springers and Welshies) - incredible to watch them all speak the same language and we let them all have a huge play with each other after a trial - Ziggy loves his harem of Spaniel ladies :D I am very careful in who she meets as dogs that get "in her face" just frighten her. She is rather feral with poor Zig - I keep telling him it's karma for being such an @r$e as a puppy