Barking While Playing

[Lando's Mum]

I had a look through to see if I could find something similar but couldn't so here goes.

Lando is a great dog when she is by herself and playing but when playing with the other dog we live with she barks constantly. My OH says she is herding the older dog? You can tell she isn't looking at the ball she is watching the other dog and staying at a distance from her. The older dog is very dominant and Lando is pretty timid. Not sure if that has anything to do with it.

So far I have tried, just walking away and stopping play time as soon as she barks. Only paying attention to the older dog and ignoring her but nothing is changing this behaviour. Is it just the way some dogs are?

Any suggestions? I am happy to try anything as I love playing with them but the barking is getting on a few peoples nerves.

Edited January 18, 2012 by Lando's Mum

[Jigsaw]

Some dogs, particularly if they are a herding breed, may bark a lot when with other dogs. Sometimes this is an attempt to control the other dogs' movement, sometimes an attempt to get the other dogs to move, if they're not moving. It can also be a signal of frustration or anxiety. Maybe the other dog is not really interacting well with Lando, causing frustration on Lando's part. It is difficult to know what is happening over the net when you can't see the behaviour. How old are the two dogs and what breeds?

If Lando is a herding breed this is an interesting article to read from Kay Laurence SHEEPDOGS

[Lando's Mum]

Oh thanks I'll have a look at that.

Lando is 2 and is a border collie X, Jed (the other dog) is 10 and is a kelpie cross border collie.

It does seem like she is trying to correct behaviour because Jed doesn't bring the ball back but when she gets close to me Lando stops barking. Jed doesn't let Lando play but Lando will also not try if Jed is around, she will run in the direction of the ball and watch Jed pick it up and then starts barking at her.

I'll read that article and see what I can learn from that.

Edited January 19, 2012 by Lando's Mum

[persephone]

Sounds very normal for that breeding ..and it is so sad that now, dogs are not allowed to play like this , because of noise concerns

[stonecutter]

persephone - I've only recently discovered that when my jap spitz plays with a bigger dog (e.g. collie or lappie size), when they start roughousing - to try and gain the advantage, Ziva makes a squeal/squeak noise. She only makes it when she's playing - but it does put other people off. At first they think their dog is hurting Ziva, but we've watched closely and she does it to make them back off so she can pounce on them :laugh: I wish she would bark :laugh:

[persephone]

Ziva ! Love the name ... N C I S fan ? Clever ploy, too!

[Lando's Mum]

It is a shame because you can tell she's have a brillaint time. I was just worried that it may be something that I shouldn't ecourage, if that makes sense. Maybe I just need to take them to a big field that no one lives near so she can bark away. ;)

[stonecutter]

persephone - yep, we are NCIS fans :) She's a loyal little thing, but like her namesake, fiercely independent and gives me the finger regularly (quite often in the show ring :laugh: )

Lando's mum - a big field sounds perfect :) Have you ever thought to take her to a herding class to see if she's the same?

[Lando's Mum]

yeah we are thinking about herding or flyball as she really does love the ball. She just needs to do a bit more obedience training. I'm also not sure what we have around here. might have to have a look into it. She does it with more dogs too. We had a play date over Christmas with her sister and Jed's sister and she hung back behind all of them and barked at everyone to get in line. She's the only one out of the 4 of them who did it though which is why I was getting a little concerned.

I love the name Ziva!! We've gone with the star wars theme for ours, Jed is short for Jedi.

[Weasels]

It is a shame because you can tell she's have a brillaint time. I was just worried that it may be something that I shouldn't ecourage, if that makes sense. Maybe I just need to take them to a big field that no one lives near so she can bark away. ;)

This is what I was going to suggest :) It sound like a similar dynamic to my 2 kelpies. The foxdog focusses on the ball while Weez just watches and chases her. He will sometimes bark at the end of their run (when she catches the ball and turns around) which I think is overexcitement. I let him But I do draw the line at him open-mouth lunging at her neck when he gets frustrated she isn't moving, and I give him a "hey!" and get in between them, to decrease his excitement level. This seems to decrease the behaviour.

FWIW Weez is very 'talkative' generally but is silent while he's herding, so I'm not convinced that's the full explanation.