Question regarding dogs playing?

Firstly apologies - I know this has probably come up before. I just find it very hard to discern when I should let Dexter continue playing with some dogs, or separate them.

For example - there is a large Lurcher who is often at the park when we are there. His owner is very friendly and the dogs seem to like each other, my dog will happily approach and engage with the Lurcher, Toby.

All will be fine but about five minutes into playing, Toby will start growling. Also his owner has told me that one of his 'favourite' games is to get hold of the other dog's jowls in his mouth and then 'playfully' tear a few hairs out....

Is this still 'play'?

Is it a case of being all right IF both dogs seem happy to play in this manner?

To me it looks as though after a few minutes together, Toby gets a bit rough and Dexter is mainly then trying to get away, and I don't mean that he's enjoying being chased as he often does with various other dogs.

So I always end up separating them - much to the confusion of Toby's owner.....

Am I becoming an over-protective dog owner???

No I don't think so, as I have posted before, play is only play if BOTH dogs are enjoying it; it is not a case of one dog's play being permitted if that is at the expense of the enjoyment or safety of another dog.

After all, if you had children, would you not monitor say, if a 10 year old was playing with a 3 year old as an example?

If I suspected play was getting a little rough and I suspected my dog was "trying to get away", then I'd take her away in all honestly. I've had a friend with a young flatcoat who played with a lab who was "rough" with him, and he ended up having an operationn and on cage rest for 3 months coz of what the lab did to him, so I'd always err on the side of caution. The only time I let my dogs play rough is between the pair of them at home, which they do, but with strange dogs, no I wouldn't after seeing what happened to my friend's dog.

I suppose some dogs can play rough because they've always got away with it, another dog hasn't told them what's acceptable and what's not, so they just play harder and harder. We've got a golden lab in my village, who always came steaming over to my dog and initiated play, but it was far too rough for Zena, jumping on her and pushing her over whilst running, so much so that I heard her yelp as she fell, so I stopped it, and now she doesn't want to play with it anyway, she likes running and chasing alongside another dog, but she doesn't like that leaping on her! She also likes to box with another dog, but again, it's kind of gentle.

Only you can tell really, but read your dog and see if he wants it or not, nobody can tell you better than him!

on the other hand what looks rough to us isnt always for the dogs involved.

play isnt always gentle...how boring would that be!


imo yes!