Will the continous playfighting calm down???

Hiya all,

You may know if you have seen my previous threads that we have just introduced a 12 month old Beagle (male) to our family which consists of me, my wife and our rescue dog Missy (16 months).

We brought Polo home last Wednesday so they are only on Day 5 together but I have a few questions :

They seem to get on really well. There has been no agressive fighting but alot and I mean alot of play fighting. I have read up alot about this and take it that they are testing eachother out, and Missy is probably showing him (Polo) whos boss. Polo very rarely instigates the playing, it is normally when they are both asleep, Polo will wake up and go for a drink and Missy will immediately jump up and follow him around, grabbing at his neck/ears/legs anything she can really. Polo sometimes makes the loudest screeches but he is quite a vocal dog and there has never been any real harm done. When it seems like he just wants space I try and get Missy to come to me and lay in her basket which Polo looks relieved at! (dont get me wrong though, sometimes Polo starts it)

I dont mind them playing at all, it is the screeches coming from Polo! I am sure my neighbours are not too pleased about it either.

I just want abit of help on what I should expect.

Will Missy gradually let Polo have some space as time passes?

Will the "play fighting" calm down once they have sorted out the pecking order?

They are both perfect in every other way. They sleep near eachother, Missy does not get jealous when we show Polo some attention (we do make more of a fuss over Missy and she gets fed first etc etc) I just want to know what to do about the play fighting!

Thanks in advance

It may calm down naturally but not necessarily, my two Dobermanns would no doubt playfight all day every day given the opportunity, but for me that's simply not acceptable, so they have been taught to stop when told wherever we are. I allow playfighting while out on walks where no other dogs are around but they have to stop as soon as other dogs or people approach. They have to stop when we walk on narrow pathways etc. Also in the house they are only allowed to playfight in the garden or conservatory nowhere else, and again they have to stop when told, usually when we've had enough rather than the dogs. I just tell them to leave it and walk on and they do, they picked it up really quickly. Just practise and they will get it in no time.

I have a simlare problem with my two. If i tell them to stop in the house they usually do, very quickly, but when outside i might aswell be standing on my head for all they care, they're recall is ok, defo improving, but when they play fight outside, no chance ! ! How do you do it?

Great thanks for the advice

We have been stopping them fighting in the house because it does get really annoying (we do let them have a few minutes rough and tumble though). When out on a walk Missy goes for Polo while she is off her lead and as Polo cannot be let off yet he is on an extender so I arent allowing this as yet. Ideally though in a few months this would be the only time they play fight. We have 2 horses so they go down there twice a day aswell as 2 other walks so they will have plenty of time to play.

I just want to know I am not doing the wrong thing trying to encourage them not to play fight within the house.

Any more advice is always greatly received.

Thanks

Reading this thread was like reading about my two! Had the bitch 1st, who is about 4 months older then the male, when i introduced them they get on great, but like you constant play fighting, ALL the time! They have settled down now, but do still do it, just not near as much. And Angel does the exact same thing your MIssiy does, grabbing his collar, neck, ears etc. Looks sore but Sammie doesn't bat an eyelid?!?!? So not really ure it will stop all together, but if they like mine it should calm down

Not easy I know but I do have to say it is practise and being consistent and persistent, and not taking no for an answer. The thing is their recall is as perfect as is possible, so they never venture too far without being called back or without me disappearing into the trees so they have to come looking for me. Once they learn to keep one eye out for what I'm up to, I find its best to be unpredictable, they have to be aware of where I am at all times, they watch me not the other way around. Their "leave it", which is a bit of a cover all command is nigh on perfect to, we walk where there is lots of tempting horse poo so it got a lot of practise very early on, but also because they are Dobermanns I was motivated to make damn sure no-one would ever be able to question their behaviour when in public, unfortunately they don't get given the benefit of the doubt by many.

I think the simple answer to that is if you find something unacceptable then it's fine to stop it, you make the rules and while play fighting is a perfectly natural canine behaviour dogs do need to learn where the boundaries lie, and they clearly are allowed to play fight at times just not all the blinking time

My NI tries to playfight with my family's tiny dogs... some of them tolerate her.. most don`t. It got to such a pitch that i tried the spray commander remote collar, best thing we did. It has a beep sound on it that we use first to warn her to pack it in.. 99% of the time this does the trick and she just wanders off... if she carries on, she gets a short burst of citronella spray. She always responds to this and will back off and go and do her own thing.

My two can get a bit OTT with eachother from time to time too. In which case I just tell em to chill and they go lie down on their bed for a little while. I reckon they'll calm down a bit over time

Thanks for that everyone ,this thread has really helped me ,as you might know ,im hopeing soon to get a second dog and after reading all thats been said i now feel much more confident about how to handle play fighting should it happen (im sure it will ).so thanks for al the info