# Puppy, play fighting with older dog. Is it ok?



## WhatWouldSidDo (Nov 17, 2012)

Barney the Lab and Daisy, My 4 year old Westie are play fighting the whole time they are together and it can get quite rough.

I've filmed them to get opinions from others that are more experienced with a 2 dog household.

Should I be stepping in or not? I want to avoid any chance of it turning into aggression. I'm unsure how things will develop as Barney grows over the next few months, but obviously the way they play will change.

I think Barney sees her as a litter mate due to her small size.
Here's the video
Barny v Daisy - YouTube


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## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

WhatWouldSidDo said:


> Barney the Lab and Daisy, My 4 year old Westie are play fighting the whole time they are together and it can get quite rough.
> 
> I've filmed them to get opinions from others that are more experienced with a 2 dog household.
> 
> ...


Although they both look happy to keep on playing the only thing that I would say is puppies sometimes dont know when to quit and will just keep going and going when the older dog has had enough. Sometimes the older dog will 
tell the pup when enoughs enough, and the pup will take heed and thats the end of it they sort it out and boundaries are established between them.

Sometimes though the older dog isnt a strong enough personality to tell the pup when to quit or the pup wont take heed anyway, and the danger if this happens is the pup can make the older dogs life a misery and be forever in the older dogs face not letting them be when they just want to rest or chill out.

Although they are pretty much the same size now too as the pup grows and if he becomes more and more boistorous then the westie could be hurt by accident it can happen.

Personally I would let them have supervised play, but if it goes on for too long, you can see the westie is beginning to have enough, and the pup still is carrying on, or it starts to get too wild, then I would call a halt to it, and let them calm down.

A few times after engaging with him and playing much the same as he was she did try to run off and he continued to pursue her and carry on, whether that was a sign that she had enough Im not sure you obviously know your dogs better then I. Bearing in mind he will be a lot bigger and more boistorous though and could possibly start to become a pain, especially if she cant or wont tell him to quit or he wont if told, then personally I would observe, supervise and call a halt if needs be at times.


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## Twiggy (Jun 24, 2010)

Aww I really enjoyed your video and they were having such a good time.

IMO it was reasonably polite play compared to some of mine.

Just be a bit careful as pup grows and moves faster that his doesn't crash into anything on your laminate flooring when they are playing.


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## BoredomBusters (Dec 8, 2011)

There are as many opinions on this as there are dog owners, but the more modern dog trainers do not allow unrestricted play. Normally it's terriers I fret about, but labradors often grow up not knowing their own strength and lots of small dogs are scared of them. They are clumsy and tank into other dogs.

We've stopped walking more labradors because they've hurt another dog *in play* than we've stopped walking dogs for not liking other dogs, and it's the second biggest reason we don't let dogs come to daycare or board with us, dogs that just won't take no for an answer. It used to be the biggest reason, but that changed last year to resource guarding. :-/

Your pup, as he grows, will be learning small dogs are fun to play with. Owners of small dogs seeing your lab coming charging towards them will not be amused. Getting nipped by small dogs who've had one too many lab stand on them can cause some labs to be aggressive back, although I've only seen that in black labs, who have their colour as an issue too.

I've just watched the full video, and that poor Westie keeps trying to take a break, and the puppy is not letting her, even following to her bed. Because every time the Westie gives in and goes back to playing, even after giving 'no thank you signals' your pup will be learning to ignore those signals, in the same way they learn to ignore us when we aren't consistent and could get himself into trouble.


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## blossom21 (Oct 29, 2012)

They did look like they were having fun,but it looked like Dolly had had enough halfway through that clip. I would of stopped the play after 5 minutes.


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## Holtie (May 30, 2012)

My two Springers often have a rough and tumble session and while it can get noisy, I am always on hand to supervise. There have been a couple of times where the younger one has become over-excited and more nippy but the older one has put her in in her place.


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## cazbah (Nov 2, 2009)

They looked like they were having fun, my thought was as the pup gets bigger and the older dog gets fed up, with your laminate flooring the older dog will struggle to get enough grip to escape so maybe a couple of mats down to help. 
I also would intervene and stop play after 5 minutes. 

very nice to watch though


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## WhatWouldSidDo (Nov 17, 2012)

Some very good points made, thank you all.

Labs certainly can be a bit clumsy and full on. 
When I had my GSD, the only other dogs I ever remember her telling off were Labs.

Daisy is quite a nervous dog generally and for the first 3 or 4 days ran away from the pup if he tried jumping on her but the last few days she has been standing up to him a lot more.


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