Eric is 5 months and loves everyone. Dogs and humans! We can't walk down the road on lead without him wanting to say hello to everyone. Off lead he is the same. However he is getting better. On lead if I'm on the ball I can distract him enough to stay focused on me, even if a dog or human is passing. Off lead pretty much the same. He does dart towards all dogs but is getting better at coming back. When with the other dogs he has a good sniff and run and thats it. At daycare he is the same. He does mouth with the other dogs and generally has a good time. He is also learning to relax around the other dogs and realise he doesn't have to play all day lol Now this is where i'm confused and i wish you were all here to see it lol My mam has a 6 month cockapoo. Very bouncy and fluffy! They don't let him off the lead ..ever.. unless in their garden or mine. When they get together it all starts well, running around garden and gentle mouthing, but then after a few minutes it seems to go wrong. Dexter growls at Eric, Eric backs off, dexter comes back and seems to want to play, run together ... then Eric sits on Dexter! Everytime! he does get off very quickly and starts to run with dexter again but dexter just keeps coming back to eric and (i think) mouths him too hard. Now dexter is 9kg and eric is 22kg so i don't want either getting hurt but I don't know how to get them used to each other without the stress lol
You could do something with them other than just have them play? My boy and the girl lab next door play a bit too roughly together, so they don't get to play really. But they hang out together lots - we encourage them to do other stuff apart from play. So we do quite a bit of training, walking together with their attention on their handler, bumbling sniffing walks where they both do their own things, sit/stays together, find it games for food (we don't tend to use toys), settle quietly on a mat with a kong each. This got them used to doing other stuff but play, and then the amount of times they go to play reduced and reduced (and if they do start playing we give them a minute and then practice interrupting play to do more stuff). It worked really well, and since you say Eric is already in love with the world, having him be around another dog and NOT play, might be really good for him.
I agree completely with Julie. Take them for gentle on-lead walks together, encourage them to be near each other, but without actual playing, until they are a bit more used to each other and less boisterous. I do think that allowing the play to escalate is not a good idea, but at the same time you want them to be used to each other and comfortable in each other's company, so low-key exposure to each other is the way to go, I think.
thank you both. we took Eric for a walk to the beach today with my son, his girlfriend and her 2yr old pug. Oh my! started off well on lead. then we hit the beach. both off lead. lots of play, sniffing, running around then eric gets far too over excited and mouths Meg but everywhere. on her back, on her tail. It really is just over excitement but its too much! so back on the lead for Eric it was until we went our separate ways. Back off lead and he was fine till we met another pug and he jumped straight up, and humped..... another first :O
When I hit this problem (it usually happens when the pup is about 7 months old and runs out of 'puppy licence') I put the over-boisterous one on the lead as soon as they start over-doing it. The other is still allowed to run and play. It takes about 3 weeks of this, then they are fine and run together well. It's usually my (2 year old) Tatze who gets too rough at this stage - no puppy licence = no holds barred, in her doggy mind! But sometimes it's the pup who needs a calming time on the lead.
The first time we had the two dogs together, they did a 5 minute walk up the road, then went their separate ways. We built this up over 2 weeks until we had them sniffing quietly off lead down a high sided bridle path. Then we worked up over another week until we could have them training together in a quiet field. Then one sitting while the other moved, and so on. We haven't tried the beach, and probably won't for about another 3 or 4 months! It's not the best place to try get a young dog to be sensible around other dogs.
I'm expecting too much aren't I? will try more little walks​ together to get them used to just being around each other. x
