We adopted a 4 month old yellow lab girl, it wasn't planed but I couldn't leave her at the shelter. Our boy is 6 month old and very good with her. She is a sweet girl most of the time, but at times when they play they mouth and growl a lot. She also loves to steal all his toys and sticks, they wrestle and play tug a war over it. I do walk them separately and each has their own crate, toys and water bowl. I started to train her to sit, and stay. When they play sometimes I still worry and if they get to crazy i crate both for a short time out. If I can distract them. I would appreciate any tips how to raise and train them. My mom told I was crazy to have two of them, and maybe I am but she needed a good home and I am determined to give that.
I have two very playful dogs - well, I do now the puppy has stopped biting, and my older dog will play with her. They are both robust, boisterous dogs, and I do not like them playing rough at all. First because it's completely inappropriate in the house, and second because I do worry one of them will get hurt crashing into something. My top tip is train a good interrupter cue. Mine is my hand in the air and the cue 'Ready!' which means pay attention to me, something good is going to happen. In the house, I have a bag of very tiny low calorie kibble, and throw down a handful of this when they both stop, sit and look at me. Then by the time they have hoovered up all the kibble, they have forgotten the game and I can get them to do something else, or settle.
Dogs that live together often play very rough with one another. It can be quite shocking at first, but you get used to it! There's lots of growling, snarling and teeth! Here are a couple of pictures of my two playing together: I'm quite happy for them to do it outside, just not in the house. I have an "enough" cue that tells them it's time to stop. In the house, they generally play "bitey face" with one another, which they do when they're laying down.
I have to say, I discourage my dogs from playing roughly even outside - it's true that outside Betsy is completely OTT with Charlie, because she has no fear of over stepping a boundary as she knows him so well. She is a lot more reserved with strange dogs. I don't like it, it's not behaviour I want to see her rehearse, and I stop it. I don't want her to learn to do this, with Charlie or any dog.
I don't let mine play either, it would be chaos for two large Labradors to bat around the house! They don't play out either, it doesn't seem to have occurred to them to do so, having more fun hunting and sniffing and retrieving.
I enjoy watching it They don't do it with other dogs - other than their sister, Annie, but even that is quite different in its nuances. I step in and stop it a lot when she's involved (although haven't had to in a while, thinking about it) because it can become too much and quite rude. I don't allow any bullying behaviour. Mostly, with my two, it's chasing one another, and then a the bouncing around with teeth for a few seconds, followed by more chasing. As they've gotten older, they do it less and less. When they were teenagers, I frequently had to stop them trying to do it inside.
I love my two hoolying, indoors and out. Tatze is very gentle indeed when the pups are small - and slowly progresses to normal hoolying as the pups grow. Bruce doesn't play like a Lab at all - he's all lollopy and gentle. i stop all play whenever I've had enough. My cue is 'enough' and they stop and go to their mats. ...
Thank you for all the replies. I don't let them play rough in the house as much as I can avoid it, but it happens. I usually stop it and take them outside for a game of fetch. They both pup's and 6 weeks apart, what keeps me sane is both are crate trained and it provides a time out if needed.
Our two do it in the house and some times it gets a little noisy. Cooper often does a high pitched play bark when they play fight which is annoying. Often one will get a toy and and start a game of tug with the other which is a little quieter. When we get tired of the noise, we tell Cooper to "Get a Toy". They also do the bitey face thing, with both of them lying down together. I think the play has helped keep Tilly young. She is almost 11 and still going strong. She only plays with Cooper now, not with other dogs. Cooper will also play hard with our neighbors Sammies They are all young dogs and love to run and chase each other. She also plays chase games with our Govt Camp neighbor's GSD.
Jesse will bark if he still wants to play and she doesn't and it gets a little annoying. We played fetch in the back yard and even he ran after his ball when she went for it. He stopped and let her have it. I love them both just new for me to raise to of them
Jesse will grow out of it if barking doesn't get him anywhere. As long as your other dog doesn't respond, it'll die out. Shadow used to do this to Willow, but the most we get now is a bit of a gruff. She raises an eyebrow and he gives up.
