I posted a good while ago that my puppy play barked at my wife quite a bit and we hoped she would grow out of this. Its only gotten worse and lately has gotten very bad. Exactly what she does is raise her backside up, lower her head and front paws and bark. and bark. and bark. Then she often times jumps up and tries to bite a hand. Then when told no she barks back. I swear she is saying "Im not listening to you!" Often times as well she will run in a circle around you, over and over and bark. Petting her and trying to calm her has not worked. It results in getting bitten, not drawing blood or trying to hurt, but it still is uncomfortable and around guests its not good at all. (see other post about biting). Is this normal?? How to stop this behavior??
Re: Play barking, running in circles, general mayhem The body posture you describe is known as the play bow and your pup is asking your wife to play with her. I will leave the more learned to describe how to manage this
Re: Play barking, running in circles, general mayhem Ahh that's playing and very normal. I love to see the play bow ! I will leave the experts to explain in better detail
Re: Play barking, running in circles, general mayhem As the others have said, definitely an invitation to play. Does your wife ever instigate a game with your pup? She might develop a better relationship with her through play. Puppies do need a lot of attention - not just walks but games and training exercises. You might think about whether your pup has enough stimulation. If her behaviour happens at a particular time could you prevent it by getting in first with an activity or giving her Kong or chew? Things will improve as she matures - my Molly was very demanding but at nearly a year she is just lovely.
Re: Play barking, running in circles, general mayhem Hi Dan, You are at a difficult stage with your pup. Still a baby in many ways, with all the pent up energy and desire to play that goes along with it, without the maturity level to understand that some of those behaviours, while perfectly fine for dogs, are just not the way humans play. Plus she is getting bigger, stronger, and more capable of really hurting someone! Hang in there, this will get better but you will have to grit your teeth a bit to get through this stage. Sounds like from your other replies on the various posts that you and your wife are doing quite a lot of training with her, which is good. Perhaps the exercise component could be increased? I agree with the suggestion of a dog park, I know my dog gets a good run around there with the bonus of doggie play, it is really great! I would suggest that you see if there is one nearby. I try to take my pooch there at least 3x a week, in the evenings, which is when the most amount of people/dogs are there (around here, anyways). Is there a chance that you could hire a dog walker to take her out during the day, or a doggie "day care" that she could go to for a couple days a week? All of that would help with the excess energy. There are plenty of others on the forum who are either at this stage with their dogs or just going through it, so in sure you will find some more chiming in with more ideas for you.
Re: Play barking, running in circles, general mayhem We made a point of waiting til Pongo was quiet and NOT demanding play, then going up to him and initiating a game. And on the other hand, if he was nagging us to play, we'd completely ignore him (it felt quite cruel at times). But he very quickly got the idea that if he wants a game, then he needs to be quiet and wait for us to initiate it. It doesn't work 100% (and we've not been 100% strict about it!) but it really did work. I'd suggest to your wife, in particular, that she looks for opportunities to 'reward' quiet behaviour by starting to play a game (a game of your wife's choosing....I always liked playing the 'wrestle the towel' game because I didn't get nipped - a bit of towel was always in the puppy's mouth as we rolled around!) I know it is hard to recognise, but really your wife should feel very flattered that the puppy so obviously and desperately wants to get her attention and approval... Rosie
