Sid_Wolf Posted December 28, 2009 Report Share Posted December 28, 2009 do you playfight with your sibes?? we always have with no problems until now. i banned all playfighting/roughhousing with kira yesterday as we have a newborn around, ricks baby nephew, and while shes fine with him now, in a year or 2 he'll be toddling and crawling around. and yesterday when i was playing with her she bit down HARD on my arm, and wouldnt let go, i had a jumper on but if that was a baby or toddler that would be very serious. it wasnt a vicious bite, just an excitable play bite that went to far. so all fighting etc has been banned for the babies safety. biting me = not a major issue tbh. biting Cody = serious. rehome or PTS. i just cant risk that. so we're back to re-teaching bite inhabition just thought i'd let everyone know, that while playfighting/playbiting may be fun and you dont see it as a problem. another family member or a member of the public may not see it that way. and if the dog decided to play with a child like that it could do serious damage. while i always thought that playfighting wouldnt be a problem, i failed to realise that one day kira would be a strong dog. and didnt take into account the damage she could do. she didnt hurt me, but im an adult. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raindog Posted December 28, 2009 Report Share Posted December 28, 2009 I know that you can't simplistically compare dog and wolf behaviour, but in the wild, wolf cubs and young wolves tend to play fight most often with those pack members which are on the same social level as them. Playfighting with their human owner could be interpreted as giving the message that dog and human are equal - not a message it is useful to give to your dogs. Consistant leadership is, I believe, pretty important. Mick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sid_Wolf Posted December 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2009 I know that you can't simplistically compare dog and wolf behaviour, but in the wild, wolf cubs and young wolves tend to play fight most often with those pack members which are on the same social level as them. Playfighting with their human owner could be interpreted as giving the message that dog and human are equal - not a message it is useful to give to your dogs. Consistant leadership is, I believe, pretty important. Mick yu know i never thought about it like that... thanks for that insight mick, another reason not to playfight or allow playbiting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SarahNukka&Shadow Posted December 28, 2009 Report Share Posted December 28, 2009 I do playfight with Nukka but she knows that if she bites down on skin its NOT acceptable she will get a firm NO and hold mouth shut until shes calm, I've been doing this with her from when we first got her and it tends to work well I've also just recently started telling her "Finnish" to mean game over enough playfighting whether thats with me or one of her doggy pals and she is starting to understand this too. HOWEVER I do totally understand where your coming from because although she will respect the rules of playfighting with me she will often try to get my Mr. to play with her like that by nipping at him and he really doesnt have the authority with her to get her to stop. I've tried to help him to increase his authority with hr but hes difficult to teach as a child would be so I can only work with her and let her know whats acceptable so its a very difficult situation! Its a very tricky question in general really because if done properly I think it is a good way to interact quite naturally with a dog in a way they understand as they will playfight with their brothers and sisters and family to learn their place in wild packs, so as long as you are careful about teaching them the rules and always start and stop the game yourself and play careful attention to bodylaguage you can really reneforce the bond between you and your place as the leader in a posertive way. But like you said its a slippery slope if the dog doesnt ALWAYS abide by the rules and starts to try to use the playfighting to interact with other members of the family particularly children who would get hurt by play biting it can get dangerous so I think you have made the right desision if you have a child in the house regularly to just stop it all together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah Posted December 28, 2009 Report Share Posted December 28, 2009 you know - I tried this with my two on a few occasions, and they're just not interested lol they play fight with each other all the time though lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sid_Wolf Posted December 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2009 you know - I tried this with my two on a few occasions, and they're just not interested lol they play fight with each other all the time though lol sometimes she wants to, other times she walks away. but yesterday was just too hard to excuse Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eskimo Huskies Posted December 28, 2009 Report Share Posted December 28, 2009 Hi Sinead, We both find your post very interesting and would like to comment about our situation at this end. Here goes ! There are two of us here (Humans) and all of our 3 Huskies know that they CAN play fight with Ivan, but NOT with Paul ! They have also been taught that they can NOT play fight with other dogs out on the street, with the exception of when they meet another Husky (Provided the other Husky owner agrees) They have also been taught that it is a big NO NO, to even start to play fight when we are at our Nieces and Nephews houses or when they all come to us at our house. (6 Great Nieces and Great Nephews as well with ages ranging between 1 and 10) They have always learnt the difference and understand that it is only acceptable to play fight with Ivan and NOT to do it with anyone else ! These rules are what we have instilled in to them and they abide by them impeccably. We hope this helps and any advice we can give, then we are willing to share Ivan and Paul. Ice, C.K, Falmer & Kira. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bec Posted December 28, 2009 Report Share Posted December 28, 2009 biting Cody = serious. rehome or PTS. That wouldn't be fair seeing as you taught her playing that way is ok. Dogs mouth and bite each other in play all the time. I am a big believer in utilising your dog's pack/play drive. To me, it's a good sign that my dog is comfortable with me if they are willing to jump up, play, rough house a little bit and I use this in training to get them excited. However - from day one I teach them that putting their teeth on me is never acceptable and that the game will end straight away if teeth touch my skin. I also think that using a toy to tug and play with your dog is a great way to use their play drive in a safer and more controlled way. It can help teach them that they can bite and grab something when playing with you, and gives them something they are able to put their teeth on instead of you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karly_larkin Posted December 29, 2009 Report Share Posted December 29, 2009 We play fight with dogs but only 3 out the 5 will play fight with us and all 3 know if they hurt any of us in anyway the play will stop, Niko our 1 year old husky his best play mate is my 6 year old he will play with her for ages he will nibble on her and if he hurts her she will tell him no that hurt and he will go to his bed and just look at her as if to stay i'm sorry they are never left to play alone, they play for hours with toys as well. Niko had a front claw removed in the summer and he could not go for a walk or anything for 2 months and if i started to play with him he did start getting abit to hard with his play fighting so i got some boxing gloves and he knows now if the boxing gloves come out he can be abit harder in his playing as long as its just on the gloves he likes to pull them off and has to bite harder on them to get them off ( they are like 10 sizes to big for me ) it is only ever me or martin that puts the boxing gloves on to play with Niko and he knows not to play with charlie if she finds them. All our dogs also know that if anyone comes to our house it's no playing in the house at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siberian_wolf Posted December 29, 2009 Report Share Posted December 29, 2009 I don't like them playfighting with humans but I will allow them to playfight with each other to an extent, if it starts to get out of hand I stop them by handling the situation as to how we was taught by our behaviourist. Saying I don't like them playfighting with humans, it can be difficult to put that accross to jamie's dad who used to allow them to "hold" his hand but then they started to nip at his hand and he wondered why, so now he is starting to correct them when they do this. He also used to playfight with them on the floor until the behaviourist came over. She said playfighting with a dog could result as a test in strength and so could result to aggression and real fights and also could allow the dog to take advantage of the human and start to dominate. Now there is no playfighting between human and dog. We do play with them but it consists with training of a command or trick and if they start to become dominant or overpowering they are left alone to calm down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sid_Wolf Posted December 29, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2009 That wouldn't be fair seeing as you taught her playing that way is ok. Dogs mouth and bite each other in play all the time. d i never taught her that biting is ok. ever. from day one any teeth/skin contact was told off for and she had been fine. but for some reason that got forgotten about thats why iv banned it. i still allow tug and other games, i just can risk that with a littleun around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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