Play wrestling

[HaiducAgnita]

Well, I'm not sure if the title makes sense, but sometimes Haiduc likes to play a little rougher, I'd call it wrestling. He jumps around, runs after/at me, play bites (stops if I tell him to), and sometimes he bites a little hard, but he doesn't get too carried away.
A trainer told me NOT to play wrestle with him since when he grows up it can be a problem. I'm not sure what to do, since he loves to play like that, and obviously doesn't get too crazy.
He's only 4 months old and is great with other people/dogs/kids etc., so I definitely don't want to have problems down the line, so what do you guys think? How do you play with your dogs? He's not really into fetching yet unfortunately.

 

[Maxwell's Ma]

I would not encourage any kinda nipping. Your baby is young but they don't know when they get older it is bad. Biting softly is not allowed here. Just my opinion. I know it seems like play now but it won't be with a 70lb dog.

I took mine to puppy school and they loved playing with the other pups. Then it also gave us somethings to work on that my babies thought was playing such as sit, stay, leave it. Also, I would throw their toy and tell them to get it. They didn't bring it back at first but they learned I would throw it again if they did.

 

[bucca]

my husband and son have always wrestled with out dogs and they just love it.(all of them) but when the dogs start to bite or nip they tell them no bite and stop playing after awhile our dogs got the idea and played rough but didnt bite. spanky caught on right away he loves to get really rough but doesnt do it with me he knows its the guys who like to play rough.

 

[Mwarlzabwark]

oh yea we be wrestlers

Charlies love of the tackle, boxing, and wrestling is the whole reason we adopted him a playmate after our car accident. Charlie does grab onto my arm with his jaws but he never bites down he just likes "capturing me" that way and me following him around as he walks with my arm in his mouth. It feels like I'm the one on the leash that way. His only biting is the what I have termed "I don't have fleebies" where he will graze down my arm mostly with lips though I know there are teeth doing that nibble thing in his mouth. He used to just hop up on the couch and do that to me without playing like he was grooming me for fleas and it cracked me up so much that now adays if we are playing and I say yea really now? well i dont have fleebies! he'll start right then and there with the nibbles it's hillarious. But, Charlie would crawl in a hole and die if he ever actually bit me and broke skin he's just that way about the loving. If I say ouch during playtime whether it is something he did or something i did like twisting my ankle ( and 99 percent of the time it's something i did) he will sit in his own version of a time out and wait for me to move about again.

 

[electric1]

I've wrestled with ABBY ever since she was just a puppy and she is just beyond 3 years old now. At first, she would get a little too rambunctious and start nipping or growling at me and I would just tell her "NO", stop playing with her and walk away until she calmed down. She learned quickly the appropiate to play 'rough', and we'll have wrestling matches almost every night.

 

[HaiducAgnita]

That's how I play with Haiduc. I did read the article on bite inhibition and he definitely learned it. He only plays "rough" with me and never bites too hard. With other people he doesn't even mouth them at all.

 

[Lizeb]

My hubby used to wrestle rough with my George and they both loved it, however my hubby taught George his limits. We never had any problems with george when he was older being too rough. He played well with all of our other dogs at the time (mid 1990's) and loved the ball and swimming.

However, our two new puppies are quite different. Like night and day of each other. One was the runt and one 2nd biggest of the litter. Arya (the smaller of the two) loves to cuddle and plays mildly rough. However, Saphira (larger one) hops instead of runs and likes to jump and bite (hard). They are so young still. I've been trying to say no and give them a toy instead of my hand, but it only works sometimes. Any ideas???

 

[Bridget D]

You have to be careful when your puppy is young as to how much rough housing you allow as it can foster an aggressive attitude in your dog as he or she matures.

When Bella was a baby my son Zachary continually insisted on rough housing with her, playing with her very aggressively and I had to put a stop to it.

She, like most Boxer puppies, had to learn bite control and the aggressive play prior to achieving bite control was making it difficult for her to understand how much was too much.

Once she successfully achieved "bite control" Zachary was allowed to rough house with her once again, she understood how much pressure was acceptable and did not become confused when excited. She is now eleven months old and they play very enthusiastically but she never exerts more pressure than what we call a "love bite" when playing, it is generally her holding on with just the slightest of pressure to your arm or sleeve while playing.

If the puppy does not have pressure control on it's bite yet, do not rough house just yet, engrain the bite control and then play does not get disrupted for you or your pup!

 

[Steven Menk]

I've always wrestled with my dogs. Oscar, the golden retriever I grew up with was the most into it. With Cosworth it quickly devolves into cuddling. :D

 

[ehayes21]

I've always avoided wrestling with any dog...you will never win. And while it might be "play" to you, to your dog, wrestling can mean that he is upping his rank in your pack. Play other games like tug or fetch - those are games that you can always "win" at by starting and ending play time.