by Knomad » August 16th, 2006, 2:27 pm
These are only my views from my own experience and knowledge. I offer them only to be helpful and am glad if they are of any use to anyone. Im sure many other people have different views.
For me its time out and a scolding.
To be honest the bitch often plays rough, its in their nature. kaya is the same with Moto from time to time she went through a period with her baby teeth of scraping the hell out of him.
I let them play and I let them roughhouse because its healthy in pups, theu learn limits and they learn bite and agression inhibition. if I even hear things getting too rowdy or the bites a little to bullyish, I say me termination lines and time out both of them.
For me its "ya ta!", in spanish meaning DONE, its over, thats enough. When i say that it means my previous council hasnt been heeded and the game ends.
I have good results with this, they are VERY good playing together, all day long rolling around and its VERY rare now at five months I need to cool them off.
Dont get triwtchy, dogs can play rough as boot nails and sound like they are half killing each other and yet not leave a mark on them.
Tail wagging is a good sign IF you know how to tell a wagging tail from a rigid tail thats wagging with movements. The hipslinger wag of the tail is always playtime. The dogs tail will become ridig when its tense and its ears will pull back. generally this will be acoompanied by some verbal frowling that sounds a bit more like, BACK OFF, in doggy language.
Its a good thing to watch your pups for hours and hours while they play, read their body signs and get to know them very well. After a while you will see the difference. Now if I hear a louder growling I might go through the house and peek at them, see their body language is happy and larry and go back about my business.
With a male and female who have been together a long time, its rare that they will hurt each other really badly. Generally fights break out over little things and they are no more than a scrape and snarl because neither actually wants to hurt the other, just to get them to stop doing what they doing.
You have to let them have their fun, watch for bad manners, snapping over food and bones and that sort of thing and dont allow it. Dogs allowed to be rude to other dogs and people generally develop problems later after a year or two.
So many poeple I know with pits reach 1 year or 12 months and their dog turns into a very different animal. In almost every case its because the dogs hasnt learned to deal with situations properly so when he or she becomes adult he makes bad choices when situations occur.
I see myself as coach and moral guide for them at this age, I council them on the limits and I help them understand whats ok and whats not. I expose them to many many situations and other dogs, I let them rough and play because its vital for them to experience these situations and learn the various ins and outs and what to do when things get rough.
Dont shield the dogs from these scenarios as pups, monitor them and coach them on the limits of how they should respond so when their older, they will realise that "rip him to shreds" isnt the way to deal with an annoying dog.