Friendly play = too agressive

As you all probably know by now I have a female staff puppy (shadow) who is now 18 weeks old. Since she was 12 weeks i have been trying to socialise her as much as possible, with animals and other dogs. When she meets a person or dog for the first time she is usually very submissive, not in a scared way, she's always waggin her tail, but she'll crouch down, or lie down, or even roll on her back. Then once she has a pat (of a person) or a sniff (from a dog!) she'll be back to normal, more or less, you can see the other getting to know stuff going on, and i thinks she's fairly normal. She's never agressive.

She met lee's parents dog Monty at 12 weeks, on neutral territory, it all went fine, she did her usual submissive thing, then they just started playin, after the getting to know u sniffing was over! Shes now been visiting him about once a week for the last six weeks, they get on like a house on fire, its sooooo great to watch them play, she gets so excited when she's down there, much more than if we take her out for a walk or if she gets a treat.

The thing is she's starting to turn into quite a bully, she's wont leave monty alone, and I can see she is trying to asert her dominance over him, she's challenging him. Where as previously he would sniff her she would roll onto her back, now she wont let him, as soon as he goes near her bum, she off! And she is constantly bitting at his ears and trying to jump on his neck, she tries to kinda mount him, but he's still a bit big for her, I can see she is trying to dominate him, its not just puppy playfulness. Monty really doesnt like this behaviour. He puts on what we call his "nasty" face, u know, lips drawn back, teeth showing, he doesnt snarl, but thats what he looks like hes going to do, he also kinda wimpers and whines and barks really loudly at her, when she does it, you can really tell he doesnt like it. He's always trying to get away from her.

My worry is that they are going to get into a fight. She keeps pushing this behaviour, he's really not liking it, sooner or later I figure one of them is going to snap, I really cant see monty "stepping down" shall we say, and letting her be the boss, especially in HIS house! This is where it alsways happens, in his house.

And my worry is that if he goes for her, that she wont back down and because shes a staff, there'll be a massive fight, and I wont know what to do.

What can I do about this?

Help.

This is normal puppy behaviour, your pup is just more exuberant than monty. This has nothing to do with dominance or aggression, your puppy just plays a little rough for Monty's liking. It would actually be good for monty to "snap" and give her a once over, it would teach her some manners!
I teach puppy school and see this kind of thing all the time. Usually the one that is getting bullied snaps and tells the other puppy off, who immediatly backs down with a kind of "oops, sorry" face.

My two do the same thing when they play. They look like they're going to kill each other, climb on each other all the time, but in truth they just love each other.

Tips wimpers a lot too, but he's always coming back for more. When it's too much just make them calm down, believe me if he didn't like it you would see the difference.

Sounds like she's angling for top dog, but I don't see why you can't step in and curb the behavior. She can dominate him, but if you think she's getting too bullying, you still outrank her and you should be able to tell her to knock it off without threatening the social order of the dogs.

Thats ok, i was worried that if I stepped in, it would do some damage, pschologically, in the heirachy or things and how she viewed me.