Do dogs always play this rough?

All right, another question. Do dogs growl and stuff when they play with other dogs? Zeus was playing with a very submissive female pit bull yesterday, and he was jumping on her, running laps around her and trying to wrestle with her. The whole time he was growling like crazy. I eventually had to call him away, since he was starting to scare the poor little female.

This is the first time I've seen a dog growl during play. Zeus also growls like that when he's playing with us. He's a very gentle dog and has never laid so much as a single tooth on me or my husband, and will immediately stop his play and drop into a sit or down when I tell him too, but sometimes he growls so much that it almost scares me. Is this normal?

It depends on the dog, but yes mine do it occasionally.

Roxie (rottie) always growls when she plays. With other dogs and us. But, she has different growls. I had to learn her growls. Play growls, warning growls(Brutus) and threat growls(intruder)

When my seven month old puppy and four year old terrier play, they both growl at each other. Their play gets quite rough at times!! LOL Many heads have run into walls and bumped into the coffee table!I think that it's normal, as long as you know they are playing! There have been many times that I was scared with their growling and just called them off and distracted them with individual toys.

Mine sound like they're going to take on the entire world when they play. Sometimes it's hard to tell with Shiva, but her body language gives her away. Learn your dog's body language (Shiva's give-away is her tail; if it's high over her back and stiff she's not being playful anymore) and deal with him accordingly.

If the growling play really bothers you, stop play when he's growling and have him calm down for a minute or so. He'll get the idea.

I'm sure it's play, because he does the whole "play-bow" thing, and his fur never raises. With the female pit bull, his tail was also up, but it was wagging like mad. Zeus has very clear body language if he's about to have a disagreement with another dog. His head comes up, his gait stiffens, and his back looks like a porcupine! Oh well, I guess if it's normal, I'll learn to live with it.

I would watch out for bullying from your dog. Yes, many dogs will play growl etc. when playing..the tone is usually countered with play postures (such as play bow, faces side by each etc.) you can tell a play growl from a rough challenging growl.
With the situation your dog was in and the other dog being submissive and you felt the need to take your dog away....this could be an indication of bullying. Sometimes a submissive dog will perform some appeasement behaviors in order to stop play as it has become unpleasant. If your dog ignores the appeasement gestures from the submissive dog...fights can start.

In the future I would watch for indications from the other dog when it starts giving signals that play is over. If your dog doesnt listen to these warnings I would take the dog out of the play.

Colby and May love to play rough with eachother. The wrestle with eachother all the time. May is so gentle with Colby though, she lets her do whatever she wants.

OC and Ronin always sound like they're ripping eachother apart and it looks like it too especially if they're blowing coat! When they're down playing there's white fur all over the yard from tufts falling out (not getting pulled out!) and they're both covered in drool LOL They love eachother so much!

I call it extremly normal all my dogs growl when they play.