When to intervene?

[Southpaw]

Juno and Sawyer love playing together. However his sharp little puppy teeth like tugging on her neck and she's really cut up now! She enjoys the play but... should I be intervening? I hate to do it if everyone is happy, but I don't know she probably shouldn't have a bloody neck either.

 

[BostonBanker]

I think drawing blood is certainly where I would intervene. As much for Juno's sake (however much she doesn't care) as to start teaching Sawyer to let you call him off that kind of play. That way if he's playing with another dog that same way, and you can see that dog isn't going to be as tolerant as Juno, you can keep some control over the situation and keep him and everyone else safe.

I would also, if you aren't already, try to find some other adult dogs you know and trust for him to spend time around. Ones who aren't going to hurt or really scare him, but who are going to draw the line a little earlier than Juno. I really credit Gusto's fantastic dog skills to Meg and my friends' adult dogs who did such a good job of teaching him to back off when asked, without ever making him feel like he had to be defensive.

 

[Southpaw]

Unfortunately all th3 dogs I know are terrible puppy raisers lol. Juno and Cajun don't give corrections (Cajun is really obnoxious as it is), my friend's dog he spends a lot of time with doesn't either. And then Lucy is the opposite end of the spectrum and snarks at him just for being in her general area.

When he has been with random other dogs he's pretty good at respecting their signals, so he totally gets doggy social cues, Juno is just such a freaking pushover lol. I just never know how much to just let them be dogs as long as they're happy, but I don't like him playing that way... so yeah good to know I'm not just overreacting and you'd stop it too haha

 

[Maxy24]

If there's actual blood being drawn I'd intervene. If it's just scratches I might not. A lot of the boxers at work seem to get scratched up very easily, I guess they just don't have a lot of coat or have sensitive skin. I've had to tell owners that I swear their dog was having a blast even though it looks like someone was beating them up.

 

[milos_mommy]

My FIL has an adult boxer and got a shepherd puppy a few months back and we had the exact issue. His neck became very very red and irritated and had some (very small) punctures and scratches from her needle teeth.

They did end up stopping/redirecting her from grabbing/pulling/chewing on his neck, but i also suggested they rinse off his neck after play sessions and throughout the day, and that made a huge difference, because I think he had an allergy or sensitivity to her saliva

 

[sassafras]

Yea, I intervene for doormats.

 

[Elrohwen]

I would intervene. Hazel hangs from Watson's ears until he cries and he still won't correct her so I step in. They are getting better about stopping when I ask which is a useful thing to have.

 

[Southpaw]

Sounds good!

He's easily called away from her and they stop when told, those were important to me because Cajun does NOT do these things when playing with Juno (she gets way over the top, except Juno will actually give her back off signals, which she ignores...). So we've got some tools to use!