Play Fighting vs. Aggression
QUESTION:
Whenever our two dogs play fight, my puppy likes to bite my Golden’s ears, legs, or anything she can grab. She will pull at them and sometimes shake her head. Is this innocent play fighting, or is this aggressive behavior that needs to be corrected? My Golden will tackle the pup and put her neck in her mouth, but she doesn’t actually bite down like my pup does. Any insight on this issue would be super appreciated! Thank you!
ANSWER:
There's a huge difference between dogs play wrestling and overt aggression. "Fun fighting" is very much a natural part of a dog's life, especially when dogs are young. It's their way of sizing each other up, establishing pack order, and maintaining that order - and, of course, it's enjoyable for them.
Dogs possess an innate drive to establish pack hierarchy. Even when you as the owner/handler successfully establish yourself as the overall leader, your dogs (or your one dog together with your neighbors' or friends' dogs) will still want to sort out who leads and who follows underneath you. Dogs do this by testing one another's dominance and subservience, mostly through play and general interaction. They wrestle, tug, mouth, pounce, play bite, and even softly growl and yelp. And, this is all okay - as long as the dogs maintain self-control and do not allow their behavior to escalate into outright aggression (either deliberately hurting - or threatening to hurt - one another).
My Perfect Dog system teaches people to identify the signs of aggression (both physical and verbal) and how to effectively deal with each of them. There's more than one type of aggression, and even combinations of aggression, the main ones being dominant aggression and fear aggression.
A dog can threaten or attack another dog with the message of, "I'm boss. You must respect me." Threats normally precede an attack. Dogs rarely just lash out without first giving some kind of warning (a warning that you might not even discern). Or, a dog might lash out at another because it feels emotionally unstable.
Either way, you as the head of the hierarchical structure need to establish clear rules, especially the rule that aggressive behavior is absolutely unacceptable. If two dogs have an issue with one another then they need to sort it out in another way besides using aggression. Dogs with a strong human authority soon realize that it's best to live in harmony and be subservient rather than face the consequences of an unhappy leader. These properly trained dogs want to please their owner/handler, and being nice to one another is a big part of doing that.
When it comes to play fighting, the key is deliberate intent. If two dogs are wrestling and one dog accidentally goes a little overboard, you should see that dog immediately back off when the other dog gives a little yelp, for example. That's if the offending dog has no deliberate intent to hurt. If the offending dog doesn't back off, there's cause for concern.
The following video is a good example of acceptable play between an adult dog and a puppy. A couple of times you'll see the adult dog subdue her wrestling as soon as the puppy expresses its discomfort. This is a good sign that the adult dog respects the boundaries. The puppy is the one I'd keep a closer eye on. There's a potential that she could get a little too cocky and start trying to push the older dog around. However, some effective intervention at that point by the human pack leader would quickly get the pup back in line.
The ultimate goal with dog ownership should be to maximize our dog's quality and enjoyment of life, so we certainly don't want to be so strict and unaccommodating that we quench our dog's natural desire to wrestle and play tug of war with their bodies or other objects. We want to provide firm and consistent leadership, but also fair leadership. So, my encouragement is to first establish the boundaries of acceptable and unacceptable behavior and then simply monitor your dogs' adherence to these rules, stepping in only when necessary.
- Don Sullivan, The DogFather
Here’s an acceptable example of “play fighting”: