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My friend asked me to evaluate her dog and help him learn to play appropriately. He's a sweet, sweet mutt of about 6 or 7 months, and the doggie daycare is telling her grabs and holds onto other dogs too much and that he can't come to the daycare more than one day a week until it gets under control. I had her bring him over and let him play with my dogs.
The new dog and my 18-month-old kelpie mix played solidly for almost 2 hours. And they played HARD. But there was nothing excessive - I squirted him once with the spray bottle when he got a little out of hand and he stopped what he was doing immediately. My dog did not give any signs that he was stressed though, so I'm not even sure it was necessary to intervene.
He was very respectful towards my Catahoula, who interacted with him a little, and nothing but gentle towards my 16-year-old border collie, who as you all know is completely decrepit. He was very obedient and responded well to corrections when I'd tell him "no." I actually found him to be unusually well-behaved for a dog of his age - usually the 6-9 month age group is borderline unbearable.
We're thinking the next time we get together we'll take him to a dog park so I can observe him with other dogs, but I had no red flags while watching him play today. In fact, I'd steal him from my friend in a heartbeat if I had room for another dog.
Any thoughts or ideas from the City-data brain trust on what I should do next? Honestly, I think the daycare might have overreacted. I know the one I was using thought my Catahoula was kind of scary, but the one I used before them constantly told me what a joy he was and how well he interacted with other dogs. I've suggested my friend find another daycare, but I'm wondering if I'm missing something or if I should try something besides him just playing with my dogs.
As far as the dog grabbing and holding onto other dogs too much.
I leave my dog at day camp five days a week. He doesn't do that but when other dogs do, it is stopped by use of a spray water bottle and the offending dog gets wet.
Sounds to me like you're on the right path. And, it sounds to me like the daycare overreacted. Checkin' out the dog park sounds like a great idea.
It COULD be that there is one dog at the daycare that the mutt in question took a dislike to, or perhaps thinks that he should be the "boss" in that particular relationship.
After all, you have introduced this young dog to 3 of yours, and he has responded differently to each one. So the young pup has discrimination.
So, either:
1. the daycare is overreacting, or
2. the young pup is reacting to one or a few particular dogs, or
3. the young pup is overwhelmed and overstressed by the situation at the daycare.
You might take the pup to the daycare yourself, just to see the pup's response. Just take him in, on a leash, and watch his response. Maybe there is something to learn there.
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You might take the pup to the daycare yourself, just to see the pup's response. Just take him in, on a leash, and watch his response. Maybe there is something to learn there.
I would start with this^^^^^
Sounds like the pup is a really smart and good kid but, for some reason, doesn't like going to daycare and feels the need to defend himself. Or the people at the daycare are over-reacting and it's causing a "vicious cycle" syndrome.
My friend asked me to evaluate her dog and help him learn to play appropriately. He's a sweet, sweet mutt of about 6 or 7 months, and the doggie daycare is telling her grabs and holds onto other dogs too much and that he can't come to the daycare more than one day a week until it gets under control.
Dogs, especially young pups, can behave differently with different dogs. IME, age, breed, social skills all play a factor. It is entirely possible that this young pup grabbed another dog at daycare, but still played nicely with your older dogs who clearly sent him signals that nonsense would not be tolerated.
It is hard to say what happened because the information is incomplete and doesn't make much sense. We need to know context- how many other dogs did this happen with, was the play mutual or was the dog trying to get away, did pup's behavior escalate, was it always the same dog he grabbed onto, etc.
Dogs send numerous signals to each other via body language, play style, etc. I suspect that what happened is your friend's young dog pulled a fast one with a dog that was either young, less experienced socially, or on the shy side because another experienced dog would have quickly corrected bad behavior. This is what doesn't make sense. Since he plays well with your dogs, I can see him being a punk with one dog at daycare, but not with a whole group of dogs as the day care said.
It is also possible that the day care attendant was himself inexperienced and misunderstood basic dog play which can include neck "bites", but from what you say, in context, it appears your friend's pup was "hanging on" which can mean that play wasn't mutually fun and the other dog was trying to get away.
I think it is a combination of a young dog who may be taking advantage of the situation AND an inexperienced daycare: if a dog doesn't get along with one group of dogs, then the daycare needs to change up the dynamics of the group. Maybe put your friend's dog into a smaller group to keep the excitement level down or put him in with larger older calmer dogs who will either correct him or blow him off.
I would get your friend's pup into as many different play situations as possible so that he can sharpen his social skills as needed. This will also give you a chance to observe him with a variety of dogs. As well, since this happens at day care, ask the day care if you can observe him there so that you can see what he is doing.
All of this needs to be considered in the context of a young dog who is still learning how to navigate dog-dog relationships and behave appropriately. At his age it can be dicey, and he may be testing the waters with different dogs to see what he can get away with. At any rate it is awesome that his mom wants to know what is going on and is getting your opinion so that any possible issues can be nipped in the bud
The daycare where I take my dog doesn't allow overly rowdy/neck grabbing play. Its because that play style could get out of hand and they are responsible for sending dogs back the way they came in.
Thanks guys - I'm gonna ask her to meet up at a dog park next time and we'll see how he does with strange dogs in a less controlled environment. But really, I think she needs to find a new daycare - he was very easy to calm down when he became overly rambunctious. I barely squirted him with the water bottle (seriously, there was something wrong with the squirt function, so it was a very weak spritz) and he immediately stopped his play and basically took a time out.
It could be he goes a little nuts when his owner isn't around - my guys tend to be different dogs when I'm gone. It's also a very highly reviewed daycare that was recommended to her by a trainer, and I suspect that 1) they can pick and choose to get the lowest-maintenance dogs, 2) or they may have too many dogs to monitor the situation closely. In my opinion, a daycare should provide close supervision and not have a problem monitoring a dog with such mild behavioral issues (not even issues in my opinion - just normal puppy behavior). The fact that they said he could come one day a week seems counterintuitive - the more exposure and exercise he gets, the less likely he is to behave inappropriately.
There are some others that are more used to dealing with very high-energy dogs that the sport dog people use, so I'll ask her to check those out.
But I could be biased because he seems like such an awesome little pup.
When Chaos was in Puppy class she was the boldest of the puppies and would fly at any of them and get them playing hard like she did She was the pushy one who was one on top too often when they wrestled so the instructor had me go get her and put her on a time out ( which she hated as she LOVED to play). She did learn not to be as pushy and by the time we got to the dog park after she had all her shots she was pretty good about letting the others be on top at least some of the time
Oh boy. I have hesitated on responding to this thread. I have seen both sides of the situation.
After working in a doggie for 6 years, every day was a learning experience. I went thru so many situations & heard "My dog wouldn't do that". Ok my biggest concern was for the safety of the dogs. I loved what I did.
Unfortunately, we checked out other daycares in other cities for our clients that had to travel at times with their dogs. Wow. The ones that we checked out scared me! The poor dogs walked around in a room with no interaction with people. If they peed on the floor someone looked thru a window. They walk out to the floor with a towel & wipe it up and walk out. Aaaaack! You can't hire a kid that is clueless & wants to be on their cellphone.
I could go on & on with stories. Please go check out the situation. They should have nothing to hide.
I don't understand the one day of the week thing. If the pup is a problem like they say, it shouldn't be able to come back.
Bless you for helping. Good luck to you all.
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