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My 2 y.o Border Collie (who is the boss of the others) and 3 y.o Australian Cattle dog play very well together, rough housing ,chasing ect. The ACD is fine with strange dogs and the border collie is too as long as they don't try to get overly playful with him. My now 1 y.o "puppy" on the other hand LOVES other dogs and is VERY outgoing towards even strange dogs (and not in an obnoxious way) but even my dogs don't want to really play with him. I have been noticing also that my ACD and border collie won't even really play with one another if the 1 y.o is present. I have been watching the interaction and I really don't know what to make of it.
The "puppy" will engage one of the older dogs in play (using all the expected gestures ect) and then within about one to two minutes will go into the whole play bow stance and just NAIL the older dog usually in the face which in turn causes the victim to react and then the "puppy" drops to side as if he has been shot in submission and its game over. I can completely understand why the two older dogs don't want to take part in this...I just don't understand what the younger dog's issue is? Is he trying to assert himself or is he just getting over stimulated maybe? While he does demonstrate some humping behaviour (once in awhile) he always drops like a rock when he gets a negative reaction. Is he just a bully??? I hate to apply human chacteristics to dogs but I really have never encountered this sort of odd, seemingly negative attention seeking behaviour. I would really like him to learn how to play appropriately. I know very little about him and thought he was a Sheltie JRT mix but now I think there is may be Sheba Inu in this dog as well and I don't know a tremendous amount about the breed. I also know he was in the same household as a female littermate up until about the age of 6 months when they were both turned into the shelter. I would THINK that would eliminate this being a situation where he never learned to play nice due to lack of exposure to other dogs. I really don't know???
So I have started rough housing with him a bit (which I really don't tend to do with my dogs) and while he doesn't do the exact thing to me that he does with the dogs he does get NASTY very quickly without an obvious trigger but I have been able to control it by voice and again he becomes very submissive and then we resume play ( I am HOPING this will help him with the other dogs but not sure he will make the association that this is how things are to be regardless of species). The "puppy" is very intelligent and quick to pick up on things. Is this a good or bad idea???
I would really like to solve this and I also worry a bit about it maybe getting worse as he gets older. My other two dogs are GOOD dogs but either one of them could seriously hurt the "puppy" if he didn't choose to immediately back down.
I don't think that this is a very serious problem. Some of the aloof behavior from the older dogs can be attributed to the puppy being a "new" pack member. It takes a while for dogs to warm to one another, but especially for two older dogs who have already established a "pack" to accept another dog.
My yorkie puppy is all about getting in my Westie's face too. She goes right for the face - even for play. Maybe it's a puppy thing? Anyway, Ringo tolerates it for so long - then he'll either go get a toy for them to tug with or he will get up on the couch away from her. Sometimes it looks like she's obsessively licking him; sometimes it looks like she's biting him - trying to get him to play.
I must say it does look extremely annoying to the older dog and I wouldn't like it either! When he's had enough - he growls and she backs off (for like a minute) and we make sure Ringo has a spot where she can't reach him. We are trying to get her to play in other ways too.
Because I don't want Ringo to get REALLY irritated with her; he's so much bigger.
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