Meeting other dogs

eoinburke67

When ever we go to my granny's and my cousins are over we let the dogs out the back as you do. One of their dogs is like a statue, it dosent interact with any others sits and watches. The other is some what normal and this one is where the problem is. When out with my dog they play I think running around jumping and so on then my dog as I say bum whips the other. She just swings around knocking the other around with her behind. The other I think takes it too serious and lifts it upper lip and seems to go for the kill and try grab my dog by the neck. She just knocks him away but as the day went on it seemed to become more vicious he started to go longer and harder at mine and she's not hitting him hard at all. Also the 2 cousins dogs (males) both mount my dog (female) together. She gets nervous and wets the floor at this alien act to her. She's spayed so I'm not worried about it but when I see this going on I knock the other dogs off. Annoyingly my cousins and grandparents give out about my dog, even tho she's the calmest and most obedient and I'll admit my dog is far from perfect not a model of behavior at all but I'm working on it.

Any ideas about how I go about stopping these behaviors. The over reaction and the crazy mounting sessions?

DBB

Whilst a lot of what you describe is normal, albeit rambunctious dog play behaviour, once one dog starts to feels uncomfortable with how things are going, and her signals to back off are being ignored, then the owner needs to take a more active role in playtime.
I suppose it's similar to when a gang of kids is playing together... things often get too rough and someone starts to cry!
So, I'd suggest that you gently intervene long before it gets to the stage that the male is getting angsty about your dog bum-whipping him (I laughed at that expression! ). You don't have to get too invasive about it, just go out, walk between them, and call them to you for an oul pet, or something to just stop the game for a minute or two. This helps them get their escalating emotions back down to a "yippee" rather than "arrrgghhh" level, and so the game can resume.
Do this every time you see the male getting more physical. With time, the dogs will learn to keep their emotions under better control, and the game will continue for longer in a more playful way.
The dog who's sitting back sounds to be a little wary of all the silliness: keep a close eye on this one, as he may be feeling rather uncomfortable about it all, and may be getting emotional without really showing it too clearly.
As for the mounting, again, I'd suggest you try to intervene before the two dogs start doing this. If your dog is as uncomfortable with it as you describe, it is unfair to let it get to this stage, and instead of trying to break them up when they've already started mounting, try to anticipate it by leartning what happens just before they mount, so that you have clues as to when you need to intervene in future.
If necessary, divide their time in the yard together into lots of short sessions, rather than one long one: bring your dog in for a while whilst the other two stay outside, and vice versa.
Good luck!

eoinburke67

Will just have to keep a tighter eye on them I think. The one that sits in the corner the whole time is as the family says damaged goods. As a pup it just sat in the corner never moved its like a teddy even when no other dogs are around. And it's going to be a slight challenge to get them to break up as my dog has a great recall in the garden on her own but with a distraction like jumping dogs around she struggles, as for the others they have no RECALL at all Not house trained and at best only one will sit when asked. They are tbh ignored by the owners and are see as a toy not what they really are a massive responsibility. They came today for dinner and didn't even bring a bowl to put water in... I do what I can with them while there here. A little training and so on but it's really frustrating when the dogs to NO.2 in the carpet and I see the owners see it and ignore it! Fed up with their carry on and so is the rest of the family. I was dying with a flu today on all sorts of meds trying to shift it before school and I spent the day on my knees cleaning up after their dogs