I always enjoyed playing rough with my dogs. When I had my 125 lb. black lab we would rough it around all the time. She would get all riled up, play growl and come at me and this would continue for about 15-20 minutes. With Cali she is the complete opposite where she bows her head and completely becomes submissive, like saying to me "don't hurt me". I love her like there's no tomorrow, but in a way I am somewhat disappointed cause I want to rough it with her sometimes and she completely melts down. When it comes to playing fetch she can play this 24x7, non-stop, never seen anything like it, never gets tired, but rough play, no desire. Any suggestions? I love my Dobie!!
Sounds like her sweet personality. My Gideon is sweet like that. He will rough-house with my other dogs some, but not us. He will tug on me a little, but he lays at my husband's feet. I wouldn't try to make her rough. They are big, and can take you by surprise. Just let her be the sweet baby she is. They all have their own personalities.
Just like different people enjoy different activities, so do dogs.
Tali *hates* rough play with people (she doesn't love it with other dogs either - she prefers friendly, respectful play in general). She wouldn't dream of pretending to jump me. But I can throw her ball for her until she collapses in the grass. She lives for her ball.
Fiona will play rough - and I do mean rough - unless called off. Fi lives for wrestling and tackling me. It's one of her favorite things in life. But you throw the ball for her and she looks at me like, "Why'd you throw it if you wanted it? Idiot."
I don't pressure either dog to play in a way they don't enjoy. Play is supposed to be fun and a release and about bonding. I don't want playing with me to ever become something one of my dogs has anxiety about because it will affect every other aspect of our relationship.
Coco loves to rough house with my hubby but she knows that her and I don't play like that. We walk, hike, play fetch, run off leash and cuddle. She knows that if she needs a cuddle she comes to me and when she wants to play rough she goes to my hubby.
My MIL is with us again. She stays for 4 to 6 months at a time. Coco loves her "Joey" and knows that she needs to walk slowly with Joey and not jump around. Her and Joey love to sit outside together in the sun and both of them fall asleep.
These dogs are smart and can adapt their forms of play. Coco will not roll over on command. We tried that trick for ages but she just doesn't want to do it so I don't force her because its not that important to me. :butfly:
Non-dobes, but Starling will not play rough with humans. She's a soft girl that melts as soon as anything you're doing could even be considered "rough"... but she'll go all out with other dogs :rolleyesww: She just doesn't enjoy it, so we don't try. Buster was unsure the first time I invited him to play rough, though now he's all for it and gets wiggley. Baby will not play rough at all, she gets up and walks away, or melts and starts throwing appeasement gestures.
Some dogs don't like it. I personally like to play wrestle with dogs so I have to remind myself sometimes that I can wrestle with Mocha and Titan but not the others. Play with her how she likes to play, and don't pressure her into doing something that makes her uncomfortable like that. Play is supposed to be fun, after all
Don't get me wrong, I don't ever try to force her to do anything she doesn't like. Every so often I will try from time to time to see if she will roughhouse, but she has the same response where she just freezes up so I just rub her instead.
I don't want my dogs to play rough with me so I discourage it. But some of my dogs would scuffle with friends who liked that sort of thing. They'd tug with people who wanted to do that.
Not all of them would. Some of my Dobes wanted to run--that was their thing--one of my intact males used to run with a trio of greyhounds at a dog park (and I don't usually do dog parks but the greyhounds owner brought them at around 5 am as I did)--he could keep up with them and was practically the only Dobe I ever owned who didn't do the typical Doberman thing of shouldering dogs he ran with causing crashes that mostly looked scarey but were generally pretty harmless.
I've had dogs who would retreive balls, frizbee's etc when thrown and dogs who would not.
A lot of my dogs liked to play the stalking game and would stalk me while I pretended to not see them and if I looked directly at them they would leap and play bow. Some of the dogs liked to play "tag"--run past me and I'd slap at a shoulder or butt as they went by.
None of my dogs have been growley players--for which I've been eternally grateful since having someone see and hear a lot of growling in play from a Doberman causes most people to be sure that the dogs are truly out to "kill their masters".
I figure you just take what you get in play preferences and modify it for what you want--as in my case--no rough play.
Leo, my GSD, is a soft dog. She will roughhouse and run around like a fiend with Ilka. If I tried to play rough with her, though, she tended to melt. I've worked with her to build up her drive, and she is more willing to be "pushy" about getting her rewards in training sessions, but she's never going to be the powerhouse that Ilka is. That's just not her personality.
Squirrel is almost 6.5 months old and seems like she was born to play rough! She will go after a ball, disk, toy, etc a few times but then she runs back and tackles me like we are playing football in full pads! She's 51.5 lbs and about 25 inches tall but can knock me over if I'm not ready. It doesn't matter how many times I say "NO", my hand/arm/foot/BUTT turn into chew toys or get the doberpoke non-stop. She also doesn't really like to just go for a "walk"...it's sprint, stop, sprint, stop, come around the last corner and run like mad till we get home! But she's an only child to a single fur-mommy and I wouldn't trade her for the world!
I have a few question is she a or not? I seen a lot of rescues that have been shut down and it takes a lot of work to get them to play. My girl loves to play with other dogs but me it is hard to get her to play with. I have to throw a toy and run after it for a while for her to join in. Then I get about 3 mins of tug. I do not think she will ever play rough with me but working on just playing with me. Her history maybe the reason for is.
Cali was first an adoption that turned into a rescue only because she was sick when I got her. Don't get me wrong, she loves to play, just not rough which is fine. I would have liked it very much if she played rough, but if that's not her thing, it's not her thing. Like I mentioned earlier she loves to play fetch and tug of war. I will still adore her either way. I was just wondering if this was a dobie thing since she's my first.
Many years ago one of the things that attracted me to dobes was that they seemed to be such a rough and tumble dog. I always wanted a dog that I could roughhouse with, fast forward 20 years, be careful what you wish for!
This week alone I have a huge bruise with goose egg on my right forearm, a penny size bruise on my lower lip and a split right nostril! Completely my own fault, I'm the fool who keeps wrestling with Soter (he's a big boy). But truth be told, I wouldn't have it any other way :roflmao:
I'm the only one Soter will roughhouse with though and poor Coco is absolutely horrified if you try to wrestle with her. She's amazingly gentle with people but so very rough with when playing with other dogs that Soter is the only one allowed to play with her :rolleyesww:
Each one is different and so very special too
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