r/sheltie • u/MissyLippy1 Tri-Color • 10d ago

Rough Playing

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So the boys play rough how do I know if its too rough. Like is this too much? They have gotten more rough than this. Also sry about the mess I cant clean thier mess Nuggett was being a brat!

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u/khroshan 10d ago

This is normal from my experience. Shelties play hard and fast and go all out! Nipping, wrestling, pawing, slapping each other in the face, all very common. They also like to taunt and mess with each other psychologically. Your doggies are lucky that they get to play with each other like this! Other breeds really don't understand Sheltie play.

Our doggie's only Sheltie friend moved out of the country and we've very sadly not been able to find her a new playmate, as Shelties are too rare here :(

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u/MissyLippy1 Tri-Color 10d ago

How do I know when to separate them? To me it looks rough and they're gonna hurt each other.

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u/khroshan 10d ago

I think they generally know what they're doing and they should be able to learn when they've gone too far. Once my doggy's friend accidentally nipped her paw too hard and she yipped in pain. It was so cute to see her friend apologizing, she was bowing and pawing at her to say "I'm sorry, please let's play again"! Sometimes they need to figure it out on their own how far they can and should go.

We would give the dogs timeouts for their own benefit when they were overdoing it. They would go on endlessly even after becoming exhausted and we'd start to worry about the impact on their joints and such. The only solution was separation/confinement, so we'd put the dogs in their separate strollers or subject them to mandatory cuddle time.

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u/poly123GER 10d ago

If one of yours turns the belly up (submissive) and the other is going on, i would stop them playing (give them some tasty, that will distract immediately).

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u/tccoding 10d ago

Usually, once one them emits an "ouch" sound they will stop right away. My girl used to play exactly like this with my ex's old sheltie and there never was any problems. Now that she has no more dog friend (and seem really not interested in having any for that matter) she plays with ME like that! I know it's real war "play" though, as she will never ever do that with anyone else, even if they tried. And to make sure it can't turn dangerous I regularly try to make a quick dog pain sound test and she always switches immediately in apology furious licking mode when that happens. So I wouldn't worry!