dogs fighting

Hi Isabelle,

Play fights can get pretty aggressive sometimes. One thing you can try is to call them right in the middle of their play fighting and see if they stop it to come to you for a very good reason: A special yummy treat

Even before it gets too escalated, just call them to you. Give them a treat. Repeat this many times from time to time so that they will know that it will worth stop playing and come to you. When it gets pretty rough, call them again and see if they are still coming to you, or they would igore your recall.

If they come to you, no need to worry about their rough housing. If they keep fighting and get more aggressive, you want to interfere and give them a chance to cool themselves off for a while.

Play fights can look pretty scary if you are not very familiar. They growl and bite each other's neck and pull it, can bark, dodge, jump around, get on top of each other, you name it. But the key is whether they are willing to drop it at any point or not. Try the above method. Hope it will work

Thanks very much for your replies. They do stop when I say " no fighting". But as you say it sounds pretty scary. This is the first time I have ever had dogs and I am really enjoying them but I just need to educate myself more around their natural ways. I appreciate your feedback