playing turns to confusion
Well when I got Kaiju several months ago, I also got a four month old Western Siberian Laika (Kilbe). She was food (with humans and other dogs) aggressive and had really poor dog to dog communication skills. Anyhow, she and Kaiju did not get along AT ALL (Bea would go against her too if Kilbe and Kaiju snarled over something). However, much management later, they get along much better. These past two weeks, she licked Kaiju on the mouth and he didn't mind. Well, she started initiating playing (would do the play bow), get him to chase her, but after like 10 strides of running, she freaks out and I guess thinks he is chasing her (to bite her or something), starts squealing like Kaiju is going to kill her and run to her crate. But I know he is playing because when she is inside the crate, he would play bow and bark then give up because she is not coming out. Or, another time, she spun around and mean growled at him and I know it's starting to escalate because he mean growls back and they start fighting and she shrieks. I am there the whole time, and i knew it was fighting and not playing anymore (because he and bea are really rough and mouthy when they play fight) because she starts squealing, puts her tail between her legs, try to get away and go to her crate. How do I get her to not freak out? Just be patient and give it time? I do want them to play together but I don't want to put them in a situation where they fight. They pretty much leave eachother alone and don't associate with one another. Kaiju and Bea are the ones that hang out and play together. They (Kilbe and Kaiju) are together when I am home and pretty much not when I am not. My FIL is biased (he's at home all day), he never crates Kaiju but always leaves Kilbe crated when I am not home.
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Anyway, he would initiate play (he's very playful) but then it would pass his comfort zone and he would freak out. We just let this happening, and he eventually learned that the other dogs are not being aggressive - they are playing back.
I think it helps that we have young dogs here as they are more playful and less intimidating for Ike.
Anyway, yea, I think you just have to give it time and manage in a way that reduces conflict between them.
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It started with Mosura playing rough with Gojira, who was being pretty tolerant. Gojira was lying on the living room floor, with Mosura standing over her, soft-biting her ears and neck and making playful Akita huffs and snarls. Gojira rolled over and pawed at Mosura a few times, but eventually had enough of being a chew toy. She made her "I'm done" piggy noise and got up, did a shake-off, and stood stiffly. Mosura wasn't getting the hint and kept trying to jump on her, and after a few attempts to distract her failed, we decided to change the focus entirely by moving the dogs outside and separating them into their runs.
Mosura ran out the door between my legs before I could grab her collar. She immediately jumped on Ghidora, continuing her rough play; she was really in a mood I guess. They both were making playful noises but I could see it might escalate, so I turned to close the sliding door before Gojira joined in. Too late, the "fun police" heard the ruckus and came running outside meaning business. Once she hit the pair of them (I grabbed for Gojira and missed as she went by me) the tone changed to a real fight. Ghidora was snarling and biting angrily, and Mosura peed submissively and yelped as she went on her back. I got a hold of Gojira and tossed her back into the house. Aaron dashed out and grabbed Ghidora as I got the slider closed.
We separated the dogs for only a few seconds and then put Mosura (much mollified) back inside with Gojira until we could put them into their runs in a more orderly fashion. There was no sign that Gojira or Ghidora were angry with Mosura after the fact. Whatever weird spunky mood she was in, however, was literally scared out of her by Ghidora. She was tentative, timid, and sedate the rest of the evening.
[For what its worth, much of Mosura's play style could easily be attributed to challenging for dominance by those who ascribe to such things. But I think she really is just feisty and doesn't know when to knock it off.]