Dog playing roughly with other dog

Our young dog is continually playing roughly with the older dog,
causing it to bark loudly. This happens several times a day. Is there
any way to stop this? She also fights with the cat daily.

shelly...

yes. don't let her do that. seriously. the older dog shouldn't have
to put up with rude behavior from the younger dog. if the young dog is
being a pest, distract her and refocus her on something else. if she's
bouncing off the walls, take her on a walk or out in the yard to play
with you. you need to make sure that the younger dog is getting enough
exercise and mental stimulation, so that she doesn't *need* to interact
so much with the older dog.

shelly...

again, don't let her do that. even if she doesn't harm the cat, the cat
could seriously injure the dog. a claw in the eyeball could cause
permanent damage. the cat needs a safe place where it can get away from
the dog, so the dog cannot hassle it.

Paula...

Are you sure it is a problem? My dogs love to play wrestling games.

shore...

My aged dog definitely felt harassed by my Siberian Husky
puppy. I dealt with it by finding the puppy a more
appropriate playmate. And that was how it started ...

Paula...

Dear OP:
Unless you have a huge yard, do not use Melinda's method of solving
the problem! :)

shelly...

or, even if you do have a large yard.

One of the reasons we have the mix of dogs we have is that every dog
has a playmate that is well matched in energy and size so they can
wear each other out. Glad it didn't take me a sled team to get that

sighthounds & siberians...

Same here. It has its own inherent disadvantages, but it works from
the standpoint of the dogs all having buddies. That's more important
to some of them than it is to others, of course.

Paula...

It has been more important to us and our dogs as our lives have become
busier. The dogs love when we are around to entertain them, but they
can entertain themselves when we are not. It is also a great thing
with large energetic dogs. The chihuahua is easy to wear out on a
walk, but we'd have to take up some major exercise programs to wear
out the big dogs and heaven knows we don't want to do that! :) We can
get away with more recreational walks and still have happy and well
behaved dogs when they chase each other around the yard and wrestle
their little hearts out.

It's really interesting to me how important it is to my kids that each
of the dogs has a best friend to play with. It's an interesting mix
of a child's narcissism in thinking every living thing is just like
them and thinking of others and wanting them to be happy instead of
worrying just about themselves.

sighthounds & siberians...

I understand what you mean about the kids' egocentrism, but I think
it's neat, and I think they're right. We'll probably never have
another Siberian - - some breeds have characteristics that are strong
enough that they need to have another dog of their breed as a
companion, and I can't handle multiple Siberians anymore. When the IG
landed here permanently, I felt pretty good that he'd play with the
Whippets, but then the Miniature Dachshund came with his owner...and
now Robin the Whippet rather nervously referees their play. Dogs...

On an amusing note, I made the day of a teenager the other day when I
immediately recognized her handsome black dog as a flat coated
retriever. Her mother said she was floating for the rest of the
afternoon! Kids...

Paula...

We have some neighbors who have a cute little pom but they still come
over to our house to play with our dogs. The girls think that is the
greatest thing that their dogs are so wonderful that people would like
them better than their own dogs. I point out to them that it was due
to their working with the dogs even when it was sometimes hard that
got the dogs to that point and they have every right to be proud and
grateful that they kept up the work. I don't get on their cases for
the fact that when they come home after a weekend at their dad's, they
throw their arms around their dogs before me. It's amazing what dogs
can do for kids and vice versa when handled the right way (right dogs,
right kids and good training of both).

Mustang Sally

shelly...

i really miss that. one of the hardest things about having a single dog
household is not exercise or playtime (surprisingly, to me), but coming
to a mutual understanding about when it's appropriate to pursue either
of those things. harriet has definitely fine tuned her on/off switch in
the past few months.

mix, but I might feel differently if I lived in snow country and loved
to dogsled.

It sounds like World War III has broken out in our backyard with the
barking and growling mixed in with grunts and body slamming sounds.
But they would hate life if I made them stop. First figure out
whether the older dog is barking out of annoyance or as part of the
game. If you decide it is a negative and you want to stop it, there
are ways to do that, but it would help to have a lot more information
about what is going on. For example, the only time one of my dogs
warning barks at another dog is when she thinks that the dog is going
to steal her chewie. Since I could observe the interactions and pick
up on the fact that chewies were a precipitator, I could eliminate the
problem in one step by giving the dogs chewies in separate areas. But
if I had asked here how to stop the fighting without telling anyone
about the chewies, it would be a crap shoot whether that easy and
highly effective solution would ever have come up with the odds
against me.

Rocky...

Ages? Backgrounds? Breeds?