Is it normal to wrestle with your dog?
Jordane Cummings
2025-06-30 21:40:15
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Roughhousing with our dog is a personal choice. If we’re not training for a specific task, in which speed of reaction and hard actions are needed, like in police work, playing with the dog this way could develop those needed drives. When we roughhouse with our dog, because we’re not dogs, we don’t master the rules of play and will often bring the excitement level out of control. We’re teaching the dog that humans are fun playmates to wrestle with and jump on. The dog will not always know the difference and understand when it’s alright to play this way or when it’s not. If we still chose to roughhouse with our dog, a few rules will help keep the situation under control: Put the behavior on cue and don’t encourage it when the dog initiates roughhousing without the cue. Keeping everybody safe, the family, the visitors and the dog should always be the priority when making the decision to roughhouse or not.
Justus King
2025-06-22 06:39:40
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Fun fighting is very much a natural part of a dog's life, especially when dogs are young. It's their way of sizing each other up, establishing pack order, and maintaining that order - and, of course, it's enjoyable for them. Dogs possess an innate drive to establish pack hierarchy. They wrestle, tug, mouth, pounce, play bite, and even softly growl and yelp. And, this is all okay - as long as the dogs maintain self-control and do not allow their behavior to escalate into outright aggression. When it comes to play fighting, the key is deliberate intent. If two dogs are wrestling and one dog accidentally goes a little overboard, you should see that dog immediately back off when the other dog gives a little yelp, for example. The ultimate goal with dog ownership should be to maximize our dog's quality and enjoyment of life, so we certainly don't want to be so strict and unaccommodating that we quench our dog's natural desire to wrestle and play tug of war with their bodies or other objects.
Oscar Gerlach
2025-06-22 05:32:56
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I know this because I wrestle with my dog almost every day. She puts her teeth on my bare flesh frequently but would never bite me. Wrestling will not lead to aggression, but dogs who are going to wrestle with their owners do need to learn bite inhibition. If you teach your dog bite inhibition, your dog may bite if something bad happens to her, but when she does it is not going to cause as much damage as the bite of a dog who does not know how to control herself. So can you wrestle with your dog? Of course you can. All it takes is a little training time. Your dog needs to learn when it is okay to wrestle and when it is not. It is okay when you say it is! It is never okay for the dog to start the wrestling match. A dog can be taught to understand when he is given the signal to wrestle.
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