is your labrador starting to play quite roughly and you’re not really sure what to do about it well don’t worry we’ve got the article for you .
the labrador is a wonderful breed and very trainable if they are starting to play rough though that is something you definitely want to sort out so today we’re going to be tuning in to a webinar the canine behaviorist and founder of fenrir has recorded all about dogs that are playing rough and how to deal with that situation so over to you will so here we’ve got a quick fire webinar for my thoughts and opinions on rough playing with dogs rough housing dogs playing rough with each other dogs playing rough with humans just what are my kind of theories thoughts and principles on these kind of issues whether you’re looking at working in the profession like myself as behaviourist or a dog trainer or maybe you’re just an inquisitive owner and you really want to understand from a little bit of a high level perspective of what these kind of behaviors mean and how you should think about them now .
when it comes to dog ownership as a whole it’s one of those things that has so many different thoughts opinions and theories on this topic and ultimately and unfortunately um as kind of human nature is we often break away into teams and then those teams just spend all time arguing with each other and getting absolutely nowhere how i look at that as a overarching macro level of canine ownership is that for me in my opinion there is some non-negotiables when it comes to canine ownership after those non-negotiables we then have negotiables things that are subjective to each different owner now for me and non-negotiable is that you absolutely must provide your dog regardless of its breed age your lifestyle your family you must provide it with excellent leadership once you provide that dog with excellent leadership you build a wonderful relationship when you have that wonderful relationship you can then communicate impeccably with your dog not only the things that you do want but also the behaviors that you don’t want to see for me that’s non-negotiable in terms of the communication non-negotiables.
i think that we should make sure that we offer our dogs a wonderful sit stay heal recall that for me keeps the dog safe from itself and safe from others around it if we can teach those things a dog that for me is a non-negotiable i also think that there’s some non-negotiables around manners in terms of a dog shouldn’t jump up humans i think that that can cause significant concern it makes it miserable for certain people i personally think that behaviors like that are non-negotiable things like resource guarding should be addressed and non-negotiable obviously reactivity towards humans or dogs with the only caveat being around kind of working dogs or in personal protection roles you can have that discussion but when we talk about just companion ownership for the everyday owner for me those things are non-negotiable now kind of everything else sits in that kind of subjective level for you you might never want to have your dog inside the house some people have the dog sleep on the bed with them instead of arguing of which is right or wrong for me if all of those non-negotiable areas are in place that’s simply a subjective opinion on the owner’s part.
now there’s tons of different examples we can give there but the one i want to dial in on in this video is around rough play now again like humans are different dogs are different some dogs love to rough house and rough play some dogs don’t like it and it’s just not fun or enjoyable for them rough play can go right and it can be a wonderful relationship building tool with you and your dog or with dogs in a pack they’ll often sometimes rough play if the non negotiables are in place and that’s the point i want to take you to take away from this mini webinar i love rough housing with my dogs i absolutely love it my wife hates it she doesn’t like to do it her subjective idea of living with a dog is to have a dog that’s calm quiet and in the evening when our boys have gone to bed and she wants to relax she’ll welcome a dog up onto a sofa and she’ll have a cuddle with it her subjectively that is fine and i have no issue with whatsoever
all the dogs that live in our house or with us have those non-negotiable fundamentals in place which then allows us these subjective things when it comes to rough play i love rough playing with dogs big powerful massive dogs are just they’re just fun to roughhouse with roll around on the floor with them have a bit of fun with them if you’ve got those non-negotiable areas in play you can instantly make the decision to turn it off and say enough is enough and that it’s done you initiate play as the leader in that dog’s life and the leader in that relationship with your dog and you say when that behavior is enough and that you want to stop it really is that simple if you don’t have the ability to stop rough housing and decide when to start and decide when to stop then you have a fundamental non-negotiable problem in your leadership relationship and communication with your dog if you are in that category then i don’t think rough housing is a good idea with your dog you also need to be able to have that relationship between multiple dogs .
so i’ll often let my dogs play and i’ll let them play quite rough and sometimes they’ll become quite vocal with each other but if i see that one dog is playing a little bit too roughly or with a dog that isn’t really enjoying it and that dog is looking up to me for guidance and direction displaying that it doesn’t want this to happen but because of the relationship i am going to take ownership of that situation and tell the other dog that enough is enough and to leave it alone i have control in those situations because of the leadership relationship and communication that is fundamental and non-negotiable when it comes to owning a dog or owning multiple dogs so when it comes to rough housing or rough play do you non-negotiable fundamentals of leadership relationship and communication and then it’s completely a subjective decision what allows it to be subjective is because you have the ability to turn it on and you have the ability to turn it off if you don’t then you shouldn’t do it because it can get you too far and people can get hurt but if you have the ability to turn it on and off you control it .
you decide when enough is enough and you can maintain that everybody involved is safe if you don’t want your children to rough house with the dogs you have the ability to ensure that that never happens do you see the point we’re trying to make so i don’t want to keep banging on about it but non-negotiable fundamentals of leadership relationship and communication with your dog will change everything that then allows you to make your own subjective decisions on what you deem acceptable with those gray area things because you have the ability to keep yourself the dog and everybody else safe and in control focus on the fundamentals and everything else is easy and we everybody doesn’t have to spend all day arguing on the internet about who’s theory and whose approach is right or wrong there you have it guys you can put some of those things into practice straight away with your labrador to stop them from playing rough .
