How does your dog play with other dogs?
I'm curious to hear how other people's Corgis play with their doggy friends, especially bigger dogs.
Jack loves dogs. He's really good with them, too. He is (usually) polite with the ancient ones, gentle with the tiny ones, and will actually lie down and wait for the timid ones to approach first. He immediately backs off when another dog gives him a little lip or a hard stare, and has the good sense to approach an unfamiliar group of more than two dogs in a submissive posture, with ears back and body slightly lowered, and a bit of a smile.
But when he plays with big bouncy dogs, oh my! He really seems to rule the roost. I used to assume he was naturally submissive, based on the way he greets strangers and strange dogs, but now I'm not so sure. I'm wondering if his submissiveness was just a carry-over of puppy behavior; he's just recently turned two, and while I do not really think of him as dominant, his play behavior has me wondering.
He always liked to run other dogs in circles; I guess that's the herding thing. He would leap at their outside shoulder and nip a bit to keep them moving in a big circle. But he soon found that very few dogs just like to run non-stop like that, and he also has a few doggy friends that are way fast and he can't keep up. He still likes to run, but what he really likes is to wrestle.
He seems to have discovered that his low center-of gravity is an advantage. He has discovered the great joy of rolling his playmates onto their backs. He especially likes to do this to young, bouncy dogs. He's done it four times to four different dogs just in the last month or so. It's clearly play, the other dog is obviously loving every minute of it, and there is much mutual face-kissing as well. However, I have also seen the other dog (the flipped one) nuzzle and lick under my dog's chin and mouth in what I always understood to be a gesture of subordination. Then of course they both get up and the game begins again.
Just curious: do other people's Corgis seem to dominate when they are playing with big dogs? It's just funny to see my Corgi standing over a 75-pound lab whose butt he just kicked. And I've never once seen another dog roll over my dog, except for one boxer puppy when Jack was only a few months old.
Jack loves dogs. He's really good with them, too. He is (usually) polite with the ancient ones, gentle with the tiny ones, and will actually lie down and wait for the timid ones to approach first. He immediately backs off when another dog gives him a little lip or a hard stare, and has the good sense to approach an unfamiliar group of more than two dogs in a submissive posture, with ears back and body slightly lowered, and a bit of a smile.
But when he plays with big bouncy dogs, oh my! He really seems to rule the roost. I used to assume he was naturally submissive, based on the way he greets strangers and strange dogs, but now I'm not so sure. I'm wondering if his submissiveness was just a carry-over of puppy behavior; he's just recently turned two, and while I do not really think of him as dominant, his play behavior has me wondering.
He always liked to run other dogs in circles; I guess that's the herding thing. He would leap at their outside shoulder and nip a bit to keep them moving in a big circle. But he soon found that very few dogs just like to run non-stop like that, and he also has a few doggy friends that are way fast and he can't keep up. He still likes to run, but what he really likes is to wrestle.
He seems to have discovered that his low center-of gravity is an advantage. He has discovered the great joy of rolling his playmates onto their backs. He especially likes to do this to young, bouncy dogs. He's done it four times to four different dogs just in the last month or so. It's clearly play, the other dog is obviously loving every minute of it, and there is much mutual face-kissing as well. However, I have also seen the other dog (the flipped one) nuzzle and lick under my dog's chin and mouth in what I always understood to be a gesture of subordination. Then of course they both get up and the game begins again.
Just curious: do other people's Corgis seem to dominate when they are playing with big dogs? It's just funny to see my Corgi standing over a 75-pound lab whose butt he just kicked. And I've never once seen another dog roll over my dog, except for one boxer puppy when Jack was only a few months old.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sunni A. on
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Eddy is not alpha at all. His "hello" is to roll over on his back, for any age, breed, sex, or size dog. He lets them sniff him. Then he gets up and sniffs them. Then the other dog will either initiate playing chase or wrestling, both of which Eddy happily participates, but always gets mauled. Or the dog will snub him and walk away, leaving Eddy sad on his back. He prefers to play with large-breed dogs, like german shepherds and labs. He dashes around, and then gets mauled/rolled, yelps, and keeps playing. He licks their faces, and they will crawl on their bellies to see eye-to-eye for him. Very few roll over for him.
He's never been mounted, though. And the only dogs that stand over him, pinning him down, are other puppies up to 1 year old. The adult dogs don't try to dominate him (probably because he submits during greeting).
If a small-breed dog wants to play, he seems to not know what to do with it, and they lose interest quickly. The smallest he will play with is a basset hound.
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Permalink Reply by Stephanie on
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Bear LOVES to play with the 3 year old Boxer next door (Harley) and I think the smartest thing I have done is let him play with her from the beginning when he was a little puppy. She rolls him, launches him, runs with him - she is to thank for his great attitude with other dogs, I believe.
When we go to the dog park, he loves to wrestle with littler dogs and he tries to play with the bigger dogs the way he's used to playing with Harley. Some are okay with it, some aren't - if they aren't he just runs off and finds someone else to play.
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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How cute! I love the way boxers use their arms to wrestle!
So, we have three dogs who roll over or get rolled, and my Jack who does the rolling! LOL. He doesn't roll little dogs, but then again I've never really let him. He's a bit of a bruiser, so if a dog is smaller than him I keep a very close eye on play so no one gets hurt, and intercede if the little one isn't either outrunning my dog (Jack Russels can run laps around him) or putting him in his place.
He's not a bully, because if the other dog shows no interest in play, or calls it quits, Jack will cheerfully lay down next to them and let the face-licking begin. Or they will both shuffle around sniffing and peeing all over everything. But he ALWAYS wins when he wrestles. I've never seen him put on his back except by one long-legged female boxer pup who pinned him three times in quick succession til he said "Uncle."
Most other dogs like Jack. He used to do the "Jump on your head" thing (my husband and I call that "puppy bounces") til he met one or two that told him that was not nice in no uncertain terms, and now he usually only starts jumping if they jump first. He has met tons of dogs, since we live near a big city park, and that's how he has learned that you lie down for the shy ones, and are polite to the old arthritic ones, and gentle with the little ones. But it took quite a few encounters where the other dog left before he learned how to act.
I now really wonder if his submissive approach is just because he learned that's the best way to make friends with a new group of dogs without risking any growling; when he's one-on-one in play, he seems to dominate. Thankfully he's not a fighter. If another dog gives him so much as a dirty look, he won't to within a hundred yards.
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Another thought: I never realized just how rough dogs play together til we had Jack. Growing up, our dogs were not brought around off-leash to socialize with other dogs. I have watched Jack playing with his best doggy friend Sully, a rangy female herding-mix dog who was a New Orleans stray and is very street-wise. They bite each other HARD. I once saw him grab her front leg by his teeth and try to drag her around that way. If you did not know they were playing, you would think they were trying to kill each other.
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