Rough and tumble when playing with my dog?

My dog loves to play-wrestle with me and have a bit of rough and tumble play, but I have a few questions about this;



1. How rough is too rough? (He can start getting bitey occasionally when he gets over excited)



2. I don't want it to make him aggressive, but it's fun for both of us. Can 'wrestling' with your dog make him aggressive?Rough and tumble when playing with my dog?
You have gone beyond control of the dog if he starts to get ';bitey';. Usually it's not a good idea to train a dog to wrestle too much, because the dog will have difficulty determining that humans are ';alpha'; and he needs to respect the human position in the pack.

I wouldn't say you are making him aggressive, but you are confusing him by acting like a litter-mate rather than his boss.Rough and tumble when playing with my dog?
Personally, I think it's important to play-wrestle with your dog. I have two dogs and I know that they like to play wrestle themselves. One of my dogs will get a little bitey as well when we play for too long, that's when we quit playing, because I'm afraid she might think it's not playing anymore. I think that playing with them like that isn't going to make them aggressive, as long as they know you're playing and not hitting them too hard.
Good Question!



1. Too rough would be the biting. When he starts to bite, stand up and walk away and turn your back from him. This will teach him not to play too rough. Also, when he does bite before you walk away, say OW! or OUCH!.



2. It could make him aggresive if you play too rough. I wrestle with my dog and she is the sweetest dog ever. When she starts to play too rough, I tell her to go lay down and when she is calm, we can play again.



Hope I helped!
stop when he starts to nip or bite at you. that is the point where you need to tell him no so he understands that playing is playing but not an excuse to bite.



also as long as you discipline the biting he should not become aggressive. my husband plays very rough with our boxer but he will stop and say ';calm down'; and he will because my husband has trained him that way. he's never become aggressive and he's great with kids because my husband trained him to play!
Play is the oldest form of teaching, educating.

I play with my cow dogs with my feet with my boots on. I no for fact that if anyone tried kicking my dogs they would not get away with it, but more then likely if no boots on would get hurt, same with the horses if they tried to kick my herding bred dogs.



You like to play ruff, if anyone tried to hurt your dog (or you) he would no how to take someone down, for real.



Play ruff expect a ruff dog. Back in the day I had a b/f who would play ruff with one of my cow dogs, this cow dog had to be registered as a dangerous dog (the sheriff said I had no choice), so just remember what/how you play with your dog will stay with that dog forever. No big deal if you are always going to keep that pup, but if you get rid of it, might as well get it put down. It is hard to retrain a dog without a professional and usually a lot of money involved.....



Just think a head when playing and allowing a dog to do whatever.....it might look like no big deal, but what kind of dog do you want?
While I agree with everyone to stop when your dog starts to bite, it also depends on the dog breed my young Old English Sheepdog likes to play bite, more mouthing, she also nips, this behavior although not desired is normal for this breed, she likes to herd other dogs, my other dogs put up with it until they don't want to be bothered, then they let her know to back off.
When he starts getting bitey you should get up and make him pause in the playing and resume play when he stops biting. If you let him bite in play he might start to think it's ok all the time.

Wrestling with your dog is fine he just needs to know the boundaries.
As long as you're not actually hitting him, it shouldn't make him over aggressive. Part of the reason a dog wants to play is to show affection.
When he starts biting, thats enough. You need to stop and let him calm down. Im sure its not going to make him aggressive, but biting is going to far.