Gripper is putting off his playmates

[HighDesertSpice]

Hello: my charming foster has a tendency to grip during play with other dogs, currently my other bc mix. Is it realistic to expect that this behavior can be changed? Initially, he gripped lightly, and so play continued for long spells. Today I noticed a noteable grip (leg) which po'd his playmate at the time, and this may eventually dampen her enthusiasm to play. "Play" in this case means tussle. His playmate is generally the one who initiates the play...and he obviously enjoys it. He is a reactive - ish dog.....I've seen clear signs of both flight and fight....but he is progressing steadily. He does prefer people over dogs, and was obviously undersocialized with doggies in his early years. However, he could have just put them off with his mouthiness. I don't fault him as I gather the nippiness/grippiness is *partly* due to his breeding--and he is obviously in need of some confidence buildling. My thought at the moment however is that some dogs are grippy--and it won't do all that much good to try to change that, but rather redirect them to other play activities. Your thoughts?

[RaisingRiver]

Diesel lives to grip River's hind legs. Esp as they explode outside from the house. River likes Jaida's ears and Diesel likes River's hind legs. It's kind of a choo choo train. River will turn and bark show teeth to Diesel from time to time, but obviously she doesn't mean because he keeps doing it all the time.

 

If someone has a way to stop this conditioned behavior (it is at this point - everytime I let them outside) I would be happy to try it. I personally tried to let them out one at a time but they just wait for each other. :/

[PSmitty]

I have no idea, either. All three of mine are constantly biting on each other's back legs/hocks when they play. Even the non-BC. Nobody minds, though, so I've never tried to stop it.

[OurBoys]

Jake does that to JJ everyday. Since he's a lot faster than JJ, even when I let JJ out the door first, Jake will beat him to the bottom of the deck steps and wait on him. So far, what has helped but not alleviate the problem is giving Jake the 'Leave It!' command. I have to tell him a few times but he will stop grabbing JJ's back leg. I have to admit I'm slack about doing it each time. I need to get on the ball and stay on it. Hopefully, Jake will eventually catch on. I've also noticed if I can get JJ hyped up and start running around the yard he'll run by Jake and growl. I've noticed each and every time JJ growls at Jake, Jake will stop immediately.

[MrSnappy]

Biting during play - play being wrestling - isn't the same as what I would call "gripping." In fact, biting during play is pretty much what dog play is - they bite one another with this mouths. Isn't that just normal canine play?

 

Gripping, to me, is a dog who chases down another dog and bites them, usually on the butt or back leg. This I consider inappropriate. In fact, a dog did it to Piper the other day and she dropped her ball and whooped his ass. Which he deserved, because it's rude. But when, for example, Piper and Mr. Woo are having a bitey face smackdown, grabbing one another's body parts with their mouths is all they do:

 

 

When we are going outside, Tweed frequently bites Red Dog in the face in his fit of excitement. If Red Dog was really annoyed by this, he'd kick the crap out of Tweed. But he doesn't seem bothered. It bothers ME though, so when I see Tweed turn to come for RD's face I just say his name and he stops in his tracks.

 

So I think these are three different scenarios. If the dog bites his playmate too hard, the playmate may retaliate (Piper) or cease play (Woo). If the biter is persistent, I may step in and break it up. But otherwise, as far as I have ever seen, dogs bite one another when they play:

 

 

 

 

RDM

[Barb Scott]

Change the name from Gripper to something else. I knew a BC named Gripper (from IL) who constantly lived up to his name!

Barb S

[HighDesertSpice]

Ok; thanks everyone for the input.

 

Actually the mouthy one's name is Oreo....I'm guessing home #1 had young kids.

 

It was a bite during wrestling, as Oreo had gone lowand apparently grabbed her foreleg, to which she gave him a scolding after extricating her leg. So far from what I've seen anyway, she's plenty capable of defending herself with him, but he plays rougher with his mouth. ....Anyway, we'll keep watch and see what happens over time...

[Allie Oop]

Late reply here, but I was told by Rusty's foster mom, that prior to our adopting him he was a problem gripper (would chase down other dogs when they ran and try to pull them to the ground by biting the scruff area of the neck). I know that she worked very hard with him. He did try to grip Allie when he first came, which wasn't thrilling Allie at all. What cured him of that behavior was he learned to play fetch - first with a soft toy and then with a ball. The desire to get the toy/ball superceded all efforts to chase down the other dogs and he now only chases toys, rather than his playmates. (Thank goodness.)