Do your dogs play?

[Tiga's_mom]

I posted last week that my roommate rescued a dog. She's doing a lot better now that she's been de-wormed, has a couple of pounds put on, is on a good food, got some shots and has an appointment to be spayed later this week. She is definitely adjusting well. Tiga is taking the new addition quite well. They haven't fought at all. The problem(?) is that they don't play. Ever. They may have had a small romp when she first arrived, but they don't play at all. I've tried to get them to play, but no luck. Is this normal? They are both quite young. Tiga is almost 4 and she is about 3. Do those of you with more then 1 dog have dogs that don't ever play? Should we just thank our lucky stars that they get along and don't fight? They are completely trustworthy home alone together. They just go to their own rooms and wait for their respective owners to get home.

[PSmitty]

That's pretty normal for some dogs, I think it just depends on their personality. And maybe whether or not they've been an "only dog" for a while. When we added Jack to our family, it took Lilly a long time to play with him, I can't remember how long, but a few weeks to a month. She just wasn't used to playing with other dogs (she went to agility and obedience classes, but wasn't a player, and dog parks definitely aren't her thing). Jack taught her how to play, good boy. Now, when we added Alex, the three of them started playing as soon as they were introduced. Just depends...

 

I would give Tiga and your roomate's dog some time. They may start playing, they may not. More than likely, they will, but as you said, just be happy that they get along.

[Tiga's_mom]

Thanks for your reply. The reason that I asked is because normally Tiga is a player. We have lots of friends with dogs and he always plays with them. He loves going to the dog park, although I don't really like taking him there, so he doesn't go often. It just struck me as odd that they don't seem interested in playing.

[MaryP]

I agree with Paula. It all depends on the personality of the dog(s). I believe that dogs that have been an only dog for a while are less likely to want to play than dogs that have been raised since puppy-hood with other dogs. I also am not sure that I would come to the conclusion after just one week that the two dogs are completely trustworthy alone together in the house. This may indeed be the case. But, if it were me, I'd want to wait a little longer before deciding that they were trustworthy alone together. You know your dog well, I'm sure, but do you feel like you really know the new dog well enough to trust her completely? - Just a thought.

[Tiga's_mom]

Well I guess we can't be completely sure, but I know that she has lived with other dogs most of her life. She's had 2 litters and the PO's had her and another dog that they gave up. There are not that many times that they are left alone anyway. There are 4 people that live here and 2 of us are not working at the moment. Tiga is pretty sulking when we're not home. He usually just goes to our bedroom and waits for us to get in. Princess seems to be the same. When our roommate is at work she spends most of her time in his bedroom or waiting for him by the door. She will come and hang out with us if we call her and she's definitely getting more social. She is very mild mannered.

[MaryP]

I only say this because it has been my experience that new dogs tend to not really start to show their true personality for at least two weeks. Some take longer and some take less time. But, I'm a little leary (in my house, at least) of trusting a new dog until I feel that I have a pretty good insight into their true personality.

[Tiga's_mom]

I completely understand. It isn't that often that they are left alone right now and we'll keep a close eye on them over the next few weeks. I can see what you mean already about the personality. She is starting to show it more and more every day. She's already very attached to my roommate. I hope they continue to get along as they seem like they've been living together for a long time. I'll make sure that we're more cautious about leaving them alone. Thanks for all your advice and words of wisdom so far.

[PSmitty]

That's a very good point, Mary. Good idea mentioning it, since it never hurts to be cautious. I would feel the same way bringing a new dog into my house.

[airbear]

I have 3 (2 border collies and one aussie-type dog) and they never play with each other. Outside, Lou likes to chase Wick, but Wick doesn't much care for it so that doesn't last long.

 

Bear is the oldest in the house and he has played with exactly one dog in his lifetime with me. He doesn't *not* like dogs, he just doesn't play. Wick has never, to my knowledge, done anything resembling playing with other dogs, although she is good at group ball chasing (only chases the ball, never the other dogs). Lou just likes to chase other dogs chasing things, but he knows that they don't much like it, and keeps on the perimeter. Even at sheepdog trials, after a good race with the other dogs, he returns to our group and resumes the sniffing/peeing/eating grass drill.

 

I kinda wish they would play with each other, because I think it looks like fun, but it is what it is. Oh, and BTW, we have never had any fights amongst the three. They sleep together, occassionally on top of each other, and they eat their meals within 20' of each other - no problems, no resource guarding.

[Root Beer]

Sammie and Speedy never played together. I expected them to because Sammie enjoys dogs and Speedy was a puppy, but when they were our only two dogs, they rarely even acknowledged each other's presence!

 

To this day, the two of them simply co-exist. No fighting, no avoidance - they are very amenable to one another, they simply don't interact.

 

We have since adopted Maddie and Dean and both Sammie and Speedy interact with both of them, and the whole group plays sometimes, but Sammie and Speedy don't play together.

 

I think some dogs just don't play, even if they like other dogs.

[Shetlander]

I think it varies depending on the dog's temperament, whether he's used to playing with other dogs and how well play styles match. I've had dogs who played together for hours each day and others who had maybe one minute romps a few times a week. My Sheltie is extremely particular about who she will play with outside of her pack but enjoys small bouts of play with my two other dogs who are always happy to oblige her. The Lhasa doesn't like dogs in general or Quinn in particular so play between them is very limited, but he does well with the Sheltie. Quinn likes to play with other dogs, though he plays too hard for some. However, in the past year he has decided he'd much rather play fetch with a human (any human will do) than romp with other dogs.

 

It really does vary. I agree that it is very early days right now for Tiga and the new dog. I also agree with being cautious leaving them unsupervised.

[Tiga's_mom]

Thank you all. You've re-assured me that it might just be normal for these 2. I just found it odd because Tiga usually wants to play with any dog. We will be making sure the 2 dogs are not left unsupervised for a while. It's only happened twice and only for a little while, not extended periods of time. With 4 people living here, it's pretty rare that there's no one here anyway.

 

Thanks again for your replies everyone.

[Tassie]

My two were having a lovely game of bitey-face/mouth wrestling/keep off the bed just this morning. They also play the mad chase round the yard game - usually one doing the mad run, and the other speeding that one on his/her way. But they don't play every day.

 

Mind you, the play has its down-side too - both were sporting little 'scalping' wounds on their faces a while ago - from the bitey-face game - and a couple of weeks ago they wrestled themselves against a low window and broke it . Fortunately, the window held together, and no-one was hurt - except my wallet - $150 lighter to replace the window.

[border_collie_crazy]

it just depends on the dog, Happy is nearly 8 years old and has played with the other dogs a grand total of 3 times in her entire life. Misty plays with the other dogs but noit a whole ton. my Toller and JRT on the other hand play together like crazy, when Guinness is over the 3 of them form a group and play with eachother consitantly. my BCs are more "we play together, but not WITH each other" like they are always side by side and playing, but they play together with me, they do not play with each other.

[MaggieDog]

Maggie and Z are huge players and have been since I brought Z home - odd actually for Maggie since she can get very snappy with other dogs in general. Z is the only foster I've brought home that didn't have at least a week's adjustment period before play started and then the play style and frequency was generally very dependent on the individual dog.

[2 Devils]

I have 4 dogs and they rarely play together and it has always been that way. I would like my dogs to play more with each other but alas they don't. Of course it is my fault since I believe in all my dogs get individual play and training with me so they rarely had time as pups to play with each other.

[mbc1963]

I have a single dog, and when I got him he didn't play with anyone. Period. Too reactive. I let him play with a husky puppy once, and the husky did something wrong, and I literally had to pull Buddy off the puppy by the skin of his back. (Happy ending: now the husky is one of Buddy's favorite dogs in the world, and Buddy does the spinny-happy dance when he sees him, and lets the husky hump him and pee on his fence and all.)

 

Now, he'll play with very specific dogs. I can usually tell within twenty seconds if he likes the dog or not. If he does, he'll play stupid spinny-chasy game for a while, till he gets tired. The whole time he's playing, he's absolutely HOWLING with laughter - you can tell by his face. But when he's done playing, he's done, and there's no rekindling it.

 

Buddy also usually plays most with dogs he likes who he's meeting for the first time. The more he sees a dog, the more he just wants to hang out and sniff with it. It's like playing is the romancing thing, and once the deal is sealed, he just wants to sit in front of the TV with his new friend- the need for wining and dining is over.

 

Mary

[SoloRiver]

Solo and Fly used to play all the time (they were both 3 when I got Fly) but now they are like an old married couple and simply coexist peacefully. Every now and then they'll look like they're gonna play for about 30 seconds but it never turns into anything. Solo is very socially impaired, and most dogs not only don't want to play with him, they want to beat him up, even if he is just walking by minding his own business. They can tell that he's weird and he's never really fit in any dog social groups. If he were a Lord of the Flies character I guess he'd be Piggy. Fly's great initial virtue, when I got her, was thinking that Solo was the cat's pajamas. I think she eventually figured out that he's weird, but she's OK with it.

 

Fly pretended that Jett puppy did not exist for about two weeks after I got Jett, but then they started playing like crazy and still do. Jett is about 6.5 months old now. She knew from the beginning that Solo was (1) weird and (2) not that into puppies, so she stays out of his way. When they interact it's in a "hey, whassup" nose touching sort of vein. They have played maybe once or twice and only for a few seconds each time.

[Greylite]

My boys, who have fought in the past, LOVE playing with one another. They wrestle the days away. They won't let Miley play with them though no matter how much she wants to. She jumps in on the wrestling matches and like good big brothers with a petite sister they walk away from her and play in another room.

[theshine]

Mine all play. Shiner loves other dogs, and he initiates play with both shelties, but particularly Frosty. Ripley and Frosty grew up together and don't play as much with eachother, but both will play with Shiner or all three will play together. They mostly wrestle and chase, but sometimes they play tug and I have seen Shiner pick up a ball in his mouth and throw it for Frosty to fetch.

 

Ripley doesn't like all other dogs, he's selective. I have had two strays, one for two weeks, the other three months, plus a dog I dogsit for, and Ripley didn't like any of them. Shiner is the first dog (that we've had in our home) that he has enjoyed besides Frosty.

[Carson Crazies]

Nick will play with any dog that will play with him - and that includes EVERY dog I have (which is interesting because Nick is the only dog I've EVER seen Zippy play with). Ginger only plays with puppies (which she still considers Nick), June only plays with Border Collies over the age of 16 weeks, and Linc will also play with any dog that will play with him - which does NOT include Zippy (Zippy ain't havin any of it). Sometimes Nick, June, Linc, and Ginger will all four romp together, but that's rare. However, when I introduce a new dog it often takes several weeks for the craziness to resume to normal. I'd have to say it often all just depends on the dog(s).

[echoskybound]

My border collie and Doberman have never played. Even when my BC was a puppy, and the Doberman would get all excited and want to play, the border collie just wasn't interested. I think the BC "play" mostly consists of chasing and running, not necessarily wrestling. My BC gets to play with a lot of other dogs like labs, and he'll have a blast chasing them, but once they start trying to wrestle him, he'll just stare at them until they calm down, lol. It just depends on the dog and the other dogs they're interacting with.

[Shelley86]

My older BC was never interested in playing with other dogs, he liked to watch and bark mainly, sometimes chase. When I got my Aussie, they would wrestle/chase each other in the backyard at first, but as they aged neither of them were much interested in playing. My Aussie sometimes chases other dogs at the field, but for the most part would rather just chase his ball. It has to do a lot with the individual dogs, but so far neither of my dogs were ever big into playing. The other BC's in my neighbourhood that I know have never been interested in playing with other dogs, but like anything it also depends on their personalities.

[MrSnappy]

Piper and Mr. Woo sometimes play a little bit, but not very much - they like to play tug, but they don't really wrestle. Piper occasionally plays with Tweed, but Tweed is scared of her. She and Briggs *never* played, and Briggs only ever played with a couple of dogs in his life, usually the odd foster.

 

Tweed will rarely play with a random dog at the park and with a couple of my friends' dogs but only in spurts. Mr. Woo will play with just about anyone, any time, any place but even he had to hide from Dusty as Dusty played ALL the time. Piper sometimes plays with fosters after she is finished giving them Mad Teeth for a couple of weeks, but Tweed almost never plays with fosters. He still bites Mr. Woo with the "go home now" bite - it's been nearly two years but he refuses to believe the little orange soccer ball is here to stay.

 

At the beach I can tell Piper to "go get Tweed" and she will launch herself at him and attack him, but I'm not really sure Tweed likes it that much. When he does play, he gets the puppy zoomies and whips around for a bit but eventually it overwhelms him. Poor Tweed. He's kind of autistic.

 

Lots of play-time-with-Piper ends up with Piper pissed off and snapping. She has a really short fuse.

 

RDM

[airbear]

He still bites Mr. Woo with the "go home now" bite - it's been nearly two years but he refuses to believe the little orange soccer ball is here to stay.

LOL! Poor Tweed - hope springs eternal, I guess. Hee hee, "orange soccer ball" ...