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Play Injuries


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Just wondering...

 

Perhaps I am being over protective, but I find myself cringing a lot watching the dogs play and wrestle about. It is definitely playing and mouthing with the bitey faces and all. It’s the Red Rider Syndrome, you know, dad used to say “You’re going to get an eye put out playing that way.” I guess I am afraid they will get an eye put out with the other dog’s teeth. Perhaps I worry too much. Has anybody ever seen any eye injuries resulting from this kind of play? I always put an end to it before they get too carried away. ;)

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I've never seen an injury from playing bitey face. My chihuahua loves to play with my younger border collie. The border collie will open her mouth and the chihuahua will roll around in her mouth biting her lips. Those teeth are as long as the chihuahua's nose but I've never seen them even come close to hurting each other. If it ever seems to be escalating the dogs will normally break it off themselves.

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I have never worried about the bitey-face game, though I'll warn them if they seem to get too rough. However, I *do* worry about my dogs when they're playing really rowdy chase-games, as I have had some hard knocks result in lameness, a few times. Usually when they get older, my dogs get more sensible, but that first year or two tends to give me a few gray hairs! ;)

 

~ Gloria

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My dog lives with no other dogs, but I have to worry about injuries when I let him out in the yard: he hates (hates hates hates!) the bees that buzz around the flowers, and he loves to jump and pounce on them. He keeps reinjuring a toe that he hurt a while ago.

 

Mary

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Dear Doggers,

Why encourage an adult dog to play?

 

Donald McCaigte]

 

For the same reason that adult humans should play--it's good for the soul. :D

I do worry about the rough play though, mainly the running/rolls but not so much the bitey face. My sister's BC has a partially torn ligament in his rear leg that has lead to a year of PT and restricted play. It's been really hard on all of them.

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We also have never had an injury from bitey face games, but games involving chase can get a bit physical the noise when two Border Collie heads impact is not nice, so those type of games do get shut down.

 

Mr McCaig we do not encourage our adult dogs to play, this is their own entertainment and as it does not impact us humans, I have never seen a reason to not allow it.

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Dear Doggers,

Why encourage an adult dog to play?

 

Donald McCaig

Mine choose to play all on their own. Why would I stop it? They're pack creatures and play is normal behavior. Just the other day I looked out to see Twist the Troll playing a rousing game of chase with Ranger. I thought the world might be coming to an end....;)

 

J.

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Dear Doggers,

Why encourage an adult dog to play?

 

Donald McCaigte]

 

Hah! Encourage? Just try to stop them. Well, actually I do have to stop them all the time, for my own peace and quiet. But for the most part, why not let them do something they enjoy, that has no negative impact? So far we've not had any injuries at all from Bitey-Face, Wrestlemania, or Cowboys and Indians (backyard chase game). *knocks on wood*

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I allow play so long as it is nice and calm and stays fair with no temper tantrums.

 

I've had dogs during play run into buildings, fences and t-posts luckily not getting severely injured but it was enough for me. I know of three people personally that have working dogs that had severe injuries, two fatal due to play, the first was a dog that dislocated her elbow while playing fetch with a pack of dogs, another that was t-boned and had his back broken and the third ran into a fence post and broke her neck.

 

The last two were owned by open handlers, up and coming young dogs.

 

If my dogs were strickly pets or not high driven it probably would not esculate to those levels, but my dogs are driven and have a increased risk of getting hurt or injuring another dog during play, it's just not worth the risk to me.

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Mine choose to play all on their own. Why would I stop it? They're pack creatures and play is normal behavior.

 

Ditto. Never had an injury from bitey face play. I do stop Quinn from playing with the Lhasa after a few minutes because it always ends in tears, so to speak, but I aim for peaceful coexistence with those two and being buddies isn't part of that. Otherwise, I let my dogs play if they want to and find it vastly entertaining to watch.

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I worry more about trachea damage... well with the new puppy (Twisp) in the house anyway. Cedar is still learning how to play with my roommates puppy. She will bite so hard on her neck that is chokes her, so I have to monitor.

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I worry more about trachea damage... well with the new puppy (Twisp) in the house anyway. Cedar is still learning how to play with my roommates puppy. She will bite so hard on her neck that is chokes her, so I have to monitor.

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Cerb has never been injured in a game of "bitey face" (love the term) probably because he is either doing most of the biting or he's rolled over and piddling (he is SUCH a wimp).

"Turning and burning" is the complete opposite. He's rolled on several occasions and gotten up slow and limping. I worry about that.

He's got better legs than just about any dog in the neighborhood but never puts it into overdrive when being chased. What's up with that? :huh:

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My oldest (7 1/2) doesn't engage in play all that much. He was raised as a single dog for four years and has always considered himself "above" the rest of the dog world. He prefers the company of humans -- but I find it interesting that he has been taking more of an interest in playing over the last year or so. Secret just wouldn't leave him alone and eventually he started to get into it. If he really has a wild hair up his butt he'll even instigate a chase game, but that happens once in a blue moon.

 

Kaiser & Secret are nuts, though. I often worry that Secret is going to seriously harm Kaiser because she weighs almost 50 lbs to his 17 lbs. But the little stinker gives as good as he gets and is often times the instigator (he will run up and pull Secret's tail and then take off running).

 

The best chase games are when Secret is in the front and Kaiser is the one pursuing. But alas, they tend to play pretty fairly and end up reversing roles -- And when Secret is the chaser and goes to bite Kaiser in the heels, he can often take a tumble. Half the time I think he falls into a roll on his own as an evasive maneuver, though. That is not to say I don't catch my breath every time it happens.

 

Just a couple of days ago they spotted a bird in the yard and took off running. Poor Kaiser got trampled by Secret in the hustle -- Frankly, I think that's just rude behavior by Secret, but it was over and done before I could say anything. Generally when Secret does get too rough, Kaiser is good about correcting her with a firm muzzle correction.

 

Kaiser has a mild luxating patella on his right hind -- One time he hopped around not using that leg for three days and I'm pretty sure it's due to something Secret did while playing. I do stop them when it gets crazy, but sometimes they go nuts when I'm not expecting it and I'm not fast enough.

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He's got better legs than just about any dog in the neighborhood but never puts it into overdrive when being chased. What's up with that? :huh:

 

That sounds like Jack. I know he can outrun every dog in our house ('cept maybe Alex), and yet when they play chase, Jack is always the one getting caught and ending up on his back. I really think he does it on purpose, rolling himself most of the time. *shrugs* Silly dogs.

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I don't worry about injury during play. If there is an accidental injury during play, then I'm probably looking at a bigger problem - it's about to escalate to a fight. Skittles and Charlie can play very rough. They broke my mirrored closet door in my bedroom by crashing into it during play. Skittles loves to play rough, but his problem is that play can escalate to fight, not so much with Charlie, but with dogs that came after him (after Skittles, that is). So, I do tell them to calm down, if it gets too rough.

 

As far as adult dogs playing, mine do it all the time and it's not something that's either encouraged or discouraged by me. Just today, I was home for lunch (we have a puppy in the house that needs to go out) and Charlie and one of my foster dogs, Maddox, enganged in play; no encouragement from me. Charlie is 5 years old, almost 6, and Maddox is probably around 7 years old now. Very much adult dogs.

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Riley and Daisy don't play. She'll chase him around the yard for a bit, but other than that, she can't be bothered.

 

However, Riley loves to play. His favourites are bully breeds and rottweilers followed close by grey hounds. With the GH's I think it's because they are the only dog that can actually catch him/out run him. With the bully breeds and other thick muscular dogs, well, Riley loves to wrestle hard and they seem to have a similar play style. The only time I ever get worried about injury is when the other dog is wearing a prong collar. It really p*sses me off when I go to the off-leash park and there are dogs running around wearing these stupid collars. It is so dangerous. I will always make sure Riley does not play with these dogs for fear someone will get punctured by a prong or collars will get hooked on one or he'll get mouth injuries.

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However, Riley loves to play. His favourites are bully breeds and rottweilers followed close by grey hounds.

 

It really p*sses me off when I go to the off-leash park and there are dogs running around wearing these stupid collars. It is so dangerous. I will always make sure Riley does not play with these dogs for fear someone will get punctured by a prong or collars will get hooked on one or he'll get mouth injuries.

 

 

That does seem a bit odd... or maybe lazy, to keep a prong collar on a dog at an off-leash park. People never fail to amuse me.

 

Bully breeds... Seek will be G-O-N-E. She is completely terrified of them, but I can't blame her after having 4 separate attacks that were pretty traumatizing. My dad owns two pit bulls. Seek actually likes to play with the male dog, but is afraid of the female. I have to keep a close eye on those two because Buddy will get too rough. He's a bit immature still, young guns. Floppy play style. Biggest, widest head I've ever seen! Ha ha!

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Prong collars are outlawed at our dogparks and most of us are pretty good about reminding "newcomers" if they have one on their dog (although some of them get down right nasty--who are /we/ to tell them what to have on their dog /sarcasm). They're just...lazy and potentially dangerous.

 

 

Brady's still young, so I encourage play. He's basically an "only child" (except for the small dogs, but they avoid him) and so the social interaction through play helps teach him dog manners. Although sometimes I think he's breed prejudiced since he'll only play with other border collies or terrier types...everyone else he pretty blatantly ignores. Little goober.

 

I do worry about play related injuries though, because Brady's sense of body awareness sucks. He's like Peter Pan--wild,, young, and unpredictable. He goes 100% but that also leads to some pretty dramatic tumbles if he loses his footing. Haven't had an injury yet, but sometimes I hold my breath...

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Prong collars are outlawed at our dogparks and most of us are pretty good about reminding "newcomers" if they have one on their dog (although some of them get down right nasty--who are /we/ to tell them what to have on their dog /sarcasm). They're just...lazy and potentially dangerous.

3...2...1..
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Prong collars are outlawed at our dogparks and most of us are pretty good about reminding "newcomers" if they have one on their dog (although some of them get down right nasty--who are /we/ to tell them what to have on their dog /sarcasm). They're just...lazy and potentially dangerous.

 

Outlawed... wow. That's awesome! Sometimes I think I should say something to these people, but you never know how someone is going to react. I go to the park alone and have to walk through trails in the woods to get back to my house, so I don't really want to make someone mad at me. I've even seen someone with the collar flipped so the prongs are facing out. Beyond dangerous.

 

I do worry about play related injuries though, because Brady's sense of body awareness sucks. He's like Peter Pan--wild,, young, and unpredictable. He goes 100% but that also leads to some pretty dramatic tumbles if he loses his footing. Haven't had an injury yet, but sometimes I hold my breath...

 

Riley is very much like this too. He's taken some spectacular wipe-outs, but he's getting better.

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