Two Questions: Entire males and Dog Parks? / Rough puppy play, how to calm him down?
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Hi,
The last time I wrote on here I was concerned my boys were not getting along. Well things have progressed nicely in that regard, they now share bones, groom each other and sun bake. Though the older boy (Taco - neutered) is still unwilling to share his night time nest.
I have socialised both of them from the date of their second shot, and did puppy school before that. Unfortunately Taco still thinks he's a puppy, or perhaps he has a dominance issue (small man syndrome?) - he picks on submissive puppies. He's always loved playing, but these days the only dogs that really get him going are very young puppies that don't want to play, the kind of puppies that are owned by protective owners and get me into trouble :D - Now, if they were my puppies, I'd probably let them go rather than fuss over them and/or pick them up, but I can't change owners. Any ideas how I can get him to play nice? The arbitrary "Gen-tle" command that most dog owners use has no effect, my only solution so far is to put him on the lead until the puppy leaves the park - letting him off at any point prior sees him make a bee line back to the puppy without fail…
I'm also after some comment about entire males at dog parks. Our other boy, Ghostface has grown quite nicely and I am considering showing/studding him if there is any interest from basenji bitches. This hasn't changed his personality much, he plays really well, he's very affectionate and isn't dominant with people at all - though he is currently pining to get out of the house every waking minute... And when we encounter another entire male, no matter how big and how quickly he could have his head bitten off, he growls at them. He has an impressive growl too - one that has also gotten me in the bad books of fellow dog owners. My question is, do other owners of entire males just avoid dog parks?
Thanks for reading :)
