we have a bit of a problem with Arya & Logan's play time, it just gets rough almost immediately and at the moment she is far stronger than him and could cause damage. The problem is in mid play she is fully engaged in play and her commands just fly over her head, until the point I or Elanie have to physically intervene and give her a telling off.

They seem to think play time is whenever they decide (all the time), leading to multiple timeouts for both.

The other thing is when Arya betters Logan he just keeps coming back for more, its like flipping Rocky movie.

Any advice on getting similar experiences ...???? Arya is 8 months 2 weeks, Logan is 2 Months 2 weeks and a Mal.

You say she is far stronger and could cause damage... but has she? They are very close in age. Close enough that they are likely teaching each other how much is too much. Mine will battle on hind legs, teeth bared, hackles up and sound like a pack of wild dogs... but they are just playing and when one of them has been bitten too hard you/they know. Everything stops and the other one snaps. But it's never to hurt the other. It's a warning growl. It's like play stops and the one that was hurt sits there and growls. They teach each other.

So my question to you is when are you stopping it? Could you be doing more harm than good by stopping it before they have a chance to tell each other enough is enough? If Logan is coming back for more everytime, he's clearly fine and not hurt. I think you might need to trust them a little more to communicate in their own language. Remember for a dog, there is no polite "Hey! That hurt!" Dogs will go straight to "Watch it..." and in my experience, letting them handle it (especially when they are that close in age) is best.

Koda wrote:

You say she is far stronger and could cause damage... but has she? They are very close in age. Close enough that they are likely teaching each other how much is too much. Mine will battle on hind legs, teeth bared, hackles up and sound like a pack of wild dogs... but they are just playing and when one of them has been bitten too hard you/they know. Everything stops and the other one snaps. But it's never to hurt the other. It's a warning growl. It's like play stops and the one that was hurt sits there and growls. They teach each other.

So my question to you is when are you stopping it? Could you be doing more harm than good by stopping it before they have a chance to tell each other enough is enough? If Logan is coming back for more everytime, he's clearly fine and not hurt. I think you might need to trust them a little more to communicate in their own language. Remember for a dog, there is no polite "Hey! That hurt!" Dogs will go straight to "Watch it..." and in my experience, letting them handle it (especially when they are that close in age) is best.

Thats true, and I do want them to find the limits of play between themselves but he is currently 20+ lbs where Arya is 51/52 lbs and goes at him hard.

The biting I dont mind but when she bounds at him and knocks him flat on his I'm just worried for his joints (hoping to show him too), when puppies knock each-other over its with similar weight. As you mentioned he goes for the ankles where Arya keeps going for the neck and a full mouthful at times.

Our next-door neighbors has an old gentle Lab who Arya absolutely abuses until he just has enough and he gives a quick telling off and she is then completely submissive, so I know in a bit of time Logan will be able to tell her off for being a bully and she will chill

Pippa plays a lot like that, grabbing mouthfuls of scruff all the time. But they are generally very soft-mouthed and aren't doing any damage.

I would assume that once Logan has had enough, he'll tell her. It really doesn't matter much about the size. Like yesterday, Pippa was trying to play with a small Aussie and he'd had enough, so he snapped at her, and she stopped.

I wouldn't worry until Arya won't back off even after Logan told her to, but that's just me.

I have been trying to let play go a bit further but as I mentioned just worried about his joints and she does grab his limbs and give them a good tug sometimes, just worried she might damage something

saying that if he is sleeping and she goes annoying him he gives her a proper telling off so maybe as you guys are saying he is able to say when he doesn't want to play.