Rough play or Normal play? (vid)

[H15A5H1]

I uploaded a video of Otto at the dog park with two of my friends' dogs. (A 10month Siberian Husky, and a 1.5year old Shiba Inu) I'm concerned about the way he was playing with the Husky. My friends didn't seem to mind how they were playing and thought it was ok but I think Otto was being too much of a bully. However, when Otto plays with the Shiba Inu (even smaller dog) the play is much more balanced.

(i would like to note that none of the featured dogs were barking. it was another dog playing behind us)

*also, when the dogs calm down and the Husky goes to get a drink of water; he runs back at Otto specifically to initiate another chase

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N3pf6-M-ZI

[CHRIS925]

That looks completely normal to me.. There was no true aggression shown in that video whatsoever as far as I'm concerned.

[triordan]

yep, good exercise

[Samba]

They are playing and laughing.

http://www.petalk.org/LaughingDog.html

[Dainerra]

yup.. just playing. shoot, that's not even anything like these guys get up to..
mine sound like they are going to tear the house down! snarling, smacking into walls, chasing, shoving each other to the ground. then, suddenly, it's TO everyone drops down to take a breather, drink some water, then BOOM it's game on again! one second Rayden is "winning" the next second it's Freya. the main thing to watch out for is that you stay out of the way! it hurts to get sideswiped by 2 80lb dogs!

[BlackPuppy]

Just Playing. And not even very rough. You should see the knashing teeth when my dogs meet up with other Belgians.

[Riley's Mom]

I don't see one bit of aggression, they're only playing and VERY NICELY I might add If this bothers you, you really do NOT even wanna see a dominance ritual. Now THAT can look like a fight or a pending one anyway.

For your own sake and that of your dog, I think it would be a good idea to learn the difference between playing, dominance ritual, rough play and an actual dog fight so that you can be prepared to act accordingly. Now, where one can actually view the differences is a good question, maybe someone he knows of a web site where they have these visualized. I'd like to see that myself. The dominance ritual was really scary first time I saw it. People had to hold me back because I thought the dogs were about to severly hurt one another and MY DOG was right there in the middle of things and I wanted him OUT of there.

Four people were holding my arms to keep me from going to get my dog. If I could have gotten loose, I might literally have smacked all of them. I was really scared for my dog and the other ones. But they did their thing and it was all over, no bloodshed or even anything close and they all went about their play business afterwards.

These 3 dogs in your video got along GREAT!

[Dinahmyte]

They are playing very nicely imo! I was expecting to see some really rough vocal dogs lol. I think they are all having a good time, none of them seem to be stressed out or trying to get away. Looks good!

[onyx'girl]

I don't do dogparks so I don't know if toys are allowed, but I always make Onyx carry a ball so she isn't nipping the other dogs. If your pup starts w/ the herding nips, it is a nice way to keep the mouth occupied.
They look like they are having a blast, and getting to know each others style of play. For strange dogs to play nice like that says alot about all of their temperaments!

[elisabeth_00117]

Playing.. not even rough play either, atleast to me.

I should video tape when Stark and his two buddies (another GSD and a Golden) play together.. they tumble, roll, jump over and under one another, tumble some more, then chase, knock down a owner or two because they are too busy rough housing to care where we are standing, then they cuddle for a few minutes and take a drink of water and back at it again.. lol.