Hi all - can anyone help ?
I have a 9 week old puppy - boy, and two older bitches.
(I've posted before)

Older bitch is fine with the pup but the younger bitch is giving out mixed messages - to me at least!!
She looks as though she's playing with him - play bow and pirouetting(sp) whilst at the same time making strange, almost growl like noises (I've heard her make these when playing with the older girl). However, her hackles are up. She puts her head over his shoulder and knocks him into a roll (gently) and he loves it. He keeps coming back for more and jumping at her face. Eventually it turns to barking and funny growly noises.  The pup is not frightened. Eventually I calm everything down as I'm not sure if she is bullying or just playing.

If the pup pushes his luck with either of the girls and they snap (no contact) he lets out a squeak and calms down.

Am I (and pup) miss-reading her signals?

nope, sounds normal to me. one of my girls growls a lot when playing, some dogs do. it sounds like they are being very good with pup but obv always supervise and time out for pup if he pushes his luck

my gsd when a pup and playing was always very vocal I cant imagine what the neighbours thought. I notice Brooke is just the same all the play bow etc and barking to invite big boy to play then leaping on him. They look really funny face to face mouths  open barking and growling and squeaking. if she is ott he puts her in her place or I remove her for a few minites

Yep, my two were the same, particularly when the collie was a young pup.  Hackles would go up on the old boy with the pushing and shoving over the shoulder of the collie but she still came back for more.  It seems to be a way in which the older dog can 'tower' over the young one to put them in their place when they're getting a bit too boisterous.  They still play like this a year on but the older one is more chilled now.

I wouldn't worry too much. One of my collie boys sounds horrific sometimes when he's playing, can't hear the TV over him either!! But it's just him being him. The hackles maybe going up as she could be a bit worried about you and how you're reacting or it's just that the pup i sworrying her a little with his movement,seems to happen a lot between older dogs and pups.

I would continue with you there and separate after 5mins which is what I do with all my dogs, play a little with each other but play more with me so I'm bonded role model.

Your bitches sound excellant play mates to me.

Hackles are often a dog's way of saying that he or she is just a bit unsure about something or not too confident with it yet.  I see it a lot with mine when they play with other dogs, and the more they meet that dog the less I see the hackles as they get to know the dog and how they play.

Your pup is still very new so I think your girl is just trying to tell him she's still a bit unsure about this bouncy new thing (and a lot of dogs are very unsure about pups), I'm sure your girl will be totally happy about him soon :-)

Thanks for the reassurance - as you know Nikita, a Dobe with hackles frightens some people (usually the ones I refer to as non-dog people) Most doggie people know that most Dobes are wusses. Hackles show up very obviously on Dobes as they have such short hair.  Thanks all :)

Oh, total wusses lol!  And of course there are the people who are frightened hackles or not.  I had someone tell me the other week that Paige looked the most threatening of all the dogs I had with me - this being the very dainty, dinky brown dobe with the long tail, manchester terrier silly ears and soft face, and me with 2 black and tan crosses and a solid black cross with me too.  Go figure :-P

On the other hand  I've had people frightened of my black bitch , followed by I don't like Dobermanns -
What breed is the brown dog? That one is much nicer !!! (also a Dobe). My new black boy spent the two puppy classes he has attended sitting on my knee!! Wouldn't even look at the marauding puppies on the floor!! :)

Now that defo sounds like a dobbie!! The black dog thing is due to how human eyes are hard wired,black dogs in shelters are harder to rehome, people tend to walk right past them. I have a black and merle collie boy who is vey dark on the merle and people are scared of him!! Yet he is an eternal human lover!! Adores everyone and everything! Just people being people!! It's the JRT's of the world that worry me as a trainer , they come from nowhere!!

Very true, unless you're a black dog lover they do tend to get overlooked poor things.  I got invited to a black dog day on FB the other day for that reason, to try and spread the word!

Doesn't stop me - I was looking at adopting probably the least-adoptable dog in the local rescue last year, a 7yr old dog-aggressive black dobe boy with severe (and untreated) hypothyroidism, completely shut down too, he wouldn't even look at people and had killed a small dog (that's what stopped me in the end, at the time I was daycaring a JRT/whippet - had I been looking at him now I'd have had him!).  My kinda dog :-)

Weirdly though, there's a big blue male in the next nearest rescue of that 'chain' who's been there since Feb, no-one seems to want him (well, I do desperately but I can't have him) - it does say 'experienced dobe handlers only' but I know I'm not the only one around here.  I'd have thought a big blue like him would have shot out, unless it's because he's neutered...

My youngest girl is very vocal when she plays but you can almost see the grin on her face when she does it !!

I really don't get the black dog problem. You cannot beat a black dog with a shiney coat :-)