I wondered if anybody has any experience or opinions on our situation. When we bought our little boy max (3 month old chocolate lab) 2 of our close friends bought his sisters. It is a lovely situation in many ways as if we are going out for more than a couple of hours we each look after each others pups and they all have an excellent time playing together. We take them out walking together and they all adore each other. The downside of this I am beginning to realise is that whenever max meets any other dogs at puppy parties, vets, friends houses, in the street at dog training he treats them like his sisters and wants to wrestle on the floor with them constantly. Him and his 2 sisters play for hours play fighting and growling at each other and chewing each others legs. The problem being most other pups his age dont get this kind of interaction and so dont want to play these games with max. My best friend has a 4 yr old male boxer who loves other dogs and does play woth max but if he is tired or hot and has had enough of playing he grols at max and is trying to warn him off but max thinks its all play and doesnt seem to get the hint. My mums gsd also doesnt want to play and will growl at max and we have to physically remove him as he just doesnt realise they are actually warning him. Will this all sort itself out or not? It seemed so nice for the 3 siblings to have each other but I am now wondering if this is the case?

I probably won't be much help, as I don't know how your pup will turn out. Others will hopefully be along to give some better advice. But I can tell you this.

I have a 10 month old male Siberian husky named Houdini. I know Houdini's father's owner very well. (
(Confusing, I know. My boy's sire is named Jake. Jake is owned by Nick.) So I know Nick very well. Okay, Nick's mother wanted to keep one of Jake's daughters, Shahoona. So, as the story continues, Houdini and his sister Shahoona play very often.

Houdini and Hoona play in the same was as your Max does. To get to the point of this post, my Houdini does indeed recognize when another dog doesn't want to play like he does. Example is Jake, Houdini's father. Jake will happily play with Houdini, but after a few minutes will get tired of Houdini jumping around him and biting him, so he will growl a warning at Houdini. He does the same with Shahoona. Both pups will automatically stop playing ruff and will submit to Jake by rolling over onto their backs. Jake acknowledges this and walks away, leaving Houdini and Shahoona to play by themselves.

Like I said, I know I probably wasn't much help. But my point is that my pup and his littermate do realize when another dog doesn't want to play. =) Hope I helped a little bit! Good luck!

-Tara

Hi,

my Rott is still in contact with his litter bro and they play together like your pup.  Alfie doesn't play with any other dogs like this because he's learnt that some other dogs won't tolerate this kind of play.  He was told off by another dog, as I'm sure your pup will at some point.  Although it can be scary, they're never hurt and pups do need a telling off by older dogs at some point, they have to learn manners.  I'm sure given time your pup will learn that not all dogs want to play this way.  In the mean time, it's a good idea to guide them away from situations that could become tiresome for the other dog.

Those other dogs are older where yours is only 3 months, his little teeth are sharp and the other dogs are just letting him know that they had enough. If the older dogs are not hurting him but just telling him off then I would let it be since this is how he will learn. Of course if your puppy just won't stop then yes I would remover him to allow the older dog to have some space, he will eventually learn when enough is enough :)

i have two dogs. my youngest took a while to get the hang of enoughs enough. my eldest was very very patient. don't worry about your pup, even his sisters will have enough of him sometimes and they will find a way to tell him to stop. its not just because they're from the same litter though. my mum had our youngests sister (also my eldests daughter) and when my youngest and his sister get together, they don't play anymore they argue ALL the time. They were litter rivels though.