hi i have a four month old staffy girl who loves to play fight other dogs at puppy training classes . this is encouraged for a few minutes at each session . however on sat she tried to play fight with a two year old staffy both on leads and nipped his ear  . he snarled at her but this didnt deter her one bit her tail still wagging . i am a little bit concerned that she will want to do this when shes older she might want to play fight and cause agressive fights to happen.

I'd be very wary of letting your dog continue - your best bet should be to ask your puppy class trainer for advice as she knows your dog well and will know if it was a one off, or if there was any real intent behind it.  Personally, if something like that happened in my classes, I'd feel 'puppy play' had got out of hand, and I'd be dissapointed in myself for letting it escalate that far :(

I agree with digger.  Don't let her go this far.

there was no agression tail was wagging she just gets really excited . and as for nipping the older staffy this was on a walk and not at training

Tail wagging doesn't mean there is no evil intent.  Your trainer should be supervising the play sessions so the dog doesn't learn bad habits such as this.  Staffies as a breed have a very high tolerance of pain, so what was a small nick to this dog, could have a toy dog running screaming to his owner - and you'd have a vets bill to pay, not to mention the potential of being prosecuted under the DDA :(

Yes but play, even PLAY shouldn't be this rough.  Because otherwise your dog will think that this is what "play" is and will do it to other dogs.  Who will then retaliate and possibly bite your pup back.  And then your pup will learn that other dogs are aggressive and it will be aggressive itself, to protect itself from other dogs...

It's not what your pup's intentions are that matter, it is how other dogs read your pup.  If they read the pup as being aggressive, then to all intents and purposes it is.

I mean - if you walked down the street and stuck your foot out and tripped me up, because you thought it was funny and you were "playing", but I fell over and hurt myself and was v angry - who would be to blame?  You would be, whatever your "intentions".

all my dogs play extra rough , they're always fine though. Growling and snarling are normal too in rough play

One of my dogs was friendly with another one who was 12 months older, they used to puppy play fight when young and I didn't see anything in it, thought it got rough at times, but they never bit or anything.  My dog is now scared of dogs the same size or bigger as he feels that they will bully him so now he tries to have a go before they do.

I would be very careful