I have had my dog (Major) since December 2012 when he was 8 months old (he will be 1 next month), and in Febuary after my relationship broke down me and Major moved home to live with my mum. My mum has a 6 year old bitch staffy (China) she has been spayed so theres no risk of pregnancy although he doesnt try to mount her anyway. The problem im having is that Major is very boisterous when he plays with China, he wants to wrestle and play rough which is something that China will entertain for a few minutes but soon has enough and wants to settle down however Major wants to continue wrestling. Hes about 10kg heavier than China (shes always been small and has always had wobbly legs, however shes always been a very bolshy dog), Major knocks her flying sometimes as he is every nippy on his feet and in comparison China is alot slower.

Although in terms of age, size and wobbly legs you would think China is at a disadvantage, I soon discovered the other evening that this is not the case. Major and Chinas playing turned into a fight which I had to throw myself in the middle of to break up, China came away without a scratch where as Major has a small bite on his face and a couple of small patches of fur ripped from his chest.

So the problem I am faced with is how do I curb this behaviour because not only can it be too much for China but I DO NOT want a repeat performance of the other night. Major is 9/10 the instigator and 10/10 always wants to continue the rough play even when China has had enough. He has calmed down a little since their fight but I really need to curb this behaviour!

The best deterrent for him is exactly what has just happened, your mum's bitch has well and truly put him in this place. Bitch's generally rule the roost no matter what size, hopefully this 'I've really had enough now' display from the bitch has sunk in and he will learn when to back down. He's still young and still learning. :-) It would not be good dog etiquette for him to actually aim to hurt a bitch he lives with so he should not do so.

Male dogs do wrestle if in their pack it is exactly what they would be doing, through this play they learn where they will come in ranking order and learn about their own braun and intelligence in beating or losing against their opponent.

Let's hope lesson learnt and he will give her more respect now, but if he still continues to knock her around and show no discipline then you need to distract him from this instinctual game, and get him to focus on playing games with you particularly one to one training games, if he is not calm and relaxed then pop him behind a dog gate away from the bitch until he is calm with both you and the bitch keeping him in order he will learn that he can not just wrestle and bombard when he is in the mood you need to be verbally on him to stop this behaviour, but more importantly give him something else to do, this behaviour is often due to being bored and needing to release excess mental energy, do you whistle or clicker train him also?