How do I teach my puppy when to stop playing?
Puppies often fail to recognize when play is over and an older dog wants to disengage. This results in the older dog getting overwhelmed, growling, pinning the puppy down, or repeatedly snapping, which creates ongoing tension and can make the older dog hate puppy time.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Always supervising playtime and trying to distract the puppy away when the older dog has had enough
- 2Manually removing the puppy from the older dog's face and area when expressed that he's irritating her
- 3letting the older dog correct the puppy's behavior
- 4intervening and calling the puppy away with a toy or treat before the older dog gets upset
- 5using baby gates or crates to separate the dogs and keep interactions short
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“He just hasn't quite grasped how to amicably accept that play is over.”source ↗
“When my border collie runs next to my pug (5yo) she always try’s and snaps at her. And constantly annoys the absolute hell out of her.”source ↗
“My pug isn’t a fan of my border collie pup and I don’t blame her”source ↗
“A pug snapping again and again isn't really teaching much, it's just a tired pug, and she'll start to hate puppy time.”source ↗
“Older dogs tend to get overwhelmed and hold a grudge if they have been harassed by a pup for months”source ↗
“It feels like we're making progress and losing progress at the same time.”source ↗
“However, the puppy doesn't know when to quit.”source ↗
“The older dog gets pretty aggressive when this happens, to the point that he tries to pin the puppy down while growling.”source ↗
“How do I teach the puppy when to stop playing when my other dog is done?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 12How to tell normal puppy crate whining from real distress