Why do you bother sometimes?

[Justicemom]

Originally Posted by JacqueZ

Good for you for speaking up, Labs are far from my favorite breed, but we have a few who Honey plays with and their owners have all managed to train their dogs not to just bowl over anyone they feel like.

The idea that small dogs and large dogs can't mix seems like an excuse for poorly socialized or trained dogs. Yes playing rough you'll see accidents, but from the time Honey was four months she was playing with a large pit bull mix, a lab/great dane mix and a newfoundland, and now she plays with a pyrenees. The owners have socialized and trained the dogs well and they keep a careful eye out and never let the play get out of hand.

Because of an episode with an owner who didn't want to train their dog however there was a period of about seven months when Honey didn't want to interact with large dogs she didn't know. Thank goodness we were able to keep having positive interactions with the ones we did so she was able to get past it.

Even if the dogs are well socialize you have to be careful when you mix sizes just a fact of life.

Grizz, Birchs' dad broke his hind leg as a baby(not that you can tell-boing!) He was playing in the yard chasing the other shelties and the Malamute was chasing the whole lot. The shelties turned , the Malamute didn't and smash broken leg. When Grizz started screaming you could tell the mal was distressed. She is very very protective of him to this day but the Malamute(or no big dog) does not play with the sheltie puppies anymore.

[Margit]

Hello!

I saw this lab effect often in the puppy training course, but their we and the handler showed the lab puppy not to bother the little ones.
But some owners think with buying a "friendly" lab, they do not need to be consequent to their dog and have to train them. Depending of the breeding line they are also workaholics and with to less activity their energy burst and hits others.
That is the time they either let their dog off leash because he pulls to strong or pop up at the basic course.
I had a husky, which never had a problem with small dogs even when they attacked her. For my Collie they were of no interest. But both big ones protected our sheltie. And from all my experience (also of friends) I only can recommand a rough collie as bodyguard.
I have in my obedience class five well behaving lab/golden and one of the lab is even the "great love" of my sheltie.

Greetings!

Margit

[DieDany]

Originally Posted by JacqueZ

The idea that small dogs and large dogs can't mix seems like an excuse for poorly socialized or trained dogs. Yes playing rough you'll see accidents, but from the time Honey was four months she was playing with a large pit bull mix, a lab/great dane mix and a newfoundland, and now she plays with a pyrenees. The owners have socialized and trained the dogs well and they keep a careful eye out and never let the play get out of hand.

Absolutely. I posted some pics of our doggy gathering in another thred. You can see small an large dog there, pups, former agressors, males, females together. It is possible only because their owners educate themselves in doggy behavior and work with their dogs on socialization and respect to others.

Here is a link in Czech but you can see in the pics how the dogs can get on well with one another if socialized well:

http://www.psycholog-psu.com/freesoboty.html

In the fourth pic for instance is a white Caucasian Shepherd that did not allow ohter people or dogs to come even closer to it. After some practice it has changed its behavior immensely but its owner knows that there could be some trouble so his dog is muzzled and on-leash. I always wonder that these rules are apparently too much to ask from some dog owners

[*Caro]

I should clarify, it's not that I think small and large dogs can't play together - Tully's ball friends are two Goldies, a Rottie and several labs, no problems there as they are careful and well mannered and their owners have raised their dogs well. Tully tends to play chase with the bigger dogs because the smaller ones can't keep up with her. It's the problems that can be caused by a large dog hurtling out of control for no other reason than poor manners. And then blaming the small dog!

[JacqueZ]

Originally Posted by *Caro

I should clarify, it's not that I think small and large dogs can't play together - Tully's ball friends are two Goldies, a Rottie and several labs, no problems there as they are careful and well mannered and their owners have raised their dogs well. Tully tends to play chase with the bigger dogs because the smaller ones can't keep up with her. It's the problems that can be caused by a large dog hurtling out of control for no other reason than poor manners. And then blaming the small dog!

Oh absolutely, and I certainly didn't mean unsupervised play, it's important for any dog owner to watch while dogs are together, small or large, it's easy for them to get to excited. But if the dogs been socialized, and well trained, it's going to listen to the owner when they call it over and they know to calm down a little, and the owner is going to be able to recognize those signs.

And I think it's important for the smaller dogs to have a spot where they can take themselves out of the play themselves. Honey has no problem squirming under a table, or dashing behind my legs or a bush when the big ones are revving up.

[labgirl]

Thank you all, you've made me feel a lot better and have confirmed my point which was that a lab does not 'have' to behave this way. Interestingly in a dog mag I just read it had someone asking about almost the exact same situation, again a lab. The behaviour expert said that a lot of problems with labs was caused by over-socialising them so they expect to play with everyone.

This was exactly what I was trying to explain on the lab forum. I see people letting their big dogs play so roughly and it really makes me cringe. They see no harm, but what they don't realise is their dog will try to play like that with other dogs with unpleasant results.

Cadbury is pretty good with small dogs, I have vague memories of when he was much younger knocking over a small dog, but that was the one and only time and it is not something I tolerate. It helped that having a grandfather who walks with two sticks Cadbury was taught to be gentle and calm around him and that seems to have translated to other people/dogs.

Thank you for the article Dr Shelli, if I feel brave enough I will post it, particularly as I was getting comments "if you are so clever and can train your dog to not knock others down why not tell us how to do it." I felt like responding I could, but you probably won't agree with any of my advice.

Onwards and upwards, anyway.