Neck mouthing

[petlady]

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Hi, I have just joined this morning as I find I'm in need o0f advice, hope someone can help.

I have two lovley Whippets, Megan who is 3 1/2 years old and Lottie who is 13 months. They are lovely friendly dogs with both people and other dogs, no aggression ever. But I do have one problem.

They both enjoy a daily free run, but now my younger girl can keep up with the older one and she will constantly mouth her neck while running, sometimes she nips her ears. Megan hates it and it stopping her from enjoying her run.

Can anyone tell me how I can stop this. I cant physically stop it as they are too far away, and although the youngster does know the 'leave' command, she completely ignores it when running free.

In and aroung the home they are as good as gold, we have never had a set to in any way. But this si making me feel so sad for megan as she loves to run.

 

[dogmatize]

I think that this is common play between whippets. I would be surprised if the older whippet would put up with something that annoys her. Usually a fairly severe telling off by the older whippet would be the order of the day.

You could exercise them separately. I have a similar situation with a different breed and what I do is let the more timid one off to get a run first and then let the bully off afterwards. So they do run together as well.

 

[gypsysmum2]

I agree with Raventree. It is normal behaviour and most dogs will sort themselves out eventually. Your older bitch should be encouraged to teach the younger one some manners.

I had a dog that mouthed and rough played with strange dogs. I had to teach him an "enough" command so that I did not lose all my doggie friends! As soon as he got too rough with the other dog I would say "enough" and catch him and put him on lead until he calmed down. It can be quite difficult to get the timing right so that the dog understands why it is being put on lead and denied all that fun. I could only do it if they were close by. Luckily a local Boxer dog would just collapse on the floor and I could run up, giving the "enough" command, and put my dog on lead. The owner was very helpful in waiting around while my dog mouthed her dog, and I repeated the training, until my dog would, finally, desist when I said "enough".

You will have a much more difficult job. The only thing you could try to do is teach a really reliable recall so that you can gain control of the younger dog when you think the older one has had enough but is too polite to say so!