new puppy -teenage dog

Hi,
I hope someone has some advice please ?
We have Smith a beautiful nearly 2 year old de-sexed male and have recently bought home Monroe a 9 week old female.
They generally play together well ,he is very tolerant and still much a pup himself.
They will happily share food and toys .
He does rough & tumble with her and they usually play well ,but occasionally she seems to turn from play to serious and really goes hard at his face & neck,while growling really nastily .
I'm worried because he does not seem to be warning her when she hurts him, how will she learn this is not ok play ? He just looks at us if she has latched on as if to say "get her off ! "
He does nothing and usually just takes it or boofs over the top of her and keeps trying to play.They are always supervised while together . Should I intervene when she turns nasty (definite difference from when play ! ) or leave him to keep her in line ?
I'm concerned she may hurt one of his eyes when she goes for him as its always the face .
She does seem to know the difference in how hard she is biting as she is quite gentle with her mouth on me and will play bite with Smith.
Thanks for your help,
Kate

i would stop her when the play gets too rough. The puppy is still learning and needs to be told what is acceptable. We have boy and girl dogs and they do play rough so rough sometimes the female drags the male around by his cheeks and neck. We have stopped that now as we found his neck/face full of holes from her teeth. Also if the male dog gets fed up he could turn and give her a nip but i dont think that would deter her.

I would seperate them as well if the pup gets a little out of hand. She is still learning bite inhibition so it may take a little while

Agree with above, just step in and separate them if it does get a bit too much. Sometimes play can be misread as Staffys do play rough, it often sounds a lot worse than it is. The link below should help you identify would to watch for:

http://staffy-bull-terrier.co.uk/dogbodylanguage.html

thanks all ,it does seem to be settling down now & the outbursts from Monroe are less each day so fingers crossed
heres how they look 90 % of the time
[img][/img]

Aww that is a brilliant picture!!

They are beautiful dogs, love the photo! To be honest staffy play is very rough and vocal and pups will hang off their elders faces! If it hurts him or when hes had enough he will tell her. When she gets into a bit of a frenzy though time out is definately a good thing for a minute or two x

Tommy was always like this with Tilly and on advice of other people I grew to learn it wasn't aggression and just rough pup play (2 or 3 friends that have had 2 dogs together of bigger breeds) , as Lc says if he's had enough he will let her know