am I a bad mummy for lettin them

This is probably goin sound a bit strange at first but i'll explain what I mean...i'm just wonderin if I shouldn't let my two play as much as they do?
Basically we got leroy bout a month ago as a playmate for Diesel an she seem over the moon finally havin sum1 her own size an species to play with! They play from the min they get up to the min they go to sleep, constantly chasin each other about the house an rough an tumblin bout, which is great! The only problem is...Leroy has a habbit of grabbin her by the collar an pullin her about, which was markin all her neck an I really didnt like the idea of him chokin her, so now we tend to take her collar off indoors. But now she has no collar, her neck is still as bad if not worse!!
We jokin call them her "love bites" but she is covered in red spots all over her neck, only on the VERY odd occasion does he break the skin, but Diesel is white underneath an basically bald so its very visible an sore lookin. For all we know Leroy looks the same too but he's got a big dark hairy chewbaca underside so u cant see.
should I stop them from always rough housin? Am I bein a bad mum in lettin my poor girl gettin all red an sore?

I think it's a matter of personal opinion and how you want them to behave. It's also hard to say w/o pics to see how bad the neck is. Suki rough plays every day and always seems to have some scratches or small cuts and we are fine with it.

I would also agree with taking the collar off because it could potentially get caught on something and cause a choking hazard. If you feel it's bad you could always seperate them when they get rough and give the neck time to heal.

Its mainly just coz it looks so bad, an I worry what other people with think ie/abuse or dog fightin. Like I say I let them play all the time - they'v just been runnin bout outside for 45mins together an they'v came in an theyr still at it! Lol but sometimes I dunno if am too soft? Like my theory is "let dogs b dogs" an if theyr playin thats obviously wat they want to b doin so why stop them havin fun? (to a certain degree of course)

I think if Diesel isn't getting hurt or indicating she's in pain, then it'd be OK as long as you're OK with it. Don't care what people think, dogs play and Staffs play rough. If they're only minor marks then I, myself, would let it continue, but it's a personal decision

Well she always goes back for more so am assumin she doesn't mind! Lol do u think there's mayb any creams or somethin I could use to help the lumps or am I best leavin them to die down themselves?

no your not bad, i never stop the boys playing unless one yelps which isn't very often

They play most of the day and play very rough at that and end up soaked in slobber

Ticklymac wrote:Well she always goes back for more so am assumin she doesn't mind! Lol do u think there's mayb any creams or somethin I could use to help the lumps or am I best leavin them to die down themselves?

We use Neosporian on anything that has broked the skin to help it heal faster. I'm not sure if they have it where you are though

like Ella our 2 play all day , and are really rough at times and covered in marks but we stop if it gets too much.

My only comment would be that with Tommy I think this gives us a little harder time with other dogs as he learns rough is the way

See thats one thing am worried about coz I think Diesel is the first dog Leroy has played with and worry he'll be the same with other dogs...especially the wee ones!

cheers jstaff i'll have a wee look online see if I can get some of that!

am glad to see that everyone else lets them play all day every day. Apparently my downstairs neighbour complained to my nxt door neighbour that I 'must just let them play all day" like I was doin somethin bad

Found some Neosporian online so gonna order some for her neck

If you're worried about him reacting that way with other dogs then, introduce him to other dogs, he'll have to learn that he can't be as rough with all size dogs eventually or you'll never be able to take him to dog parks without worrying, I'd suggest just making sure he's willing to back off from other dogs if they're not wanting to play with him the same way.

Dogs learn how hard they can and can't bite from yelping so if she's not yelping then he's not going to realize he should be a little bit gentler, maybe give her a safe spot she can run off to if she wants to get away from him if possible but it doesn't sound like she cares otherwise.


And never ever care what people think of you or your animals if you know that you're doing nothing wrong or abusive.