How to Train Your Dog to Not Play Rough
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Introduction
All living creatures can become overexcited and get caught up in the moment. Dogs are definitely no exception! Although it can be fun to watch or even engage in excitable play, too often your dog can misread your signals and think it’s acceptable to play rough. It’s critical that you train your dog to stop an unwanted behavior once it begins, and especially one where you, your dog, or your family members can get hurt.
Puppies are especially prone to get wound up, and because they are still learning, they often don’t realize that using claws or teeth while playing is unacceptable in their new homes and environments. However, some adult dogs, including those who were never taught proper boundaries to begin with, can also play too rough. It’s up to the owner to set the ground rules so a dog can be a happy, healthy, and safe member of a family.
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Defining Tasks
The purpose of this type of training is to provide your dog with proper socialization. This practice is necessary for puppies or any dog who never received the right kind of training before. Don’t misunderstand this behavior as being sweet or cute, as you won’t have the same opinion on it when your puppy grows up and plays much more roughly as an adult dog.
Rough play often comes from overexcitement, or a dog learning to play rough from other dogs. In some instances, dogs can play rough because their owners have taught them that behavior or it may be a dog exerting dominance over another dog or person. This latter group can be dangerous, as dogs trying to dominate others are not playing at all. These dogs may growl or even bite and cause serious injury. Whatever your dog’s circumstance, she can be trained to stop rough play by following any of these effective training methods.
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Getting Started
Make sure you are in a calm mindset and remain patient and consistent throughout the training session. It may be helpful to have a toy or tennis ball on hand as tools to use for training or even a head halter. Careful observation is needed as well to determine the point at which your dog crosses from happy and energetic to overly excitable.
Remember that if you find yourself becoming angry or frustrated, stop training and take a break. Any negative emotion or action used toward your dog during this type of training is counterintuitive and will only cause more problems. Keep a positive attitude, and soon your dog will be able to play gently.
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The Positive Distraction Method
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Watch body language
Make note of when your dog goes from playing gently to a hyperactive, overexcited state.
Interrupt an overexcited state of mind
Distract your dog from her mental state by giving her something to chew on, asking her to lie down, or throwing a toy or ball for her.
Get the leash
Further distract your dog with more positive behavior that also lets her expend her extra energy. Put on her leash and take her for a walk.
Practice obedience exercises
While outside on the walk, have your dog practice obedience exercises like sitting, staying, and heeling while walking. Continue in this manner until your dog calms down.
Repeat steps 1 - 4
Repeat this training process anytime your dog gets overexcited. Remember not to punish, hit, or yell at your dog. Stay patient at all times, and with consistency, your dog will learn to play nicely.
The Proactive Method
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Walk your dog multiple times a day
Take your dog for frequent walks. This exercise will allow your dog to burn some energy and lower the chance for any overexcited outbursts. Walks also encourage your dog to focus on and listen to you.
Provide unstructured playtime
Set aside time each day for unstructured play. It can consist of games like fetch and retrieve or hide and seek. Avoid games that promote rough behaviors such as tug of war.
Reinforce basic obedience exercises
Help your dog focus on listening to you by having him roll over, sit, stay, or shake hands.
Redirect your dog
If your dog loses focus and begins to play rough, redirect him right away. Do not engage your dog. Instead, say "no" firmly, push him away gently, and turn your back to him.
Repeat steps 1 - 4 as needed
This training process can take a few weeks for your dog to master. Continue to follow these steps and repeat them as necessary.
The Recall Method
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Work in an enclosed room
To help teach your dog to listen to you at any time, instead of playing roughly, you want to practice the recall command. Start in an enclosed room like a living or family room.
Use a treat to get your dog's attention
Hold the treat in a flat but slightly cupped hand. Your dog will notice and focus on what your hand is holding.
Give the 'come' command
Hold the treat out toward your dog and give the command 'come' in a confident, strong voice.
Repeat 'come' once if needed
If your dog doesn't respond to the first 'come' command, repeat the command once and lower your hand toward the floor. This may make the treat more enticing to the dog.
End on a 'sit' command
Once your dog comes over to you when you give the 'come' command, have him complete the process by ending the training with a 'sit'. Repeat this training segment whenever your dog needs to calm down and focus. In time, your dog should come when called outside and around other distractions with no issue.
Written by Erin Cain
Veterinary reviewed by:
Published: 12/08/2017, edited: 01/08/2021
Training Questions and Answers
Tuff
American bully
5 Months
Question
0 found this helpful
0 found this helpful
He plays way too rough with my small Jack Russell and he is starting to show aggression over food, sticks or basically anything he thinks is his.
June 17, 2022
Tuff's Owner
Caitlin Crittenden - Dog Trainer
1133 Dog owners recommended
Hello Kym, First, if you don't feel safe training on your own, pup bites you in aggression (especially if they draw blood), or you don't see improvement, I highly recommend hiring a private trainer who specializes in behavior issues like aggression and will come to your home, to help in person. Work on getting puppy used to touch and handling. Use puppy's daily meal kibble to do this. Gently touch an area of puppy's body while feeding a piece of food. Touch an ear and give a treat. Touch a paw and give a treat. Hold his collar and give a treat. Touch his tail gently and give a treat. Touch his belly, his other paws, his chest, shoulder, muzzle and every other area very gently and give a treat each time. Keep these times calm and fun for pup. This is to help build trust about being touched. Work on hand feeding, and also practice feeding him his meals in sections. Feed 1/4 of his meal, practice making him wait before digging in by holding onto the bowl, pulling it back whenever he tries to dive in (without letting go of it first), and calmly saying Wait, then after a few repetitions of this, when he hesitates and doesn't dive in while your hand is still on it, let go of the bowl and say "Okay!" in an excited tone of voice, and let him begin eating as a reward for waiting. As he eats, when he isn't growling, toss treats next to his bowl as you walk past him. Practice this from a few feet away until he begins to look forward to you approaching. As he improves, decrease the distance that you pass from. When he finishes the first serving, toss a treat behind him and pick up the bowl while he is distracted eating the treat. Give the next portion, have him practice waiting again, then do the treat tosses while he east again. Practice this until he has all of his meal kibble portions at that mealtime. Do this at every meal as often as you can. As he becomes relaxed and begins to like you approaching him during meals, get closer and closer, so that you are eventually placing treats into his bowl while he eats. Ease into this so that he stays relaxed during the process. When pup does great with your presence right by the bowl, you can give a gentle pet and feed a treat as you do so. Pet and feed a treat, then give space and go back to tossing the treats to avoid stressing him too much. Expect this progression to take weeks, not hours or days. Do NOT stick your hand in pup's food, take the food away while he is eating, or pet him while he is eating without making the experience fun for him also - via giving better rewards in exchange each time. Messing with a dog while they are eating without the right protocols and rewards to prevent stress around mealtimes, can actually cause food aggression, rather than prevent it. The goal is to build pup's trust with you when it comes to meals - so he doesn't feel the need to guard it, but learns that your approach and taking things like bones, results in something even better happening - like a treat or new bone. Only give treats when pup responds well - not while he is growling. If pup is growling still while you are doing all of this, you are probably being too rough or moving too fast, and there needs to be more space between you and pup while practicing at that point in the training. Practice Drop It and Leave It and keep a drag leash on pup to calmly be able to enforce commands you give, like Out, Drop It, Leave It, Come, ect... without having to get in pup's face as much or chase them down when they steal something. Just calmly step on the end of the leash, pick it up, then train. Out - which means leave the area: https://www.petful.com/behaviors/how-to-teach-a-dog-the-out-command/ Leave It method: https://wagwalking.com/training/train-a-shih-tzu-puppy-to-not-bite Drop It section: https://www.petful.com/behaviors/train-dog-not-to-chew/ Check out this free PDF e-book download for other puppy raising tips as well: www.lifedogtraining.com/freedownloads Finally, I would work on gently building respect for you, without adding direct confrontation. Check out the article I have linked below, especially the Working method. Even though this article mentions a Doberman, the training to address attitude with a much smaller dog should still apply. https://wagwalking.com/training/train-a-doberman-to-listen-to-you Resource guarding is often related to a need for more trust (pup expects you to take things or mess with them when they have something they like) and respect (pup thinks they can own most things around them). A lot of dogs are simply more prone to it naturally though. When addressing resource guarding, you want to address not just one or the other but both trust and respect, without decreasing pup's respect for you or trust for you in the process of addressing the other one. Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden
June 20, 2022
Whitney
Standard Poodle
3 Years
Question
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0 found this helpful
Our 3 yr old standard poodle is way too rough with our new puppy. Jabs with her nose and tries to grab her. She has killed bunnies and I am worried she looks at puppy like a bunny.
June 16, 2022
Whitney's Owner
Caitlin Crittenden - Dog Trainer
1133 Dog owners recommended
Hello Tina, I recommend teaching her Out and Leave It and Place. I would also crate train both dogs if you haven't done so already. When you can't supervise them together, like at night, when you leave, or when you just can't work with them. A hands free leash to keep the puppy with you so you can monitor who your older dog is acting with her, or to keep your older dog with you so they leave pup alone and stick close to you. An exercise pen is also a great tool for the puppy at this age. That way they can be around each other with a barrier and you can practice Out, Leave It, and Place without as much risk to the puppy when the older dog tries to get rough through the pen wire. Out - which means leave the area: https://www.petful.com/behaviors/how-to-teach-a-dog-the-out-command/ Leave It method: https://wagwalking.com/training/train-a-shih-tzu-puppy-to-not-bite Place command: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O75dyWITP1s Crate training - surprise method: https://wagwalking.com/training/like-a-crate You want the older dog to learn to simply co-exist calmly with the puppy. This is a relationship where I wouldn't necessarily encourage play ever at this point. Facilitate the dogs simply co-existing calmly in the home together. I would enroll the puppy in a puppy kindergarten class that has time for moderated off-leash play as part of the class, or a puppy play group (sometimes you can find these for cheap or free through local training groups or pet stores like petco). You will want pup to learn good doggie social skills, like bite control, taking turns, social cues, ect...And puppies learn those best from playing with other puppies anyway, so those skills can help pup navigate interacting with the rough older dog too as they grow. Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden
June 17, 2022