Rough Play

[Nkomo]

  I am hoping that someone could help me out with a few questions I have about my Husky.  As I posted in my introduction, we adopted a Husky from one of my wife's co-workers back in April.  She has adjusted well to our other four dogs and other family members.  She is extremely well behaved and shows none of the negative traits (digging, chewing, escaping, etc) that I read about before adopting a Husky.

 

  One thing is that our other dogs are smaller animals and don't like playing with Kira because she plays rough.  She really has no one to play with and it didn't really seem to bother her much.  She was content to lounge and be around everyone in the house.  However, about a month ago, Kira started doing something new. When I'm in the bedroom, Kira will drag over a blanket, "woo" at me, and then play bow. I will play with her, but she plays ROUGH.  She will go in circles, jump over me, and woo.  She also likes to grab my arm and bite down on it.  Not enough to draw blood, but enough to let you know you've played with a dog.  Sometimes, she will grab a pillow and shake it furiously.

 

  When we asked her former owner, she said her son used to take a blanket and rough house with her like that.  She told us to slap her nose whenever she got too rough.  I'm hesitant to smack her because I think she may have been abused before.

 

  Also, I am the only person she will play like this with.  She won't play like this with my mom, dad, wife, or other dogs.  I am the one who walks her everyday and I spend more time with her than anyone else too.  Another odd thing she does is that whenever I go outside to do something in the yard, Kira will watch me out one of the windows until I come back inside.  If I leave the house in my truck, she will lay by the door until I return.  My wife jokingly calls her the "jealous girlfriend". 

 

  Any thoughts or suggestions?  This is not my first dog by any means, but I have never owned a Husky before and need some advice.  Thanks!

 

Arch

[Nkomo]

  I forgot to add that Kira has never offered to bite another person and tolerates our other dogs well.  I really think this is just her playing rough, but just wanted some other opinions. 

 

  Whenever I get up and walk away from this, she stops and that is it.  I don't let her get too rough.  I guess my biggest question is would be if this is play and if so, is it okay to do.  Should I stop playing with her like this?

[Andy]

Yes, it sounds like she is "just" playing. However if she was taken as a puppy from her litter mates before she was around 6 weeks old

she may not have learned proper "bite inhibition"

This is when she plays with her litter mates and learns to bite others without doing harm.

If she is biting too hard for you, then when she does it pull your hand / arm away with a loud "Ow / Ouch !!!"

She'll quickly learn not to bite so hard.

As the previous owners son played like that, it's why she wants to play with you.

 

She's obviously bonding with you, more than the rest of the family.

However given time she will get stronger bonds with the rest.

Rescue Huskies do tend to bond with one person right off the bat in a new home.

and as you're the one who does most of the walking and playing etc it's not surprising that 

she has fixed on you.

 

Don't mistake bonding for loyalty though.

If a stranger came up to her clipped on a lead she would happily walk away with them

and barely look back.

I have a White German Shepherd, and she is Loyal, she would fight to get back to me if she was taken away.

It's a difference between the breeds.

Huskies LOVE to be with Humans, but they are not fussy which humans.

Echo My Shepherd loves to be with me, but hates strangers

[Nkomo]

Thanks for the great information and advice, Andy.  It is much appreciated.

[Andy]

Thanks for the great information and advice, Andy.  It is much appreciated.

It's what we're here for

[Removed #5]

Aye, that was an excellent response Andy - but you're getting to be as bad as me for the long winded responses!

 

On that note though, Kira does seem to understand bite inhibition - she doesn't, Nkomo says, bite hard, just harder than she likes ... typical Husky.  Time for standing back and teaching an "Easy!" command.

[Andy]

Aye, that was an excellent response Andy - but you're getting to be as bad as me for the long winded responses!

Thanks Al'

Yeah, I'm getting a little verbose in my old age

[Jay]

Sounds like how my Nikko is.  Sometimes when he wants to play he will run over to me, sometimes grabing a towel or something and bark or whoo at me.  Then he will start chasing me, jumping up, or swatting at me with his paw.  He can get mouthy too, however he is getting better with his bite inhibition.  Typical husky play.  I agree with what Andy said though!

[Nkomo]

  First off, thanks for all the replies.  I took your advice and applied it to our play tonight.  It seemed to work well and I will continue to use this technique when we play.  Don't get me wrong, Kira still has a ways to go, but I'm confident we'll hit a happy medium soon.

 

  It was quite funny tonight.  Kira is used to playing with me right after dinner, but I had to take my wife to work and then had to do some Math tutoring for one of my clients.  Kira was not pleased that her play time was switched to later in the evening.

 

  I  do free tutoring for familes who don't have much money or can't afford private tutors.  I have a Bachelor's degree in Special Education (Learning Behavior Disorder K-12) and Elementary Education (K-6).  The job market in my area is pretty bad and not many openings for teachers at the moment.  I figured since I have a college degree, I might as well use it to help others where I can.  

[Nkomo]

  Well.....I just got back from the hospital ER. I have subconjucticval hemorrhage and a scratch across my eye lens.  Seven days of antibiotic ointment treatment prescribed by the doctor.

 

  Kira and I had been doing very well on the rough play up until today.  We were playing on the bed and she accidentally bopped me in the eye with her front paw and then drew her paw backwards and scratched my lens.  Never a dull moment with my Husky.

 

  On a positive note, many years ago, my eye doctor told me I'd need glasses by the time I was 36 years old.  At the ER today, I had my eye tested and have 20/13 vision!  BAM!  I will turn 39 this November and still no glasses.  LOL! 

[Andy]

Glad you're ok

they can get a little carried away when playing.

[Removed #5]

OUCH!!!!!

Guess it's time to work on "Enough!" Avalanche was a pretty rough guy to play with, but we had to calm the playtime down when I kept bleeding, in between teeth and claws my arms were a mess!!  We still play from time to time, but one "Okay, enough!" will put him out of play mode - not saying that it came quickly, but it's sure worth the effort.

 

I've been in glasses since second grade ( that'd make me about 6 or 7 ) my vision kept getting worse until I was somewhere around 20/400 (too bad to measure with any accuracy).  I've had one cataract operation and have 20/15 in it and going to go have the other eye done shortly!  Now it's just reading glasses some of the time.

[Nkomo]

  Thanks for the concerns and comments.  After she did it, she knew exactly what she did and stopped.  I know I may be reading too much into it, but it seemed like she was "sorry" for what she had just done.  I know that when I got back from the hospital. she was awfully glad to see me. 

 

  My parents are starting to call her "Rocky" in reference to the movie by the same name.  I'm pretty sure I'll have a nice shiner tomorrow morning.   

[Elyse]

Oh wow - I'm glad you're okay! You're lucky you didn't become blind in that eye!

[Nkomo]

Oh wow - I'm glad you're okay! You're lucky you didn't become blind in that eye!

   Thanks.  I was very lucky.  I'm not going to lie, I almost cried because of the pain when it happened. 

[Elyse]

   Thanks.  I was very lucky.  I'm not going to lie, I almost cried because of the pain when it happened. 

 

Yeah - I bet it would have been very painful!! 

Thankfully, my glasses act as a 'shield' of sorts. So, when my husky bats at my face, he knocks my glasses off. And that's it - my eyes are okay.