Understanding Dog Fun
1. If you don’t know the difference between rough play/wrestling and real dog fighting, spend some time observing dogs playing together in a group before including your own.
2. Unprepared owners have been known to panic the first time they see their pets on the bottom of a dog pile. If you are not ready to step back and let your dog “be a dog” don’t bring it into an off-lead group situation.
3. Be prepared to see your dog mount or be mounted: this can cause the less animal oriented owner great embarrassment or annoyance but is a perfectly natural mode of canine interaction.
4. Dogs may mount one another for amorous reasons, regardless of gender, especially during adolescence, regardless of sex or being neutered.
5. Most of the time mounting behavior occurs between adult dogs to establish dominance; a dog that assumes the mounting posture is informing the “underdog” clearly that it is subordinate in rank. This is a very ritualized mode of canine interaction that helps dogs to establish ranking order without violence.
