luc and teagan have really started to mesh, i think. they're happy to be in the same room, sniff, etc, and luc is intiating play quite regularly (usually immediately before or after a walk).

teagan is behaving better and better. i have a feeling that she was probably allowed to be dominant at her previous home and that she was allowed to get away with a lot of behaviour (just based on how she has acted and the aggression in the form of biting she's shown myself and my brother (she didn't 'bite bite' him but he was cut, so same difference to me) when not allowed to get her way). i should also note that awhile ago i asked about muzzling her, and the advice re: how long it will take her to get used to the muzzle - she's obviously been muzzled before, i don't keep her muzzled but i've put it on her and she could care less - i put it on luc once as i was putting on his boots and he FLIPPED. anyways, teagan's not perfect, but great improvement.

so in luc's play initiation, he does a lot of jumping at teagan, they both kind of keep their mouths open but don't use them, and luc has been jumping on teagan and sticking his head on her shoulders, in what looks like a 't'ing off position to me. he's doing this a lot.
(it looks a lot like the 't'ing off photograph on jennifer marshall's website: http://www.freewebs.com/theanimaltrainer/dogwolfbodylanguage.htm)

which is weird to me, b/c i find luc to be far more submissive than teagan. though he has had the confident hackling behaviour at other dogs (when teagan is around) lately and he now will move towards people w/very confident body language.

is this play, or is he actually trying to 't' her off (i wouldn't say he's particularly successful)?

the only other change i can think of is teagan's house privileges have been curtailed as i was watching the pack structure video and realized that teagan does not behave calmly when out of the crate (there are small animals to kill, after all), so she was in there for about 3 days and now is out until the first sign of prey drive/aggression at one of the small animals (she tried to get a cat last night), when she's put back in. she's on a traffic lead and is very close to me when out.

just curious if this is just play, or if luc is further developing his personality and i need to keep an eye out.

Jennifer,
Our two dogs, Nickie & Roxie, are allowed outside in our backyard to "play" about 4 times a day - completely supervised by either myself or my husband if I'm at work. They both take turns "T-ing off" on each other. They take turns chasing each other, they take turns "bowing" to each other. We do not hear any noise from either one of them (barking, growling, snarling) until they have been playing for a few minutes. Then things get a little intense (one or the other gets "rolled" on the ground) and we know they have had enough. During the whole time that they are "playing" they frequently look over at us to see if we are watching them.

They both have drag lines on (in fact they take turns grabbing each other's drag lines and pulling (encouraging) the other one to run with them. Nickie outweighs Roxie by about 20 lbs and is about a year younger, but he seems to be ready to call it quits sooner. Of course we still call the shots if it looks like the play is getting too rough. I have a couple of short videos of them interacting outside on my photobucket link below.

thanks diane, great videos! gorgeous dogs

i'm supervising the play, definitely.

i guess it's also got me wondering b/c a lot of luc's regular behavioural patterns are changing. while there was never fighting, teagan always got lots of space from luc. now he's jumping on her. when i got him, he tried to run away if he saw another dog. then he learned to stay calm and relaxed, that i'd take care of him, and now he's started hackling w/forward confident body language. he's forward and confident w/strangers approaching us on the street. he doesn't run away when my oldest cat hisses or growls at him (though he does sort of scoot away from him). and this is all changing within a short period of time, so i keep looking at luc and going 'wow, he is changing!' - still a great, sweet dog, but changing. so i wasn't sure how much of this is just regular play, or if any of it is part of luc's changes.

Jennifer,
Believe me, I'm certainly no expert on dogs, especially their "play" behavior. In fact, when they first met each other, I was really scared that they were fighting and just tried to hold Nickie's leash tighter. They met on neutral territory at our next door neighbor's front yard (we got Roxie from a friend of their's). Thankfully more experienced dog people were there and said to just let them sniff each other and to not act so uptight.

It's funny, I've never seen Nickie get his hackles up (we've had him since 8 weeks old). Don't know if he just isn't scared of anything or what. Roxie, on the other hand, will get her hackles up just walking outside into the backyard and smelling the neighbor's dog scent in the air(as soon as her nose goes up into the air, then up goes the hackles!). She is very aggressive to any dog who is behind a fence or gate - not so much to ones that she sees straight on. Since she was a shelter dog, we don't yet know what all of her issues are but we are working on it!