neb is 7 months old, and weighs around 17lbs. his main breeds seem to be husky/terrier (i assume JRT).

i went back about 10 pages, but didn't see anything on this.

teagan is adult, and weighs around 60lbs.

i know there's a big size discrepancy, and i know that you need to be careful when there is that sort of size discrepancy, but wondered what people thought, if what i'm doing is okay.

teagan likes to play rough. luc likes to play 'tag' games, but he doesn't like rough play, he gets upset, and normally ends up triggering teagan, despite them being similar sizes. i highly supervise them when they play together, but most of the time, teagan pretty well knows that playing w/luc means some chasing and sniffing of privates.

neb on the otherhand - he likes to play rough too. he is also not at all intimidated by teagan, something she seems to find....refreshing? in my experience of teagan and off-leash dogs, most off-leash dogs will not approach her, but will approach other dogs, she tends to get a wide berth.

of course, neb is in her pack, and while teagan is dog-aggressive, from when neb came home at 6 weeks, she was immediately an angel with him - i let them together earlier than expected (supervised, of course) b/c she'd spend all this time lying outside his crate with a happy look on her face. from the third day i had him, she was happily tolerating him climbing all over her face, tugging on her fur, falling off her head and holding on by her ears, etc. it was absolutely amazing to see teagan with a blissful expression on her face and a puppy hanging off her head.

so, this question may be two-pronged:

-neb and teagan wrestle fairly frequently. neb usually initiates it, and while teagan will do stuff like 'growl', i class it as play-growling, and she's obviously having fun, and seems to be pretty aware of the size difference. i've yet to see anything i was concerned about in terms of switching into aggression, or crushing neb.

is this then okay?

AND

-teagan is dog-aggressive. mostly prey-driven, territorial, i don't think she's dominant but she can has a history of some rank-issues, and i've seen other dogs avoid/defer to her despite absolutely no contact and decent distance between them. she does have a history of attacking a small dog (i was traumatized, she was ebullient for a week afterwards). is it bad to let her rough-house, given this? they both have a great time, and i don't feel like it's escalating in roughness, but just wanted to check it was appropriate for a dog of her background.

thanks!

I would say that as long as you are supervising this play, and you are deciding when "quitting" time is AND the fact that your dogs see YOU as the leader, then I do not see a problem with it.

I am assuming you are letting them do this minimally so that Neb bonds with you and does not become "doggy"?

You have done a great job with both Luc an Teagan Jennifer, so I am pretty positive you know just how much and when for your pack.

i usually hover over or next to them like a worried mother hen

i would say they wrestle maybe 5X a week, for around 15 minutes?

neb is never out without being tethered to or next to me (he's reliable housebreaking-wise, i just figured at his age, still have him with me - maybe it's not necessary). i also do this to help ensure that he doesn't become 'doggy' - he and teagan's crates are in the same room, but i do make sure to supervise all 'out' time with him.

teagan is actually pretty good about moving away and calming things down by stopping wrestling for 15-30 seconds. neb can tend to get riled up without that, but i haven't had to break them apart on that basis b/c she will, something i forgot to mention, is that she does seem to be pretty good about not only taking into account his size, but keeping things on a relatively even keel. neb i find still does get over-excited sometimes, i will use a similar strategy actually if we've been tugging/working on the rag for a while and he gets overstimulated. actually, maybe i need to take a page from teagan and put more breaks into the sessions in the first place.

....teagan actually likes to sit next to me and watch me work on the rag or tug with neb. it's kind of funny, but then, when she was at a FR session in montreal w/geoff and sasha, she LOVED watching the dogs (she was crated). it also makes me happy, b/c i can leave the rag or neb's tugs lying next to her, and she won't touch them - which given that she has a history of being possessive and 'defending' toys, thrills me

and thanks carol, i really appreciate you saying that