Dog Park Aggression or Exuberant Play?

[Linda]

Hi there

My labradoodle is 14 months old and has been thru 3 obedience classes. She has been a well behaved and wonderful dog. In the last month, she has begun to bark more and bare her teeth at other dogs while playing. I am not sure if she is becoming aggressive or she just needs to calm down, or she is just really into the game. Any thoughts?

We go to a local dog park and  she will happily roll over and be submissive to start a game. When it is chase time, she will chase or be chased. She started barking about a month ago at dogs and it looked like she was trying to get them to play. Attention seeking stuff. She would play bow and bark, and then bark as they ran. It didn't concern me as I thought/think she was vocalizing her excitement and trying to instigate a chase game. 

In the last 4 weeks or so the barking has increased along with some neck grabbing ( not biting) when chasing.  Is that fair play?  Sometimes,when she wrestles she is baring her teeth getting a tad snarky.  When she does this I call her and leash her to calm down. This usually works and she is back in the game happily chasing and wrestling. Yesterday, she ignored my "come" twice. I had to go after her and grab harness to calm her down. We left as I felt that her barking and teeth baring was too much for the other dogs and ruining the game.

I read about spraying water on a barking dog but not sure how I feel about that. In general, people are happy to see her when we arrive at the park . Do you think she is becoming aggressive? Could this be a stage given she is just 14 months? I don't want to let this slide and have a problem on my hands.  

Any advice or insight is much appreciated! 

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We tried the collar on our Springer but it made NO difference at all for his anxiety.  His anxiety stems from being left without humans so perhaps it is because of a different need.