My doodle is grabbing other dog's collar during play

[Nancy and Georgia Brown]

This has been an issue that has surfaced from time to time with different dogs. She has currently been persistent in this habit with one of her dog friends and I don't like it. I do pull her off and give her a time out when it happens. But I don't sense it registers or prevents it from happening again. Any advice as to how to break her of it?

[Kamela & Beckett]

Our Beckett is now 10 months old. When he was younger, he would often do that to our 11 year old mini schnauzer when trying to play with her. We would tell him "no" and separate them. I think the combination of the consequence of not getting to play and maturing as he's aged have both played a part in him not doing it anymore. We also try to make sure that he has plenty of opportunities to expend energy in acceptable ways each day and that he has opportunities to play with age/size/energy level appropriate playmates (the schnauzer is none of those) several times a week. How old is she? I would just keep correcting her. Grabbing collars means no more playing with the friend for a few minutes. She'll get it!

[Nancy and Georgia Brown]

thanks.

She's 2 1/2. It has happened before, but it seems to be escalating.

She actually plays very well with dogs, and gets plenty of exercise.

I do pull her off and give her a time out. She calms down, she gets to go back and play, but so far it doesn't register that she can't be doing it. 

[Lynda Kamrath]

My ALD does this all the time with our smaller dog.  They love their wrestling match every night after dinner and it seems like a wrestling move.  Harpo grabs Zeppo by the collar and flips him onto his back.  The only way we have found to stop that particular move is to remove the collar.  Correcting the behavior has not seemed to work and Harpo is six years old (not a puppy).

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

This can be very dangerous.  It happened several years ago when my two were playing and the collars got tangled together.  They were flailing around and terribly frightened and I had a very difficult time getting them separated.  I can't tell you how frightening it was, especially because their is a size difference.  Since then they are never allowed to play unless one of their collars are off.

[Adina P]

Rosco has played this way since he was a puppy.  I don't see it as a problem EXCEPT for the entanglement issue.  Is the other doodle's owner willing to take off her collar during play dates?

[Nancy and Georgia Brown]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I was thinking there might be a way to train her not to do this, but I guess the best solution is to have the other dog's collar removed. It's not a problem to request that.