I have a 17 month old doodle and a 10 week doodle puppy. I am aware that dogs play rough and I am not worried about them hurting each other. However, I would like to teach them to only play and rough-house when they are outside. I would like to teach them that inside is "quiet time" and they need to not wrestle and chase each other all over the house. Are there any suggestions anyone might have to discourage indoor rough-houseing and encourage them to take their strenuous play outdoors? Do I need to train them to do this, or once the puppy is older will they do it naturally and calm down indoors. Note: prior to getting the new puppy our 17 month doodle was extremely calm indoors, always either napping or just chewing on a bone.
We let our two wrestle a little inside. Usually, its only for a few minutes and then they are done, but if not, once they try to move on to the furniture, or start to chase each other, we make them down, (basically, take a short time out). Once they calm down, and I release them, if they immediately start up again, I make them go outside! That usually does it, because our 7 month old puppy hates to be outside without us!!
Okay, I have tried using the can with the marbles in it and shaking it when they start wrestling. It works great...especially on my older girl. She will stop wrestling immediately as she hates the sound. After I shake it I say "ENOUGH" in the hopes that someday the can will be able to be retired and simply saying enough will do the trick. After Maggie (the older one) quits wrestling, Luna will jump on her one or two times but Maggie won't play back so Luna wanders off to play with a bone or a toy and maggie finds a bone or stretches out on the couch with us. We've been using the can for about a week...and already it has made such a difference. We still have to use the can frequently...but it is definitely working.