Today we walked round together for quite a while and they had several bouts of play. J doesn't do much self-handicapping, but relies on his long limbs to stand over F and roll him over, then F will wriggle out and grab J's ears. They both keep coming back for more and I'm not seeing any aggression on J's side (though he is a little on the rough side) or worry on F's. One moment J will look a bit fed up with F, the next he'll be playbowing again.
Anyhoo, J tried to hump F several times today. Most of the time it just broke up naturally as F wriggled from under him, and a couple of times I called J away. Because of their size difference I don't think J's business end got within a foot of F's so there was no chance of... well whatever two boy dogs might otherwise do... J wasn't pinning F down - or not effectively anyway - and again, not being aggressive in any way. Generally, when he has played with other dogs, they've tended to be matched in size and before long J will get a bit growly and it looks like it's turning sour (I think when he starts feeling insecure), at which point I call him back, but I'm not seeing this with F.
My question is, is the humping something I should discourage over and above trying to curb generally overaroused play? Is it a sign that the play has reached a stage where I shouldn't let it go any further? Or, as long as they're both happy, F is easily able to escape from J's clutches, and J isn't getting too intense, can I let them get on with it? It's lovely to see him choosing to play with another dog, for the most part nicely. I do wonder if the fact that he hardly ever wants to play with other dogs means he's not learnt good play etiquette and only has a rudimentary understanding of self-handicapping.
F's owner isn't concerned BTW, and is usually laughing as much as I am. Though we do meet in the local park and have to make a show of effort to stop any luuuuuurve asap when there's children and disapproving adults around
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)