Does sneezing always mean playing?

[lf6]

We have a 13 year old Maltese poodle mix and adopted a new puppy in January that is now almost 6 months old. They like to fight a lot but I can’t tell if they’re just playing. The puppy is very obviously just playing because she’s wagging her tail and booping my older dog then running away and coming back to boop her again and things like that, but my older dog acts like she’s trying to eat the puppy up. (Which is an interesting thing to see considering old lady is 10 pounds and puppy is probably close to 30 now) she looks so angry she’s barking and jumping at the puppy and biting at her. She doesn’t usually actually bite her unless she just nips at her ear, but I always separate them when they start fighting. But my older dog is sneezing while she fights so I’m not sure if she’s playing or not. So my question is, does sneezing always mean they’re just playing? Because if they’re just playing I don’t want to separate them every time, just watch them closely and make sure they don’t get too rough for my old lady because I want my old lady to bond and get more comfortable with the puppy.

 

[summerbell]

@lf6 It certainly sounds like they are playing. Different dogs have different play styles and some of them certainly look more violent than others! You can post a video on some subs and people will give their feedback.

Our dogs play a lot of bitey-face and other mouthy games - again, it’s just their play style.

Generally, if they’re fighting - you just know. If they are both engaging and ‘going back for more’ they are playing.

 

[lf6]

@summerbell Okay. Awesome. Thanks so much!

 

[thesongbird98]

@lf6 Sneezing does not always mean playing. It can also be a displacement behaviour or an appeasement/calming behaviour. Context is key as is the dog's overall body language.

An example: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMMtLPsbH/

 

[lf6]

@thesongbird98 Wow. That’s so crazy. I never knew they would go that far to appease the owners. Thanks so much! I’ll definitely watch the body language a lot closer next time

 

[thesongbird98]

@lf6 That account I linked has been great for breaking down subtle body language for me. I always had ok knowledge, and I'm still far from an expert, but I've learned a lot from her videos. She's great at describing and slowing down videos so you can really see what's going on, and it's been helpful for interpreting my older boy's behaviour with our new puppy.

 

[lf6]

@thesongbird98 That’s exactly what I need. I appreciate the help!

 

[avaaddams33]

@lf6 I'm not a dog trainer but I've always heard that dogs sneeze to let us know they're playing not fighting. My doggo is always sneezing when he wants to wrestle with me. Your dog's should know their boundaries and will enforce it if they feel the other doggo is being too much. At which point you definitely want to ensure they give each other some space.

My dog is older (just over 11 years now) and my aunt had a puppy about the size of his head. Her puppy looooved my dog and was always trying to lick the inside of his mouth (which offended him despite his constant attempts over the years to do the same to me) and was always trying to play with him or demand his attention in some way. Sometimes he was down, but he always tired of their play long before she would. When he got fed up he would just use a single paw to lightly pin her to the ground for a minute or so until he calmed down. She would get the idea and back off. But he would sneeze as they were playing and never when he pinned her.

 

[lf6]

@avaaddams33 Okay. Old lady can’t really put puppy in her place because puppy is about 4 times her size so I guess when she runs to me like “mom pick me up. Pick me up” then that’s her saying she doesn’t wanna play lol