playtime

Question
hello,
i am getting a female papillon, i also have 2 feamale mastifis and a male boxer and great dane. i am worried when the big dogs play that the little dog will get seriously injured. sometimes my male boxer and dane fight, no one can see it comming. how do i prevent these from happining?
thank you,
cheyenne

Answer
This shouldn't be a problem.  I had a busy weekend with 6 dogs in the house, and wasn't able to answer as quickly as I might have.  In addition to our 2 Labs, we are keeping 2 Goldens for our friends, and our daughter was here with their Australian cattle dog and a Lhasa Apso/Min Pin mix.  The 6 dogs ranged from a year old to 11 years old.  Some of the older ones are long time friends.  The Cattle dog is a year old and new to the family.  She is also the only one that was intact.  She is a bit of a problem.  They took her in because others in her husband's family couldn't handle her.  Still things went well.  My year old Lab is small for a Lab, not much bigger than the Cattle dog.  They played well together most of the time, although we did have to settle them down part of the time.  The little mix is a little over 2 years old and enjoys rough play with the larger dogs.  They make allowances for his size.  

Except for the Cattle dog, the other 5 dogs have been obedience trained and clearly understand the people are in charge.  All 4 of the people have enough experience to provide the leadership the dogs need.  The Cattle dog has made great progress in the month she has been with my daughter.  This weekend may have been a good experience for her.  The dogs see all the
people and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in
the pack and a top dog.  Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members
outrank the 4 legged ones.  You can learn to play the role of top dog by
reading some books or going to a good obedience class. A good obedience class
or book is about you being top dog, not about rewarding standard commands with
a treat. Start at http://www.dogsbestfriend.com/