where is the line

...between rough play and dog aggression?

Tonight I took Ace and Willow over to a classmate's house to play with her one year old bluetick coonhound. First impression: absolutely adorable dog, just a little smaller than Willow. Next impression: guarder.

No no sooner arrive than the dog is snarling and chasing Willow away from her toy. The toy gets taken away, and the two girls play pretty well for the next 10 minutes, although it is clear that this dog is fairly dominant. At this point my classmate tells me that she is also possessive of the deck, and the space under the deck. Wonderful.

Shortly after, the snarling begins. Willow is soon pinned and yelping, fights back to get up, and is promptly pinned again. I start yelling and run down to break it up, trying to grab my classmate's dog by the back end (note to self - research how to break up a dog fight without getting bitten). My classmate comes down to get her dog, and I expected to hear something along the lines of "I'm so sorry, she's never done anything like that before!" Instead, she tells me that they just needed to work it out, and not to worry as there was no harm done.

I don't know this classmate super well and I'd never met her dog before, and I didn't want to be rude, although my instinct was telling me to leave right then. We stayed for another 10 minutes or so, but the two dogs didn't really play again until Ace started to play. Willow joined him (as per usual), and I had to step in a few times as they tend to gang up on other dogs. I made it clear through my actions that I did not tolerate humping, and once the other dog was down I called mine off. I believe that bullying between dogs is not to be tolerated.

This situation reminded me of an article I read, off a link on the ARPH website (http://www.ontarioaussies.ca/Aussie%20Links.html). The article is about managing a multi-dog household (http://www.shirleychong.com/keepers/archives/many.txt), and specifically I thought of this section copied below:

Every time pack management questions arise, several people will suggest
that you allow the dogs to work things out alone.  They'll assure you that
this is the only way to go.  Sometimes this can work, but this is dependent
on the breed, individual temperaments and respective sizes of the dogs
involved.  Use your better judgement.  Don't let a Rottweiller freely go at
a Yorkie or a 2 year old pick on a 15 year old.  Often these remarks are
followed by someone telling how they lost a dog (evenly matched in breed
and size to it's opponent) to a dogfight by following this philosophy.

As I left, my classmate suggested next time we meet somewhere else and let the dogs run. 

I agree, but in my head I think "not with Willow". Interestingly, this is the second dog I've 

introduced Ace to in the past month, and he has reacted with indifference. I wonder if this is 

part of the maturing process, or is he just feeling beaten by my constant corrections for 

humping and rough play? Will have to test these theories. 

To conclude, in my classmate's mind the dogs were just playing, however to me it seemed 

an awful lot like a dog fight.