Morning everyone -

My little guy (1 yr old) is always nibbling on ears of other dogs at the park. Every now and then, he will pin down another dog and nibble their throat as well. It's nothing too serious as I can tell the dogs are playing, but there are times where the other dog is showing his teeth and mine is still playing.

I am sure he is showing his dominance, but lately I can tell some other owners are getting annoyed with it.

I head over and pull him off and then he goes right back in. Frankly, it's kind of annoying. Is this just his behavior or should I be doing something to get him to stop?

Most of the other huskies I see there are not acting this way. He is very friendly towards all dogs and humans, he just seems to get excited and plays in this manner too often.

Any ideas? I am looking into it too much?

Unless you see a lot of intensity or the other dog is getting hurt I'd say it's just husky play. They do tend to play rougher than most other breeds. It should be easy to tell if it's just play.

My boy is always going for the throat. I have a feeling that huskies play rougher because they need to learn to actually survive in the habitat they were bred to live in. You don't ''play'' with wolves or polar bears. You go for the throat and try to kill. So I think it's just in their nature. No other dog was bred to survive what huskies should be able to survive.

Bode does this with my parent's dog, our cat, and us (our ears and noses). All people/animals that I think he considers part of the "pack." It's not painful at all, we call it 'flea nibbling'. I view it as more of a grooming thing to show affection to his pack. This may not be the behavior that you are experiencing though.

I know Loki tries to do this with our dogs and one of our cats. I taught him be nice with our cat so he is much better at just sitting next to her and licking her ears. With our dogs I was concerned but at about 8 months Lexi stopped letting him by growling or walking away. The behavior stopped and I have not noticed him trying to do it much with any dogs. Seems she taught him this behavior does not fly. Maybe try finding another dog to help who is pretty tolerant. Lexi also did get up and keep walking him from him but in a few weeks it went away. She is a very patient dog with him.