What you allow is what you get.

[Hector]

both games have to be stopped within minutes. With tugs, he growls (play growl), dilated eyes, starts to jump/ try to take my end of the rope from my hand. Same with flirt pole. Another unwanted consequence is that he initiates tugs with different objects in the house. I determined him to forget it and respond to "give' or "drop" command. I don't want to reinforce the fact that if he doesn't "give" then we play tug.

I have played tug with a dog like this. My bf's bro's dog is a young, under exercised, and totally untrained, hi energy, can play for days type of lab/hound mix. Very strong for his size because he has no training. He loves to play so every time I go over there, I'd play tug and fetch with him. It's a lot of fun as I don't have a dog with high drive like him. Sure you get beat up a bit, but dogs like this learn the quickest. Sure you have to be strong enough to hold onto the tug so the dog doesn't get to take it away from you and keep it, but you'd be surprised how quickly they understand the game. First you tug and when you want the dog to out the toy, just hold the toy still - it takes all the fun out of it and wait. When they release, reward them with tug again. End the game when you want to end. Only play when you initiate play. Put all valuable toys away. That way you build a very strong foundation of focus and engagement. This video demonstrates it well. I love this trainer btw. Energy switches and making yourself relevant through play **💛💚*💜😊✌*👌😜😳😎*** - Katch

 

[Hector]

Sort of sad story, but true. One night right after we left their house, the dog ran away (he returned home eventually). It really made me sad how much he craved attention and the little time I spent with him was enough to make him want more of me. Now that is the power of engagement.

 

[Hector]

We don't have snow here unfortunately. He's good but he gets overexcited with tug and tends to jump up on the "opponent" so I don't tug, wrestle or play power games with him. If I do, then I have to restart the game/"reset" the dog every few minutes. I hide things he knows - ie ball - and he's good at finding. I'll add more complexity. He does fetch. I added 3 identical balls to the game - to see what he does. He was busy for quite a while trying to chose or to bring all of them in the same time. Beside obedience, he's a smart boy and I'd like to see how i can let him add his own "creativity" to the game. I've got some ideas to try in the next weeks.

Another video [video=youtube;oDCB36xiqWM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDCB36xiqWM[/video]

 

[season]

I have played tug with a dog like this. My bf's bro's dog is a young, under exercised, and totally untrained, hi energy, can play for days type of lab/hound mix. Very strong for his size because he has no training. He loves to play so every time I go over there, I'd play tug and fetch with him. It's a lot of fun as I don't have a dog with high drive like him. Sure you get beat up a bit, but dogs like this learn the quickest. Sure you have to be strong enough to hold onto the tug so the dog doesn't get to take it away from you and keep it, but you'd be surprised how quickly they understand the game. First you tug and when you want the dog to out the toy, just hold the toy still - it takes all the fun out of it and wait. When they release, reward them with tug again. End the game when you want to end. Only play when you initiate play. Put all valuable toys away. That way you build a very strong foundation of focus and engagement. This video demonstrates it well. I love this trainer btw. Energy switches and making yourself relevant through play **💛💚*💜😊✌*👌😜😳😎*** - Katch

Well said.


Carpe Diem

 

[season]

Sort of sad story, but true. One night right after we left their house, the dog ran away (he returned home eventually). It really made me sad how much he craved attention and the little time I spent with him was enough to make him want more of me. Now that is the power of engagement.

Well said x2. Solo is very excitable when it comes to tug and flirt pole etc. nothing starts until I call for it and it ends when I stop it. Like u said, very simple to train when they have such a high drive to play.


Carpe Diem

 

[Ssams]

That guy is good.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[teodora]

Sure you get beat up a bit, but dogs like this learn the quickest. Sure you have to be strong enough to hold onto the tug so the dog doesn't get to take it away from you and keep it, but you'd be surprised how quickly they understand the game.

yeah, that's exactly where i have a problem - with the "beat up a bit" and "strong enough to hold " lol. I'm honestly not strong enough to hold onto the tug in a "fair" game and he obviously can knock me out in no time - for a comparison he's 60 kg of muscle and I'm approx 50. Not his fault, i know!

 

[Hector]

yeah, that's exactly where i have a problem - with the "beat up a bit" and "strong enough to hold " lol. I'm honestly not strong enough to hold onto the tug in a "fair" game and he obviously can knock me out in no time - for a comparison he's 60 kg of muscle and I'm approx 50. Not his fault, i know!

Use tugs with thick double handles. Don't let the tug go on for too long so the dog doesn't actually reach a high arousal point and only let him get there when you have lots of control work on lower levels. Technique is very hard to explain because it's never the same with each dog. You're just going to have to research and experiment. Having a strong drop it, leave it helps a lot.

 

[teodora]

I'll try and make a video, so you can see how he goes from level 0 to level 10 of excitement in seconds. He's a good boy and he's really trying hard to please, good "drop it" and "give it" commands otherwise - but playing with him is like riding a speed bike: there's a very fine line, a second between fun and disaster.