Do NOT play like this with your dog!

Today I want to talk about the game of tug-of-war. There's a lot of information out there, tons of our clients always, this is one of the questions that they have as far as psychology. Should we play tug-of-war with our dogs or puppies? And generally the answer is no, because it does create adversity between you and the dog. This is how personally, you know, anybody who's in the protection world, we build aggression through toys and playing tug-of-war. So that's how you bring out the aggressive nature for future. But when you're playing this, you know, all the owners they don't know how to play this properly, so they start pulling on the dog, doing these things, making a, you know, a conflict between them and the dog. They don't know how to play, they try to yank it out of the dog's mouth, he lets go, they pull it away, they make prey, the dog starts coming after him harder. Then eventually what we start getting, we have tons of clients with puppies that are anywhere from four months old to six months old, and the puppy's already growling at them, and they go near toys and the puppy growls, then they start, can start to turn over to food. So the tug-of-war game is a very powerful game for a dog. It gives a lot of power and it creates a lot more prey drive when you do this. So with our own puppies, even my Goldens, we start to do this from day one because I want to build as much play drive as possible. But there has to be rules to the game. So you cannot just play tug-of-war with a dog and have no rules and start stealing toys and and fighting and trying to win the toy from the dog, because now you're gonna cause all sorts of problems between you and them relationship-wise. So here with Hobbs, I just started this a day or two ago, he's got massive play drive and he does have a little issue because he is so prey driven for the toys that he does tend to go after other puppies that come near the toys, he becomes possessive. So here with him, I'm teaching him on cue, we can play this game and for future I don't get into any problems with my own dog. So here I let him have, I pull on a little bit, I make more drive, more conflict for him. The more I pull on it, the more I turn him on. All right, but the game is here I'm gonna relax him, let him feel good. If I ask for it, out, good, good boy. And immediately he has to let go of the toy. And generally I'm not gonna ask him more than once. I want him to let go of it immediately. Okay, and when I say okay, he can have it again. Then while playing this game, here you see me, right, see he let go there. So since it's new for him and I've been adding discipline to this game, he tends to let go a little bit sometimes. So here I'll turn him sideways, I keep the drive, he lets go, get the chase of it, get his prey going, pat him, good boy, like I'm not gonna steal the toy from him all the time or make him let go of it. He can have it, he can enjoy it. So here when he starts getting chewy and mouthy and starts letting go, I put my hands on it, I let him have it, telling him that I'm not gonna take it from him and make him let go every single time. Boy, boy, touch, touch, touch, I pet, no out, touch, touch, touch, I play with him, no out. So I let him know just because my hands go on it doesn't mean that I want it or he has to let go. Good boy. I'll move him around a little bit instead of letting him, making him let go. Good boy. I don't want him to become paranoid and lose his drive for the game. Good boy. Good boy. Sit. Okay. Good. So self-control, when I drop it on the ground, doesn't mean he can go get it. When I tell him the okay word, he's allowed, he's free to go grab the toy again on my command. So I control the game. You cannot let him tug a war, the dog control the game or you may have problems down the road with aggression toward yourself and your own family members. And while he has in his mouth, never you do this, he's chewing on it, he's playing and you go like this and try to pull the toy out of his mouth. This and try to steal it from him because this creates a lot of problems with thievery. The dog thinking you're a thief, you know, then they try harder to get the toy every time it comes out of their mouth at you and that's when you're gonna start getting pursuing problems and mouthing at you and then eventually aggression towards you for stealing. He doesn't think you want it, he just thinks you got lucky and you took it, you didn't win anything from him. So that's why you need him on cue to let go on your command for respect. That's the game of tug-of-war.