Tug of war?
Anyone have an opinion? What about wrestling? I know we shouldn't roughhouse/wrestle, but it's just too much fun! We haven't broken anything yet! (Unless you count that old vase that we were planning to get rid of anyway!) |
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| I have no qualms about playing tug of war or wrestling with the puppy. The only thing we do is make sure we decide when it stops. My last dog was a very dominant GSD/Dobie mix, and he loved playing tug of war. When it was time to stop, we'd ask him to drop the toy, sit, and then we'd give him a toy or treat as a reward. I think it was good for him, and we clearly and consistently communicated our expectations as well. |
| We have a few "raggy toy's" as we call the big knotted ropes, Archie only plays tug with those, he'll bring one up to us and wack us in the groin to let us know it's time to play raggy toy! It only lasts for 15-20 minutes, he enjoys it immensly, he doesn't get much grip on the tiled floor. I don't see it as much of an issue in our case, but I suppose if your sheepie got obsessed with tugging everything and everyone then it wouldn't be good. Wrestling/Rough housing - he only does it with me and generally it is on our first meeting of the day, but only on my instigation, it normally stops when I have been beaten black and blue  (that was a joke) |
| Some people will say you can pull their bite out of alignment by tug-of-war which is bad for the dog generally and will lose points in a show. Dexter loves tug-of-war but I try to limit how hard he pulls by lettng him win when he gets carried away. |
Cloud loves tug of war. He has an old towel that he brings to us when it is tuggy time. He also likes to wrestle but we decide when and sometimes he actually obeys (sometimes)  |
| I was having a behavioral issue with our little Caitlyn in the ring. She thought it was fun to jump and snap at my arm at one point breaking the skin and causing quite an issue. A friend of our mentor told us to cease all tugging games as this is a game we will never win as the dog will never give up and we eventually would, thus she wins. Once we stopped the tugging games and set in place some other training cues, Caitlyn straightened out. We do allow her to play tug with Zoey, but we stay out of it. We play toss instead. Caitlyn will play this FAR longer than Zoey so it seems to work. Zoey is usually only good for two or three tosses where as Caitlyn is good for a dozen or more. Vance |
| Mady loves playing tug with me, one of her favourite games. She will play fetch as well, but fetch is always a prelude to tug for her. As to who gets to "win", it depends, some of the rounder, rubber toys, I can fairly easily pull out of her mouth, some toys it is impossible, and I'll eventually tell her to drop it, which she will, then I'll throw it, she'll fetch, and tug starts again. Sometimes I let her win. I'm not hung up on the "never let them win" perspective I hear. Mady is the perfect dog and I don't have any worries about dominance issues with her. |
| After his daily gromming session, Kenz runs and gets his rope out of his toy box and brings it to me, putting one end of it in my hand. We then play tug for a minute or so before I say "No - enough" and he then runs away. He sees it as his reward. Nik  |
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