 Barked: Tue Oct 2, '12 12:28pm PST |
 | |  | | "The more rousing the game of tug is, the more likely the dog is to want to run off with the rope."
I very rarely see this happen with the terriers I train. (maybe it's a breed thing?) The point of tug for them is the interaction with me, the rope/tug toy isn't anywhere near as rewarding without me. Unmoving it's a 'dead' toy, once that happens they're quickly on to the next one as that's an appropriate prey drive sequence for them. That's not because I'm wonderful, it's because for these dogs food is not much of a motivator or reward to them so I've been using tug rewards since they were weeks old. They are all about the movement and thrill of the tug and hold. I use tug almost exclusively as a reward with these guys. They've got a specific tug toy for that purpose alone, it's never used for chewing or fetching. The best, their personal fave, is reserved for rewarding during training.
In fact, if they break off or 'win', their next behavior is to run at me with the tug reward toy in their mouth and butt me with it demanding more play. For whatever reason, they don't run away but almost always toward. Then I'll ask for whatever behavior we're working on and if they deliver, the tug game gets even better. So I've found the opposite to be true, the more rousing the game, the more tug they want. It lines up with their hunting style. For other breeds, though, it wouldn't surprise me if another part of the sequence was more rewarding for them.
I like Fenzi's blog, too. She's much better at putting the sequences in to words than I am.  |  |  | |  |
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1
... I would never let the pup have her tug as a chew toy... I have tugs of two types. Our informal tug/retrieve toy is a rubber ring which is not good for chewing and our formal training object is a fire hose tug... which is chewable, so not offered except as tug reward 
