Tug Training Articles Now On Thl Home Page

[skycat 6,172]

Finally, as promised many moons ago, the tug training articles I wrote are now on the THL home page. Many thanks to IanB and Paulus for sorting them out for me as non-techno brain here was having problems figuring out how to put them all on together.

All four articles are together for ease of reading.

 

Although it is titled the Value of Tug Games with Puppies, you can teach virtually any dog of any age to do this, though in some cases with timid, or previously abused dogs, it may take them months and months to reach the stage where they feel confident enough in you to play the game.

 

Casso, on here, has advocated the pushing technique on several occasions. This is a way of increasing confidence in dogs of all ages: have a read here on how to do it: https://naturaldogtraining.com/blog/why-we-push/

 

The following link takes you to the home page of this site, and the Tug Training articles:

 

http://www.thehuntinglife.com/the-value-of-tug-games-with-puppies/

 

If you want to see just what level of control and engagement can be achieved with tug play, then have a look at the following video, of American trainer Michael Ellis and his dog Pi, a Malinois.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpjCAJ7wghY

 

Note that this is a dog that has been trained in this technique since an early age. The commands to grab the tug are so quiet you can barely hear them: a hiss. He uses the word 'out' instead of 'give', and 'couche' for 'lie down' which is the French word.

 

This looks very impressive, but I achieved similar results with a high energy and very driven Saluki lurcher by the time he was a year old, the brindle pup in the photos.

 

I've opened this topic so people can ask questions and discuss the technique. Previously I'd been emailing the articles to people, but there was such a demand for them that IanB has kindly allowed me to put them on the site permanently.

 

I'd also very much appreciate it if one of the mods could pin this topic, as the problems people have with recall and retrieve are ongoing, and so many new members on here post questions on the problems they are having with these two things.

 

Any questions, just ask away!

 

 

[rabbitpie 2]

Thank you for posting ,that was very helpful and informative.

[tb25 4,626]

Cheers penny..

[planete 120]

Thank you. I had not thought of going back to using a tug toy to improve a rather too playful retrieve!