Tug: Yer doin' it wrong?

It wasn't all that long ago that most dog trainers advised people to not play tug (commonly called "tug of war" back then) with their dogs as it could lead to problems.  The dog would become dominant.  The dog could even become aggressive.  This was especially true, according to these trainers, if the dog won the game.  If you were going to play such an aggressive game with your dog, then you better make sure you could win it each and every time in order to show the dog who was the alpha.  There are, in fact, some trainers who still believe this.  Cesar Millan (a TV personality who claims to be a "dog psychologist) says on his page about puppy development, "If you don't step in and discourage this kind of dominance-seeking behavior early on - or, worse yet, if you allow your puppy to "win" at dominance games such as wrestling or Tug-of-War - it could set the stage for more serious challenges to your leadership down the road."  He's not the only one, however.  Google "Tug of war and dominance" and you will find many such results stating the same thing.

More recently, trainers have been debunking this myth.  More often called "tug" than "tug of war" these days, it is touted as a great game to play with your dog.  But (and there always has to be a "but" right?)...you should only play it with very specific rules attached to the game.  The basic rules most sites seem to give:

1. You initiate the game of tug.
2. The dog must drop the toy immediately when asked.
3. Ask for behaviors in between sessions of tug.
4. If the dog's teeth connect with you, even accidentally, the game is over (one site even suggests leaving the dog alone in the room!).

The trainers who suggest these rules are the cream of the crop: Grisha Stewart, Emily Larlham, Ian Dunbar, Jean Donaldson, Pat Miller.  It's hard to argue with these folks and I suppose for most people following these sorts of rules will work well enough.  They aren't bad rules by any means and it certainly could mean a good rousing game of tug for many dogs!

However, maybe because I come at it from a different standpoint than most, I play tug very differently than is recommended by the great trainers.  I'm looking at tug as a way to get my dog "up" to play agility and as a way to increase my dog's confidence.  Dahlia has a lot of tug drive.  It's even a self-rewarding behavior for when she's done something good (like greet the children down the road nicely and calmly).  But lately I've been working on getting her higher and higher and more and more ready to work by using tug.

Here are my rules:

NONE.

That's right.  None.  If she grabs the toy (or leash) first, that's awesome.  I'm happy to see her do it.  I don't give her a "drop" command as that ends the game and immediately calms her down.   Instead, I "fight" to get the toy back (oh boy those dominance trainers would have a fit over that one!).  I shove her around. I boot her in the sides with my legs. I yank the toy hard to try to slide it out of her mouth.  Once she really has her mouth clamped down hard on it, I actually put my hand around her muzzle and pry that sucker right out of her mouth.  This often causes some crazy growling and even barking.  Oh boy does she get mad at me for that one!  She'll leap for the toy, sometimes hitting me with her front feet, sometimes her teeth even connecting with my arm (she never bites down and I haven't gotten so much as a scrape or a bruise from this).  If I put the toy behind my back she'll try to leap around me to grab it out of my hands.

The game is fun.  The game can be really tiring (for me!).  And the game leaves her really up and ready to work.  The difference between a Dahlia who is not up on the agility course and one who is up is dramatic.

So no offense to those awesome trainers who I truly do respect, but tug doesn't always need those sorts of rules attached to it.  I may be "doin' it wrong," but surely I can't be the only person out there to play tug with no rules!

It's a beautiful thing (aka A little bit of Rebel)

Ever since I began agility classes at the place I'm currently taking classes at, I've noticed a change come over Dahlia.  It happened quickly and it took me by surprise.  She was never a timid dog, but she was a soft dog who was overly sensitive to certain things: being run into, loud noises, and dogs who wanted to play rough, specifically.

I had her for over two years before we began classes here and she had yet to overcome any of these things.  Some of that was because I simply allowed to it be.  I didn't work on acclimating her to being run into.  I didn't work on getting her used to loud noises.  And I kept rougher dogs away from her.

The first of the trio of "issues" she has (being run into) has been successfully solved through this class.  We got her so involved in tug that I started to incorporate running into her as part of the game.  We'd play tug for a time and then I'd step forward and run into her side, or use my legs to manipulate her side.  She would hang into the tug and growl and start tugging harder.  It was a signal for "amp up the play, girl!" and she took to it brilliantly.  Once she was comfortable with my running into her during play, I would begin to run into her on purpose and then offer her the tug toy.  She'd grab onto it and play.  Now she sees running into her as a signal to play and she is instantly up and excited.  If I don't have a toy there, she settles right down.  But she's not shutting down and that's the important thing!

The second of the trio I'm only beginning to work on more, so we'll leave that for another day.

It's the third of this trio of "issues" that is the real subject of this post, though seeing her play with the tug toy the way she has been is also beautiful in and of itself.  But this last one, playing with dogs who are rough, has been something that has weighed on my mind for some time.  Generally, interaction with a wrestle play type dog goes like this:


1. Dog approaches.
2. Dahlia gets super excited about meeting this dog.
3. Dog jumps on Dahlia.
4. Dahlia issues a pretty clear warning growl.
5. Dog either persists and gets more warning growls or the owner pulls the dog away because my dog is "aggressive."  (This depends on the person at the other end of the dog's leash.  More knowledgeable people recognize the warning.  Less knowledgeable people think she's starting a fight.)

I've gotten used to this.  I really have.  And I've explained to other people so many times that my dog "is really just a chaser and doesn't like to be jumped on."  I've apologized countless times and tried to explain to the less knowledgeable that "no, she's really not aggressive...this is just how dogs communicate."

Saturday morning before class we saw one of the other dogs approach us.  Rebel is a lab puppy who is approximately 8 months old at this time.  Dahlia has met him before and he has certainly gotten the warning growl.  His owner is, thankfully, one of the more knowledgeable people and recognizes that Dahlia is helping to teach him something.  On Saturday morning Rebel clearly had a lot of excess energy to burn because as soon as he saw Dahlia and I, he took a flying leap...straight up into the air.  And then he came bounding toward Dahlia, alternately leaping in the air and rearing up.

I was expecting to experience my list above, step by step.

But I didn't get that.

Instead, he immediately rushed up and jumped on Dahlia.  Dahlia backed up briefly, but then launched herself at him with a big excited growly play face on and leapt on him.  She just pounced, like she pounces on her stuffed toys.  He jumped back.  She rushed forward and jumped on him again.  And they briefly wrestled.

It brought tears to my eyes.  Yes.  For real.  I admit to being a complete sucker when it comes to my dog.  Any time I see her grow like this, I get all teary-eyed.  I told Rebel's owner that this was amazing and I'd never seen her do that before.

And her response?

"I guess all she needed was a little bit of Rebel in her life."

Yes.  I think we all need a little bit of Rebel in our lives!

The UPS truck

The walk begins and it's fairly normal.  Stop.  Start.  Stop again.  Sniff a lot.  Pee on bushes.  Sniff some more.  Start walking again.  Walks with Dahlia are fairly slow and this one is no different.

Suddenly she rushes forward onto the grass between the sidewalk and the road and sits.  Her ears are up and forward.  Her eyes are bright and focused.  Her whole body quivers in anticipation.  And that's when I spot it.  The Holy Grail of vehicles: The UPS truck.

It's sitting on the side of the road, currently driverless.  He's delivering a package in one of the houses nearby.  But this doesn't stop Dahlia from staring in excitement.  She knows what's coming.

The driver returns to his truck and smiles at the dog whose tail has started to wag, while the rest of her body remains in the seated position, quivering from barely-contained excitement.

He turns the key and starts the truck up.  VROOM!  It makes a huge sound, a gigantic thundering sound of what, to Dahlia, must surely be sheer awesomeness.  She jumps up and immediately starts to bark.  This is not a bark of fear.  This is not a bark of aggression.  This is a bark of pure joy!  Her face is set in a smile, her eyes are bright and excited.  As the truck moves off, she races on ahead after it, barking all the way.

When finally the truck has pulled further away than her leash will extend, she rushes back to me with a huge grin on her face as if to say "Mom, that was awesome!"  I squeal in delight, for I share her joy and love to see her like this.

And then she spots the truck parked further down the road.  Another package to deliver.  She races on ahead and looks back to me as she does so.  "Mom hurry up! We can do it again!"  I run with her.  Her excitement is infectious. 

We stop just slightly in front of the truck and Dahlia immediately goes into her sit, quivering with excitement yet again.  The whole process repeats itself until the truck has driven on, around the corner, and is no longer of interest to the crazy black dog who is left panting at the side of the road.

The UPS truck is endlessly fascinating to Dahlia.  Other trucks (including those of Fed Ex and other package delivering vehicles) are passed by with barely a glance.  Why the UPS truck holds such a fascination for her when the others do not will likely remain a mystery to me.

Play styles and realization

Before I got a dog, I had very specific ideas of what a dog was. One of the major ideas I had centered around play: Dogs like to play fetch. Period. Tennis balls, frisbees, sticks. Anything you could toss a dog would chase after. As far as I was concerned fetch was the number one thing dogs loved to do.

So when we were planning on getting a dog and I went to Petsmart to get treats and toys and beds and all the other paraphernalia one needs for a new dog, fetching toys were high on my list. I came back with a frisbee and tennis balls galore. I was all set for my marathon fetching sessions.

One of the first thing I did when I got Dahlia was show her the ball and toss it out into the yard. At this point, I expected the typical dog reaction: an excited and somewhat frantic race to the ball. Instead I got this:


Mom I do not understand what it is you have done...

She watched the ball fly away from me and then turned to look up at me with this sort of bored and confused look on her face. I could almost hear her thoughts: Mom, why did you throw that thing?

A dog who doesn't fetch? No, this isn't possible, right? Even if she doesn't bring the ball back to me, surely she would show interest in getting the ball, chasing the ball, right? But no. Not even a movement toward the ball. Not even a muscle twitch that told me she was interested in going after the ball. I found that utterly unbelievable. How does a dog not learn how to play fetch in the first two years of her life? I was sure she was play deprived and I would have to show her how to be a proper dog. I swear my motto when it came to dogs was Dogs Fetch.  That would be Canis Fetchis in Latin.

I spent many months getting her interested in toys and then pulling hard to get her to let go of them so I could toss them. Eventually, she started to get it.


Look Mom, I can fetch!

But still, I would have to tug on it to get it out of her mouth and throw it again. I didn't want to teach her a drop it command only because I was afraid doing so would make her lose interest in the game. I wanted her to play and playing should be on the dog's terms, right? So I would tug and tug and finally get the toy and throw it. She'd fetch it and the game would begin again.

Except she would lose interest after about 3 or 4 tosses of the toy and just lay down. I started to believe my dog was just not playful.

But then I began to realize something else. The times she was really playful and really got into the playing were the times when I was tugging on the toy. And I began to realize how many photos I had of her playing tug.







Dahlia loves tug. Loves it. I don't know why it took me this long to figure it out. Maybe it's because I was so locked into fetch as the ultimate in dog games that I didn't take the time to really watch her and realize that, while she enjoys fetching to some degree, she really lives for tug games.

Of course, there's the other side of this: A lot of people used to proclaim tug "dangerous." The reasons ran the gamut from making your dog more aggressive to making the dog dominant (especially if they're allowed to "win" the game). Many people have come up with very strict rules for tug games. You are only allowed to play the game if...If you don't let the dog win... If you teach them to drop the toy...If you don't let the dog leap for the toy. The list goes on and on.

I admit to playing this game with no rules. In play, my dog has leapt for the toy and has even made contact with my arm once when she miscalculated where the toy was. Dahlia is usually a quiet, calm dog, but we're working on agility now and I'm trying to build up some drive in her. Tug seems to be the way to do it. It really amps her up and I'm thrilled to see such excitement and drive coming out of her. I feel no need to put rules on it. Rules may end the play quickly with a dog like mine.

So we play tug with complete abandonment. She loves it. It's become a huge reward for her and I'm using it as a reward more and more. She greets someone nicely and relaxes while I chat with them? She gets to play tug afterward. I used to redirect her to fetching, but I'd throw the ball and end up having to get it myself. I've taken to letting her play tug with the leash on walks or bringing a toy and letting her tug on that. Recently, I've obtained a leash specifically meant for tug games. It's made out of braided fleece and has sheepskin woven into it. It's perfect for the dog who loves to tug!

Tug toy and leash were obtained through Tillie's Tuggies. A portion of the proceeds go to Glen Highland Farm, a local Border collie rescue. After having the leash and tug toy for only a couple days, I can honestly say that I highly recommend them for dogs who love tug games!

Fetch of a different sort

Dahlia's standard idea of fetch, when she's actually interested in it, is essentially this:

1. Mom throws ball (squeaky toy, frisbee, glove...).
2. Dahlia runs and gets the toy.
3. Dahlia runs back near Mom.
4. Dahlia lays down to squeak said toy.

A variation that she sometimes employs is:

1. Mom throws ball (squeaky toy, frisbee, glove...).
2. Dahlia runs and gets the toy.
3. Dahlia runs to Mom.
4. Dahlia darts away and a game of keep away ensues.
5. Mom catches up to Dahlia and a game of tug ensues.

Either way, Dahlia loves it.

But lately, she's added a new twist. She's learning to throw the ball back. That's right. She's running back around me, shaking her head around and then tossing the ball near me. Then she's waiting for me to "fetch" it and toss it for her again.

I think this dog is very empathetic with humans. She tries smiling like us. And now she tries playing fetch like us. Soon she'll be walking on her hind legs (she's already learning to stand on them) and playing on the internet. Watch out world! Here comes Dahlia!

Play styles

I'm currently reading Pat Miller's book Play With Your Dog (you can buy this book at amazon.com and other places). This subject is especially interesting to me because play is one major thing we humans share with dogs. But I also find it fascinating because play is one thing Dahlia struggles with the most. When she first came to live with us, play was completely alien to her. She didn't understand toys. She didn't understand fetch. She didn't understand a dog's play bow. There was nothing she did that could be deemed playful, unless you found her sad attempts at herding us (by trying to grab onto our pant legs) as "playful."

In the two years since then, she's started to get it more and more. She loves her squeaky toys and often pounces on one and squeaks it ad nauseum for 5 or 10 minutes. She'll play fetch. Or rather, her own version of fetch, which consists of running for the ball and then taking off squeaking it (Dahlia will not play with anything that does not have a squeaker). She seems to understand play bows and has even been offering them herself to some dogs.

And what has emerged is a very specific play style.

Miller describes 7 play styles:

1. Cheerleaders (who play on the outside of a group who is more physically engaged and bark) -- these can turn into the dreaded "fun police" if not kept in check.

2. Body slammers

3. Wrestlers

4. Chasers

5. Tuggers

6. Soft touches

7. Self-play


I enjoyed reading her descriptions of these specific types of play as I've seen these dogs at the dog park and among the dogs we meet while out and about and while I didn't name them the exact same thing she did and while I didn't catch them all, I found my thoughts on dog play styles and hers were pretty much in line.

Dahlia falls mostly into category 4 (chasers), with occasional bouts of 1 (cheerleader). The latter especially happens at the dog park, and I am afraid at times I think she's being the "fun police." If she thinks play is getting too rough she'll bark incessantly and sometimes body block one dog and herd him away from the other. Sometimes this is wonderful, especially when she herds a bully away from a more timid dog.

Here you can see her being the "fun police" at the park. These two dogs were playing very roughly together. Dahlia rushed up and started barking at them. They stopped playing. Fun police wins.


The lighter coloured dog (some sort of AmStaff or Pit Bull) kept trying to mount the Boxer. I'm not sure the Boxer enjoyed it, so perhaps Dahlia did the Boxer a favour.


Here you can see her joyfully chasing another dog.



She's also a soft touch. The one thing that I've noticed about Dahlia is that she can't handle the body slammers or wrestlers of the group. She doesn't do those; she doesn't play "bitey face." She's not a physical dog when she plays and, in fact, self-handicaps when chasing in order to not make contact with the other dog. A dog jumping on her will get a warning growl and occasionally an air snap if he/she doesn't get it right away. It has never progressed further than that as the vast majority of dogs understand what the growl means (and for those that don't, I step in and shoo them away!).

Recently Dahlia and I met an Australian Shepherd while out on a walk. He was of similar size to Dahlia and friendly, so we let them meet. I've never met a dog who was so identical to her in play style. We threw the ball for him, which he ran to get, Dahlia close on his heels. Once he got the ball, he stood still and squeaked it, some 20-30 feet away from us. And as we watched, he ran up to Dahlia, dropped the fall 5 feet away from her and waited. When she made a move toward him, he grabbed the ball and took off running in a huge arc, Dahlia at his heels. They did this several times, with his taunting her with the ball and her running after him. They even changed roles with Dahlia being the chased (which is rare for her as she likes to be the chaser).

There was not one warning growl from her. The dogs did not come into physical contact except during the initial greeting ritual.

It was perfect for Dahlia and, I'm sure, perfect for this Aussie friend of hers as well.

It makes me think. When we do finally get a second dog, I'm going to be looking carefully at play styles, even more so than at size or breed. I don't want to have a wrestler who will make her uncomfortable.

Of course, this means I'm setting myself up for a lifetime of chasers, cheerleaders, and soft touches, but there you have it!