I had heard that most dogs like playing tug. Whether you want to play it or not, dogs pretty much all do, especially when puppies. Not my two. They were never interested, even when they were small. I tried to engage them in it, making exciting noises and movements, but they weren't having it. Tug just wasn't fun for them, so I abandoned it. I wish I hadn't. A few months ago, I decided I'd go about training them to play tug. Clicker and treats in hand, I went painfully through marking and rewarding for contact with the tug toy, and built this up to rewarding a more solid grip. It was pretty slow going, especially with Willow. When I got my puller rings, I suddenly had a big step forwards - they seemed to prefer the texture of them to anything I'd tried before. Still, it wasn't what you'd call enthusiastic for a long time. And it was only with the puller rings, so I had to try to transfer the behaviours to other toys, too. Willow absolutely hated anything furry in her mouth, so I didn't push her on this and kept her on unfluffy toys. Well, fast forward to today, and I'm using tug games as a reward themselves now! At last, tug has become a reinforcer and they LOVE it. What's more, Willow suddenly (yesterday, in fact), decided that the furry toy I was playing with with Shadow looked really interesting; she grabbed it and we had a game of tug. Yay! So happy to have got this far and added something else enriching into their lives. Here's a little video I took this morning. There are three elements - the games of tug, the jump and the dog that's not interacting with me learning that's OK, with an automatic reward program on the Treat & Train station. It's their first time doing this, so it's a very high rate of reinforcement at this point, but they're putting up with a big distraction with the tug and the jumping, so I'm pleased with that. Yes, Willow creeps a bit, but she was a bit of a hesitant jumper, so I've not worked on her steadiness to the jump to now, because it would have been counter-productive. Now that she's learned jumping is fun, I can start introducing rewarding in place. Anyhow, that was a lot of waffle. Here are my dogs who don't like playing tug:
Well done Willow & Shawdow. They certainly look to be enjoying themselves! I'm actually in awe that you can get one dog to be quiet and happy by themselves and play with the other. Stanley can't even cope if I clean my rabbits out and don't involve him!
Haha, well the Treat and Train was a massive help today! They can happily sit and watch without the T&T when I'm doing gundog stuff, including throwing dummies and balls around, but the jumping is far more exciting, which is why I've gone back to basics here. You can train Stanley to settle, too, you just have to put your mind to it
