I've read many many articles that describe how great playing tug of war with dogs, especially in the morning to get their energy from the night out and therefore reduce the incidence of unwanted behaviours like digging, barking.... However, our breeder says she doesn't teach tug to her dogs because it makes retriever more difficult as the dogs learn to keep the item if they have learned tug. My understanding was that, to the contrary, teaching tug of war teaches your dog to drop/let go/give while being a great energy outlet, plus it is also the precursor of fetch which is pretty much retrieving. Any opinions? Experiences ?
