For some reason Holly is reluctant to play tuggy with me. She'll wrestle, chase and play every other game with me without any hesitation. She will play tuggy with OH, but not with me. Has anyone any suggestions about why she holds back and what I could do?
Charlie had to learn to play tug - and I had to learn too. I didn't play tug with Charlie until he was 18month old - this was because I'd read "don't play tug with your dog". So I didn't.... I also spent a lot of time encouraging him to be gentle around toys, human hands, and to wait to be told to 'take it'. Suddenly, after 18 months of this, I wanted him to grab a toy and tug. He was just bemused.... We started slow...he wasn't all that interested. I went back to my trainer and say 'it's no good'...she demonstrated that she could get him to play tug. So I started putting my heart into it a bit more, building up the value of the toy (treating it like it was super precious and valuable), praising him and laughing, and encouraging. At first, just in the garden, and I'd keep his interest for just a few seconds.....but I kept at it....then got a few seconds on the Common and so on. I treated it like a dog reluctant to retrieve - a tiny bit at a time, made a massive fuss of him when he got it right, and stopped when he wanted more. Took a while, but he's a real keen tug player now. It's not his tip top games, other games are higher value, but he does enjoy it. I tried a few toys, he likes strips of rabbit skin the best. Here he is on his first ever tug lesson (ages ago now) - he was tugging it ever so gently! P8080907 by julieandcharlie julieandcharlie, on Flickr
Oh, the other thing is you can use a tug toy with food in it to get started, a sock would work but I think Tuff e Nuff sells one...
I'd also make sure you're not looming over her, which she might find threatening. Maybe start off sitting on the floor? In "Pigs Fly", it suggests that dragging the toy along the floor is more likely to garner a reaction than dangling it in their face. It also suggests (for a ball, but I tried it yesterday with a tug toy to good effect), throwing the toy, running to it yourself, picking it up, throwing it from hand to hand, being excited about it but ignoring the dog. Keep repeating, not trying to encourage her to join in at all, just playing with this most fun thing in the world all by yourself. It worked for me and Willow went from not being interested at all to having a lovely game of tug in a few minutes
I've been sitting down and making encouraging noises with lots of praise. I like the idea of playing with the toy and ignoring Holly to get her interested. I'll have to hide all the cameras as my OH would have that online in no time!
