I haven't had a puppy in 12 years and got an Aussie puppy 2 weeks ago.
A few books and sites tell me not to play tug of war with him. We
started obedience training yesterday and the trainer said it's fine as
long as I win 9 out of 10 times and I let him know that we stop when I
want to. Since this is different that what I've been reading I thought
I'd see what your response to this would be.

Thanks,
Susan ~ TX

said in rec.pets.dogs.breeds:

I haven't had a puppy in 12 years and got an Aussie puppy 2
weeks ago. A few books and sites tell me not to play tug of
war with him. We started obedience training yesterday and
the trainer said it's fine as long as I win 9 out of 10
times and I let him know that we stop when I want to. Since
this is different that what I've been reading I thought I'd
see what your response to this would be.

Play tug as much as you want. The dog can win or you can win,
whatever you feel like at the moment. Outside of my experience,
but I understand that working retrievers should not play tug in
order to retain a soft mouth.

All sorts of play, and especially tug, are great rewards and
motivators for many dogs. Some "alpha" theorists claim that
letting your dog win at tug ups his dominance level over you a
notch. This is hogwash as long as you set the rules to the
game. In my house, the only rule is no teeth on skin - the game
ends right there. Others think that only the human should
initiate the games - with my current dogs, I'm not concerned
about that. When Friday brings me a toy to tug, it's an
indication that--to him--he's being ignored. Since he's not a
pushy dog, I'm happy to submit to him.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

Rocky writes:

All sorts of play, and especially tug, are great rewards and
motivators for many dogs. Some "alpha" theorists claim that
letting your dog win at tug ups his dominance level over you a
notch. This is hogwash as long as you set the rules to the
game. In my house, the only rule is no teeth on skin - the game
ends right there.

I think it was in Jean Donaldson's book, "Culture Clash", I read that
tug games with dogs aren't about competition at all, but are rather a
more cooperative venture mimicing the way wild canids work together to
pull apart prey animals.

Sounds good to me.

--
Stafford A. Rau
raudog @ rauhaus.org

on 2005-12-05 at 13:56 wrote:

I think it was in Jean Donaldson's book, "Culture Clash", I
read that tug games with dogs aren't about competition at
all, but are rather a more cooperative venture mimicing the
way wild canids work together to pull apart prey animals.

domesticated ones, too.

--
shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net
http://cat-sidh.blogspot.com/