May 11, 2011
My dog has a lot of tug drive but always wants to grip really close to my fingers. How do I get him to grip lower on the toy without killing his drive?
Full Question:
I have a male Aussie that has been training in agility for about a year. In the last few months I've been working on building a tug drive using Susan Garrett's techniques. Well he's got lot's of tug drive but he always wants to grip really close to my fingers and sometimes puts to much pressure and it hurts. How do I get him to grip lower on the toy without killing his drive? What usually do is say OWWW and Out and when he chooses a better spot to tug we go at it again. Is this a good method? He's bruised my hand a few times and I try to keep the sessions short so he doesn't get over stimulated but I would eventually like to use this as a reward without him taking my hand off. Aliza
Cindy's Answer:
I wouldn’t say out. I’d go back to teaching the dog targeting. I use marker training to reinforce this, just like I do everything else. If the dog is biting my hand instead of the tug, then I use my negative mark and the game stops. Dogs absolutely know where they are putting their mouths, and if you’ve already done marker training then he will already understand the concept. You may also want to experiment with different types of tugs. Some of them promote erratic gripping. We have a variety of tugs, sometimes you also need to experiment with different biting surfaces as well as enforcing the rules of play.
Here’s the article on markers and the video we released about 4 months ago The Power of Training Dogs with Markers.
I hope this helps.
Cindy
Here’s the article on markers and the video we released about 4 months ago The Power of Training Dogs with Markers.
I hope this helps.
Cindy
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