I have inadvertently allowed my dog to have a chewy grip by throwing a ball for him as a reward. I'm looking for some advice as to how I can remedy this grip problem.

I have a 7 month old GSD with loads of prey drive and is also displaying defense drive already. Training is going really well except for one area: Grip!



I have inadvertently allowed him to have a chewy grip by throwing a ball for him as a reward during other types of training and allowing him to run back to me carrying the ball to commence a game of tug. During this run back to me he has been mouthing the ball, without me taking much notice and now that I want to do grip training I can see where I have gone wrong. You live and learn!!!



I am now looking for some advice as to how I can remedy this grip problem, I have many of your DVDs and have tried the routines used by Bernard Flinks in the Drive, Focus and Grip DVD but the problem is he can run around and chew the tug no matter how fast I run and I feel that continuing with this is going to make the problem worse (if that is possible). Also he has a pretty firm grip when he wants to and when I try to rip the tug from him when he is chewing he is quicker than me and can bite down before I can get it away from him.



HELP!



Spike