First, I wasn't quite sure where to post this, so I posted it here.

That said, WTH?!

Whenever I'm playing tug with Duke (7 mos.) and accidentally bop him upside the head while going side to side with him, making him work, he gets afraid of the tug for the rest of the day. He pulls his ears back, closes his eyes, and pushes away...then might go into passive submission by laying down with his chin on the ground. That's only happened three or four times, but this time I decided that it's an issue that I don't know how to address. It's perplexing because he otherwise loves it. He'll fetch it and tug on it for all he's worth, even with me gently tapping down his sides with my hands.

What I tried this morning was have him sit right in front of me while I gently touched him all over his body with the tug to show him that it wasn't going to hurt him. This was right after and might have been the wrong time?

I'm really hoping this either the fear period or workable.

Hitting a dog with the ball or whatever you are using to MAKE drive can take the drive OUT of a dog instantly. Especially puppies. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the dog being afraid of the tug or ball under other circumstances. Maybe you can put the tug on a flirt pole & entice the dog to give chase that way, keeping the tug on the ground so as not to hit him with it. That will still allow you to build drive in the dog with less chance of handler error in striking the dog. I am sure that others with have suggestions as well. I have a female that as a pup could have cared less if you did that to her but my male as a pup, would not have shut down, but would not have liked it much.

I don't like being hit in the face, either. I'm soft like that.

 Quote: anne jones

Hitting a dog with the ball or whatever you are using to MAKE drive can take the drive OUT of a dog instantly. Especially puppies. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the dog being afraid of the tug or ball under other circumstances. Maybe you can put the tug on a flirt pole & entice the dog to give chase that way, keeping the tug on the ground so as not to hit him with it. That will still allow you to build drive in the dog with less chance of handler error in striking the dog. I am sure that others with have suggestions as well. I have a female that as a pup could have cared less if you did that to her but my male as a pup, would not have shut down, but would not have liked it much.

The tug I have has about 18" of rope attached to it. I dropped the tug on the ground and ran away from him making high pitched sounds. He bit the rope a good 6" away from the actual tug. I just went ahead and put him up in his crate at that point.

My wife and I used to bap Rasta (our 13 year old dog) on the cheeks with his toys to get him riled up. I tried that the first time with Duke but he got instantly clingy so I decided that was a no-go for him.

 Quote: Alyssa Myracle

I don't like being hit in the face, either. I'm soft like that.

Oi! I can has fight drive? Getting hit in the face makes me mad.

Seriously though, I trust your knowledge. WWAM do?

I'd back off the tug for awhile, and stick to fetch. In a few days, he'll have forgotten all about being bopped.

I'd ease back into drive building, keep a firm grip on the prey item, and keep the string short. With a young dog, better to be bit then smack the dog.

Obviously, the pup is not wanting to have anything to do with the tug at this point, so you might try putting it up for a while like Alyssa mentioned. I am not sure that I would encourage your pup to chase after you, dragging a tug or not with a young child living with you. You don;t want to encourage the pup chasing people. Might lead to problems down the road especially the way kids run around dragging toys clothers ect. You might want to switch to a leather bite rag. It is a flat piece of leather. I think that Ed's has them. They have a line on them so that you can attach it to a pole to make a flert pole lure or swing it around by hand for the pup to chase & bite. Might not be as big of an issue if you miss & pop the pup with it. You can also use it like a tug holding one (or both ends & targeting the pup to bite the center if using 2 hands.) Most pups with drive will light up when you bring out a rag to chase.

Edited to say the Ed's carries the bit rags. Listed under the bite training equiptment. $38.

Thanks, ladies.

Alyssa, I keep a really firm grip with a hand on each end so he has to bite in between them. It isn't often that I give him a lot of the rope. He let it slip out of his mouth and then I messed up...explained below.

Anne, we don't have kids yet but they are planned. That's good advice though and something I'd never have thought of. Usually when I run around with it, like in my signature, I make him either sit or down and wait for "get it", then the motion starts. My thought is that I'm teaching him not to just play with anything, only what and when he's told he can.

I didn't read either of your replies before playing with him again tonight, but we had a break through! Well, two actually.

First, I got him to play with the tug again by sitting down on the walkway with my feet in the grass and letting him pull it as gently as he wanted. After two or three times he started putting something into it, then I took him into my arms and reassured him that everything was cool...he laid his head against my chest, I was touched. Not even a minute later he was back to tugging it like a maniac.

Second breakthrough. It wasn't getting bopped in the face. I just thought that's what happened. It turns out it was even more handler error than that! I was putting too much pressure on him at the same time he was coming in strong and pushing the tug too far back into his mouth. I can only imagine that was unpleasant. We had engine shut down once again, Captain. This time, I took him into my arms again instead of trying to get him to play again. Like a little a kid, he was find a minute later. He took the tug gently one more time and then it was back to fun time, with a slightly more wise handler. To test this, I started touching his cheeks while he was tugging and then just very lightly tapping them. I moved from there down to smacking him pretty solidly on his shoulders (I built that up slowly and already know he's fine with it) and I actually got some preyful growlage for the first time.

Growling is a sign he is NOT okay with it.
He's telling you he's stressed.

 Quote: Alyssa Myracle

Growling is a sign he is NOT okay with it.
He's telling you he's stressed.

It's my understanding that dogs also growl playfully and while in prey drive. Either that or the corgis are seriously stressed out in some of the Leerburg videos.

Context context context.

Were the corgie's getting smacked on the sides?

How old is this dog?