Hi all,

I just adopted a 1.5 yrs old Corgi mix and she is a certifiable firecracker ... very high drive; very possessive of objects and absolutely will not "out" anything on her own. All in all, just a very cool dog to play with and train because it is so easy to put her in drive and once she is in drive, she will just work her heart out.

Now, the problem is I have another dog, a 11 months old GSD boy who has pretty low drive. I have been working with him for the past three months to build up his drive and confidence. He likes to tug and I have been letting him win every time we played. It's finally getting to the point where he thinks he's a tugging stud because now whenever he wins a tug, he will actually come back to me for more (instead of just running madly away like he just stole something from me).

Well, needless to say the Corgi girl does not agree with the training program and has been doing everything she can to show that she is better at tugging than he is. Of course I don't encourage tugging inside the house and I don't leave any training toy out but I guess, dogs being dogs, they always end up finding something to tug and whenever they tug, my 70lbs GSD always loses!

Now, I was wondering if this is going to hurt his confidence? Is he going to start losing interest in tug (my primary motivator for his training) because he loses all the time with the Corgi? ...

it will for sure cause a fight at some point, i would not allow these dogs out together, and especially unless EVERY SINGLE TOY is put up, period.

Obie the GSD is naturally submissive and will walk away from any kind of confrontation (big or small). He gets along incredibly well with all dogs because he is so easy going around them. Now what happens when they tug is Dottie, the Corgi, will start pulling really hard and whenever that happens, Obie will just let go on his end and let her have it.

Now, I don't care if Obie submits to Dottie in the doggie hierarchy (probably not a bad idea since he outweighs her by 55 pounds) but I would not want him to lose his intensity or drive when he is out playing with me. Can a dog be a submissive dog (in relation to other dogs in the house) and still be confident on the field and in his training?

I don't know if that makes any sense ...

Behavior which is tolerated/reinforced is taught. It makes sense that if the GSD automatically releases the tug to the corgi, this behavior will easily translate in other areas of training.

Also, just because Obie is naturally submissive and walks away from confrontation, this does not mean that the confrontation won't follow HIM. Even a small, agressive dog can do damage, whether physical or psychological. If the submissive dog feels threatened and constantly challenged by the agressive one, it seems possible this will effect his overall demeanor.

Thanks Mallory and Barbara for the advice.

I am going to pick up all the toys tonight and will start actively discourage any kind of tugging game between the two.

Now I just need to teach Dottie how to out the toy to me! The girl can grip

A couple of suggestions for teaching out:

-switch toys. Out one toy, get the next.
-release the toy immediately when it is brought back to you (as long as you're still playing fetch or whatever). I used to 'tease' Teagan with the toy but in terms of having her out she became a lot more compliant when she knew giving me the toy meant I'd throw it right away, rather than screwing around with it.

And I marked the outing behaviour and went from there.

Also, not having toys lying around will help with this process b/c you are teaching control of the toys, in more ways than one. JMO though