I have a family dog Rottie who is intermittently very engaged in tugging with me and other times could not care less, and when she is engaged she doesn't have a high threshold for distractions. She however loves food and will work very hard and stay engaged, and she will play fetch and stay engaged. I want to work towards using tug as an obedience reward. I have a few ideas and i would love to hear other ideas or better ways i would implement these. I just got the new power of playing tug DVD with your dog from this website and I've just been working on they engagement work and not doing any "obedience" with the tug.

1. Get one of the treat filled tugs they sell at here. but are these used to teach a dog to tug for food or does it have the potential to build on the prey drive of a dog with low-medium drive.

2. Creating her for a few hours before a train with her seems to increase her drive for prey.

3. playing with her every time she is in a playful mood and try to make it as fun and exciting as possible.

4. accept the possibility that she doesn't have the genetic potential and just train with food.

any help or ideas would be very welcome

thanks in advance,
Rob Kirkwood

*crating not creating

Hi,

My experience is more on the channeling of nutso high drives side than building low drives; the second would be a much more difficult job for me<g>.

I can tell you tho, when you do play with her, quit before she's tired of the game, while she's still engaged and interested.

I assume you're picking up all the toys you use to play with her and keeping them up between sessions.

Crating time before activity...yes, that will increase her drive to play with you.

The more fun you can be and make it for her, the better.

In the end, you have to reward the dog with what the dog finds most rewarding. The more difficult the task, the higher-value the reward should be. What you are trying to do is build the value of the game of tug, and of the tug item. It's a worthwhile goal and you should keep trying. Meanwhile, if food treats work best for her, then use them, too.

Keep watching that ME video...perhaps more will become clear to you as you've had a chance to digest more of it.

leih

My Rott was the same way Robert. I don't remember what thread it was but Roni Hoff posted something that for me, fixed that. It had to do with the way you tug and get into a little bit of a rhythm. You tug with a little side to side motion, 1,2,3, let her have it and run in a circle. Then encourage her to come back to you with it to repeat it.

It becomes the engagement with you, not the tugging thats a reward to them. Look through the M.Ellis streaming vids here, he discusses it on one.

Oops, I missed that you have the dvd. The answer has to be there.

Edited by steve strom (01/14/2010 05:58 PM)
Edit reason: Missed something

Thanks a lot for everybody's help.

I have watched the whole dvd but i plan to watch it many more times, because i probably have missed some key info.

I do keep all toys in a closet when I'm not playing with the dogs and i try to quit before she is bored but sometimes it happens in an instant from really engaged to completely uninterested. If i do lose her while were playing is it best to put the toy away and try again later and if not how hard should i try to get her interested again?

She will fetch a tug toy and then when she comes back if I get very excited she will give me a decent grip and play with me but it's not very intense. should i keep doing this or is it counter productive in any way?


Thanks again for everybody's help,
Rob kirkwood

Just remember to quit while you're ahead<g>.

If you do a couple of rounds, just quit. Move on to something else she likes.

Perhaps if you notice how long before she loses interest one time, you quit before you reach that point the next time.

She's beautiful, BTW<g>.

leih

Thanks a lot i will keep at it.

That's my dobe he is one of the nutso dogs you were referring to he is in high drive at the drop of a hit and would probably play until his legs broke or he died of thirst... he is in a PPD program right now is doing really well. i'm working on getting a good updated picture of both of them to post.

Thanks again,
Rob Kirkwood

Posted a response to this last night and now I can't find it, lololo.
I would create prey drive thru the use of food. Michael Ellis teaches this by marking the behavior and instead of giving the dog the food he moves his hand away in a sweeping motion. Works beautifully. This way the dog will mimick the same movement when the drive is high enough to use the toy reward.
Remember thou, much easier to teach precision with food.
Happy Training,
Roni

Roni,

Thanks for the reply I have M.E Power of food DVD. It's great and it has really improved her engagement for food and with me in general.

She has tons of prey drive and can work with lots of gusto for fetch and for toys that make really poor obedience rewards. Though by using the proper tugging & presentation techniques I've been practicing from the new M.E tug DVD i have noticed a marked improvement in the intensity with which she chases and tugs the prey, maybe with a lot of practice i can make it fun enough for an obedience reward.

Thanks again for the help everyone

Rob Kirkwood

That is wonderful Robert. Please keep me posted.
Roni
PS Remember that precision is most easily taught with food.