I finally stumbled on a treat the Marco loves. He actually started offering behaviors for the first time with this new treat. However, I want to start teaching him to out a toy when we play tug but the instant he knows the treats are there he no longer has any interest in playing. He just wants to offer behaviors for the treat.

if he doesn't want to play the way you want to play , then don't play .

structure your training so that the tug / out session is before and separate from the behaviours .

if he is good on the tug , how / why are you using the food ? isn't the tug the reward for the out ?

Marco is only 18 weeks old. This is my first time marker training a dog. I am trying to play tug lightly with him because he's teething but he loves doing it. Basically I'm trying to figure out how to teach him the out. I figured if we were tugging, if he lets go, I could mark, then reward with the treat, but as soon as he realizes there's a treat, he wants nothing to do with the toy anymore. He just starts offering downs and sits for more treats. Maybe I'm going about trying to teach the out wrong.

i know i'm starting to sound like an ellis evangelist here , but i'm just passing on what i learned .

first , if he is teething , lay off the tug until after he has finished changing his teeth , and be tentative after that . any possible benefit could be far offset by a bad experience . he demonstrated good enthusiasm for the tug before so you know he has the potential . substitute with chase and luring games using food during this time to keep that drive alive .

as for the out , michael teaches to completely immobilize the object . be patient , it could take a while . when the dog realizes there is no more fun to be had , he will release it . at that point , immediately re-engage him so that he realizes that releasing the object just starts the game up again .

i'm hoping more experienced trainers than i will chime in here with their lessons .

I have read here that I should be careful about tugging while he's teething. I have just kept it up because he brings two certain toys up to me clearly wanting to play tug. When he's tired of it he just lays down and chews. He's not extremely interested in chasing yet but I guess I'll have to stop the tugging for now and try to get him more interested in chasing. Maybe I can start working on him bringing the toy back to me. Sometimes I will toss the tug toy when he releases it and he always brings that back for more tug maybe I can transition that into a ball.

whatever you are doing with him , you should stop it before he gets tired of it and just lays down . end the sessions with him wanting more . 30 seconds of engaged , productive play is worth more in the long run than a drawn out session that ends when he is too beat to be 100% involved . repeating short sessions throughout the day reinforce the behaviours more effectively , and keeps marco looking forward to more .

the toys belong to you and they come out when you want to play , not him just randomly deciding that he is going to make you play with him .

it is supposed to be play and be fun , but it should have some kind of purpose and direction in these early stages while you establish the " rules " of the game , and you set the tone and the timing for that .

Sometimes I do end the sessions myself. When I say he gets tired I meant that he just decides that he doesn't want to do it anymore. Not that we do it until he's exhausted, but I get what you're saying. I should be the one to end it. I should start them, not let him bring the toy to me. I guess I knew that but I wasn't practicing it. Another lesson learned.

Of topic here but we brought him to our in-laws for fireworks tonight and it didn't bother him one bit. He just laid there with my wife while I lit off fireworks.

Kory; Ian alluded to something earlier that is the key to the whole thing... the tug should be the reward for outing; not a separate treat. One of the first things tugging games are used for is to introduce the tug as a reward instead of a treat, then to reward with the tug during long OB sessions later.

Also, as Ian said, toys should not be left out. You play when YOU decide, and as long as he chooses not to play, his opportunities to release his energy are limited to the games you want to play. That being said, if he's not finished teething, tug should not be encouraged. You can teach the retrieve with a ball and food treats, and not use the tug to transfer that behavior, while your waiting for his bite to toughen up.

When you do go back to tug, you want to reward with a bite/tug when he outs. You also want to let him "win" the tug occasionally, then bring it back to you to reengage. If he doesn't reengage, the game is over and he goes in the crate. Playing more tug is the motivation for teaching obedience while in prey drive.

Teach the out with back chaining and markers!
There are probably a ton of articles on this if you use the search function.

He is teaching with markers... the problem he stated is that food drive is interfering with prey drive, so he's leary of rewarding with food.
We teach the out by holding the tug calmly until the dog lets go, as Ian described per Ellis methods, then marking and rewarding with the tug (instead of food). This even worked on my GSD, who has a severely repressed prey drive; she will out and rebite once she's playing.
Backchaining can help if the dog doesn't want to return the tug, but the OP said that the pup will bring the tug back to reengage. With that level of drive and engagement, rewarding with another bite should work.

BTW; I WOULD NOT mark when the dog drops the toy!! He holds the tug until commanded to out. And add the command only after he learns he must out when you grasp the tug and hold it still for the out.