I am beyond excited! A long, long while ago I had posted a question about whether or not I should buy the ME dvd, power of playing tug. I was using the power of food and wondering if tug was the next step.
Aries didn't have much of a drive to play tug and I explained that I suspected that it was my fault, from when I had taught him not to bite as a pup. As a result he has always been very gentle mouthed.

When I realized that I was missing out on some really "fun-looking" rewarding I tried fixing it using flirt, marking bites, anything I could think of. I had a breakthrough a couple of weeks ago when I had put him into his first (manipulated by me anyways), really high drive state. I was able to get him to play tug as a reward by alternating it with his ball.

I took it to the next step today by waiting for him to get antsy because I hadn't taken him out for his ball/tug training time. When I finally took him out back he turned into a raging tug monster! He was chasing me down and leaping and twisting. I have tooth cuts all over my hands! This from the dog who refuses to lay teeth on anyone!

So now it is time for me to get the dvd to learn how to play properly and teach him the rules before we go any further and he gets the wrong idea that play biting is invited.

Oh happy day!

The DVD will definatly help with the hand biting!! ME shows how to hold the tugs and how to pull away to prevent that!!

Quote

"I took it to the next step today by waiting for him to get antsy because I hadn't taken him out for his ball/tug training time".


When done properly, frustration can be an excellent drive builder.


Another excellent Ellis DVD in the same vein of training is 'ADVANCED CONCEPTS in IN MOTIVATION'.