So I've been working with McCaskey on this, but we haven't made any progress. I have consciously made sure not to animate myself and only the tug, but he is still off the wall and not targeting, not biting and just jumping towards me. Yesterday, I tried all of the tugs, including the firehouse that he seemed to prefer, and then the orbie ball on a string. He was really excited about that toy, but I couldn't get him to target the ball and he kept grabbing the string/rope. He got me on the hand pretty good; not a bite, but his open mouth smacked into my knuckles and it made a nice bruise. I tried posting him after that in a lightweight harness, but as soon as he was tethered he lost all interest in the toys. I tried to build drive by making the toys "run" with a leash, but he just stood there looking at me and he kept turning in circles and getting himself tangled, so I gave it up for the day.

And to add to my tug woes, Oxz has seemingly lost all interest in the toys. Up until a couple days ago she would tug with me if I offered a toy. She prefers the leather tug, but I haven't been able to get her interested in any of the toys (including the orbie on a string). My biggest tug problem with her before this was that I don't think I could provide a good enough game. She is so big that I couldn't hardly move her when she clamped down, and if I didn't change the game up quickly enough she would just lie down still clamped. She still loves to play, and she engages me and wants to run and tussle...she just doesn't seem to want to tug anymore.

If you were to throw the tug, could you hold your dogs back just enough to keep them from getting to it?

I tried throwing the tug for Oxz last night, she looked at it, but then came back to me to tussle-play. If I had tried to restrain her, she wouldn't have noticed. I also threw the orbie for her, and she did follow that (in a meandering sort of way), but she only sniffed it and trotted back to me for a different game.

Try putting the tug on a flirt pole. If the dog doesn't have a solid retrieve it will have no reason to bring it back when you toss it. It may not even have a desire to chase what you throw.

I don't mean try a retrieve. Just another way to try and frustrate and build some drive for the toy. Instead of posting him, you restrain him with one hand and then toss or kick the toy away a few times. Hopefully his drive will come up and you can let him snatch it and then play a little tug. If your strong enough and coordinated enough, you may be able to use the flirt pole to do it.

While your doing this kind of stuff, you'd probably be better off putting all the different toys away and just using the one he likes. Don't play anything else with him for a while. If he's got different choices, that may be enough to satisfy him and he'll never want to do this.