playing tuf og war with your dog

Crittercall said:

This is interesting. I was always told that playing tug of war with them was bad for them because of the physical reasons - injury to neck, teeth. I've seen some dogs that would hold onto something and let you pull them up into the air with it without letting go - which isn't a good idea. I don't think anyone ever put it in the context of who is in charge that I had heard until now.

But my dogs don't play, so what do I know?

The only "command" that Tibby and Sasha know is "Stop" - and Sasha learned it from Tibby. Evidently the person who had her before us had taught her that and I just happened to say it in a stern voice as she was running away from me (in the house) one day. We say "Stop" and they hit their bellies!

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Hey Donna,

Whether your dogs play or not, you know plenty :flwr: When i was a teen we had a Welsh terrier who would never give anything up and sometimes she'd grab hold of a tea towel and as you picked it up the dog would come too - she'd also jump up to the apple trees in the garden and swing from the branches :yikes Tbh though, I never trusted her as she could be very snappy and I wondered if this was why she would grab and not let go.

One of my old neighbours has a gorgeous Staffy who will also swing from trees and loves nothing better than a game of tug. In fact, her son rigged up a tugger into the garage wall for him and when he's bored he'll take himself off for a game of tug - he can never win unless he pulls the wall down :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I think in the case of neck & teeth damage, you'd have to be playing a very rough game. Thankfully, my two never get really rough & if I don't play tug with them them they'll play with each other :lol:

I think the not playing too rough is a bit of the Cavalier personality maybe? My daughter's doxie can be given a "squeek" toy and have the squeeker torn out in less than 30 seconds - obviously with supervision because they time him!

I saw a guy at the dog park playing a really rough game of tug of war with his pit bull....to the point that the dog's feet were off the ground. Not okay!! Ours is a gentle game and the dogs control the strength. I basically hold the toy while they do the pulling....and I release the toy when they start doing the shaking it bit. They "kill" it and drop it for me to throw and then the game starts all over. There is no aggressiveness in the game...other than the dogs' part in it. I don't growl with them and don't get them agitated.

Crittercall said:

I think the not playing too rough is a bit of the Cavalier personality maybe? My daughter's doxie can be given a "squeek" toy and have the squeeker torn out in less than 30 seconds - obviously with supervision because they time him!

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:yikes That's some little wrecker she has there - even Maxx takes longer than that to get the eyes out of a teddy :lol:

Cathy T said:

I saw a guy at the dog park playing a really rough game of tug of war with his pit bull....to the point that the dog's feet were off the ground. Not okay!! Ours is a gentle game and the dogs control the strength. I basically hold the toy while they do the pulling....and I release the toy when they start doing the shaking it bit. They "kill" it and drop it for me to throw and then the game starts all over. There is no aggressiveness in the game...other than the dogs' part in it. I don't growl with them and don't get them agitated.

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Sounds like our game Cathy but I think the difference between our lovely babies and terriers is vast anyway. Terriers have these fantastic jaw muscles and some breeds of terrier can actually lock their jaws around things too - it's the strongest part of their body!

I know when my old neighbour's Staffy went 'tree swinging' he would literally jump from branch to branch, gripping each one with his jaws. He used to have a great time and when he'd finished he'd just plop out of the tree again - this huge muscle pack of a dog however, used to run and hide behind his Mamma's legs when he saw Maxx coming towards him as he was scared of him :lol: :lol: :lol:

My Clumber Spaniel Hadley loves to play tug of war with other dogs. At our Dog Park she will march around with a tug toy and fling it in the face of other dogs trying to get them to take the other end. She is fairly discriminating, however, and avoids certain dogs and just approaches her "buddies." Buddy our Cavalier used to play with her when he was still a puppy - she would just stand her ground and let him pull and pull. After a while Buddy decided he did not want to play tug with her anymore and that he would rather chase balls, climb up and go down the slide or just sit and visit with people than wear himself out in the hopeless cause of winning tug of war against a 60 lb. dog.