"Pulling Game" worries

[Faith]

A good friend has recently taken on a lovely but excitable staffordshire bull terrier called Polly. Polly's absolute favourite thing is her tennis ball which she takes in her mouth and pushes into your open hand, inviting you to wrestle with her to try and take it off her.

This is great fun! But it worries me that while in mock battle mode, Polly won't do anything she's told. For example, there is no way of getting her to actually return the ball, except on the rare occasions my grip is stronger than Polly's. I worry she might pick up something dangerous and confuse efforts to get her to drop it with this game.

Am I worrying about nothing or is it worth doing something about this?

[Aidan]

Hi Faith, tug games are great for building control and self-control, they are also a fantastic reward in positive reinforcement training. Other benefits are that they can serve to reduce stress in a stressful training situation and provide fantastic exercise.

In other words - definitely a game worth playing IF played by the rules.

My favourite way of teaching tug is to use two toys. In Polly's case, two tennis balls. You start playing with the first ball, then magically make the second ball appear while letting go of the first.

Make the second ball "come alive", and wait for Polly to drop the first ball. Immediately praise and resume play with the second ball (watch fingers, safety first).

Repeat ad infinitum.

When Polly is reliably dropping the first ball, add the cue - "out" is commonly used, but I use "give".

Have fun!