A couple of decades ago, when positive reinforcement-based training was in its infancy, we were quite sensitive to criticism from the dog training community about this new โpermissiveโ style of dog training. When we began encouraging people to play tug with their dogs, conscious of the fear that it would cause aggression, we created a detailed set of rules for playing tug, including the caveat that the human had to always โwinโ the game by gaining possession of the tug toy. As the passage of time supported our contention that tug does not cause aggression, we have softened those rules considerably. Here are the simplified tug rules that I now play by:
- Dog needs to sit politely and wait for the invitation to tug. If he leaps and grabs for the toy before being invited to do so (I use the cue โTug!โ) โ I whisk the toy away and hide it behind my back. (In the language of behavior modification, this is called โnegative punishmentโ โ the dogโs behavior makes the good thing go away.
- When he remains sitting politely until invited to tug, we play. (This is โpositive reinforcementโ โ the dogโs behavior makes a good thing happen.)
- If dogโs teeth leave the toy and touch human skin or clothing, the game stops with an โOops!โ (no-reward marker) and the toy goes away (negative punishment). Just for a moment โ and then we can play again. (If he persistently mouths skin or clothing and/or mouthing escalates with tug play, thatโs another behavioral issue; I would stop playing tug until the mouthing is under better control.)
- Thatโs it! I donโt care who โwins.โ We can alternate! I really don’t care who initiates play; he can bring me the toy and ask me to play, or I can pick up the toy and start the game. Thereโs just one last really important rule: Go out and have some fun!
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