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Originally Posted by Dillydoodle
I also play tug with Dillon in the same manner as fluffypants and cardiguy. Dillon growls in play also , and the closer i get my face to his face the growl gets deeper and more fierce sounding, then i kiss his nose and he immediately drops his end. It is so cute! My word is "leave it". In the case of the tug game, if i say leave it, he drops his end immediately. this took time and work. I started out with treats in a treat bag when i asked him to leave it and he did he got a treat. I started by gently pulling the object out of his mouth ( ball, or toy) while saying leave it, he got the idea really fast. I started this when he was a small puppy so that he knew when i asked him to leave something he would. I also would routinely reach into his bowl while he was eating, sometimes i would life the whole bowl up, other times I would add kibble to the bowl as he was eating and he never once growled at me for doing this, he only looks sad and pathetic, sometimes he will eat faster to try to get as much as he can before the bowl is lifted. The other thing i do is ask him to leave a bone while he is chewing it. He will leave it on command anytime i ask for a bone, and if i put my hand out he will bring it to me and leave it in my hand ( as much as he doesnt want to give it up). The only time i have ever been growled at by him was as a youngster while he would be half asleep if you touched his butt with your foot he would growl and jump up. I worked on that and now he no longer does a serious growl towards any humans at all.
Emilie
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WOW EMILIE! Is it just Jackie and Dillon that are related, or are we too? I do the same nose kiss thing during our tug games!!!!
This is one of the things I started from Day One with Jackie (drop it / leave it). I also take her food away routinely, and she obediently sits and looks at me attentively until I tell her she can start eating again. She'd good that way, since we have been working on it so long. I never let her chew on / eat / play with anything without taking it away at least once, just to remind her that I can.
But it's never too late to start teaching your dog to exchange things with you. The point to get across is that, by giving it to you, they will get something better AND they will get the original object back. That last part is very important while training the behavior. They have to know that they will get the thing back, otherwise they may decide they don't want to trade, and would rather keep chewing on what they've got. If you train this consistently, they won't hesitate when you give them the command at a time when it really counts. Once they are releasing consistenly, you don't have to give the object back EVERY time. Make sure to keep practicing in the home with safe objects, to keep it fresh in their minds for the next time you might REALLY need it.