Tug Of War

[Aika]

Can you tell I'm a first time newfie parent and my newfie happens to be in the teenager stage? I'm the only one posting on this obedience thread!
I just figured out that Aika will drop anything (treat in hand of course) if I'm not taking it out of her mouth but the moment she thinks I'm going to touch or heaven forbid pull on something she has in her mouth than she tugs hard and does not let go no matter what I try. We have never played tug of war because when she was a baby she would do the same thing and even growl and try to nip. Now she's not growling or nipping but she holds on tight and when she tries to get a better grip she does not care if my hand is in the way. This goes hand in hand with her leash tugging during walks. Once she hold on to the leash, she does not let go no matter what I do. Even though she knows the drop it command.

 

[R Taft]

So I would make it tug of war with "take it" and "thank you".....Give her the tug and tug for amoments, best done in a quiet small area......Have a treat ready and lure her into giving it to you, "thank you".....Do this many timnes to the point where instead of luring you can reward by her giving you the Tugged item voluntarily.......I also click and treat during this period, but "Yessssssss" the instant she lets go is also OK (actually the instant she even slightly relaxes hewr mouth). Do it in a larger room, when you get a good result, go to a room with distraction and again when she is fine go out into an even larger area, until you can do it everywhere. Initially you are treating all the time, but if you also use another tug session as the occasional reward, it becomes a game. I now also use a tugging session as a reward. Again many of this can easlily be followed through by video on the Kikkopup page....she doesa l of this and has so many videos, which make it so easy to learn

 

[Aika]

So I would make it tug of war with "take it" and "thank you"

Thank you for the post. I've been trying this and we are getting there. She is always excellent at giving me the toy the first few times we play and than she gets super excited and into the game and refuses to give me the toy (even with a treat), but when she finally surrenders I take it away and stop the game. I'm probably doing something wrong because it seems to be taking her long to learn but I'll keep with it.