In this short tip video, I go over how to decrease arousal over toys by only letting the dog have the toy when they are not over aroused. This video also goes over how to teach the dog the cues 'get it' and 'drop it'. You can use whatever verbal cues you like, some people will use 'take it' and 'out' as their cues.
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dog training obedience training working for a toy toy drive calmness around toys using a clicker to train a dog impulse control around toys tip of the day number two kikopup dogmantics help training your dog free videos and information problem behaviors
Tug is one of the best games to play with your dog and certainly one of our favorites too! 5* for a pawsome video.
Happy Clicking!
Ashley & Kaine
What is your definition of over aroused? Do you mean barking, jumping up on you and endless stare at the toy? I know that some trainers train their dogs to do this purposely because they want their dog to work harder for it. If we decreased the arousal over the toy could that also decrease the value and drive your dog has for the toy? I am very curious to hear your reply. Great video, by the way. =)
great tutorial!
this is also great because it teaches the dog to drop stuff out of their mouth, not just a toy, which is very useful when they pick up stuff you dont want them to have (like food they might find outside while you walk with them)
Wonderful as always! I like the idea of being able to wave the thing in front of them and the game is to only get it when you say!
Wonderful, Emily! Sparky is very much into tug toys lately, we’ve just learned this last week at a Superdog seminar. Thanks for the video!
Lizzy & Sparky
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Great video, Emily. Thank you for posting!
i would absolutely LOVE to see a video of you working a green dog on the “tease them with it, but they can’t get it until you say so. if they go for the toy, don’t let them get it” part!!! I’ve been working on this, but I have a horrible time being faster than my dog!
I believe that if you can first get impulse control, and calmness around reinforcers, you can THEN build the drive with reliability. Its really easy to get a dog aroused but its very hard to go back and teach them to not be aroused… A lot of agility fans will build drive first, because its pretty easy, then they sometimes end up with a super fast dog, but the dog also is reactive, attacks other dogs, spins, doesnt listen, jumps the ring….
This vid was more for the av. pet owner. I myself have created calm dogs, so I do a lot of games to actually build drive for toys and food. There’s nothing wrong with building drive, just keep an eye on- are my dogs eyes dilated, do they look stressed, are they able to follow cues? A tell tale sign is a dog that can’t look away from the toy to look at you, or they do it with hard unblinking eye contact,not soft. It’s sometimes hard to tell with certain dogs.
p.s. yes, at first the ‘drive’ for the toy will decrease, but you can rebuild it, editing out barking spinning and jumping etc. You could also have diff toys that have diff levels of arousal too.
Walk into the yard with a toy hidden, ignore Keen completely during the ‘mauling’ sit down, read a book (or sit up high if you will get mauled), when Keen gives up and goes and sniffs something, or lays down completely not thinking about anything exciting, that is when you can click or say ‘yes’ whip out the hidden toy, and toss it for him (not to excitedly mind you! Then leave if he gets too excited! 🙂
You also want to practice going to the back yard to do calm things like settle. you dont want him to think that you going through the door is the predictor of something exciting because he might be over aroused before you even get through the door.
Love your videos. Found your site by accident a few weeks ago & love your attitude to dogs. Keep posting as I appreciate the info & so do my 2 beautiful chi dogs
Thanks for this Emily. Good information. I have trouble with my pup getting him to drop the toy, I have occasionally used food but not the click. I’ll work hard on that now. Also he jumps up and grabs it so I now have a plan for that too. Loved seeing Kiko, I’ve missed your videos.
Oh it was a dog training seminar with the Superdogs, you may have heard of them, the perform all over Canada and in other countries too… The come to my city for a couple weeks every summer, and I had been talking with them about performing with Sparky, so they invited us to their first seminar, and now we’ve been accepted into their dog shows. Today was our first day, performing in front of about 5 thousand people… SO scary, yet amazing at the same time. 🙂
Thank you!
Ah no, it was not by Mary Ray, but I’m glad you do know of the Superdogs. Sparky was only there for two days to see how he could do with the lights and music and crowds, he did excellent. I was shocked that there were 8 thousand people watching each show! He’s slowing down now for the races and things, as he is getting older now, but they want Sparky back next year again as a freestyle dancer, so we’re going to keep working on that. 😉 It was a wonderful experience to be there. 🙂
Awesome! I worked on this with Claire (One of my Tzu’s) She has improved! She knows how to let go, Already! 😀
Thank-You!
Thanks for the “drop” tip! Kai lunges after the toy once she lets go, so I think the treat will slow her down 🙂
~~*Harper & Kai*~~
Decent video on introducing tug games to an untrained dog and a novice dog owner, but any well-trained dog will willingly give or drop no matter the state of “arousal”.
It helps to use a really high value reward in combination with the toy going ‘dead’. or held still. Start training with a less interesting toy and train your way up to more as he is successful.