curious...

Hi all,

Maybe this is a daft question but are we encouraging bad behaviour by allowing Eric to shake his toys and growl etc while he's doing it?

Does this encourage aggression or is it perfectly normal for him to play that way?

You should hear some of the noises Rocky makes when playing with his tug toy So long as play is under control, you are able to take the toy away and give it back to resume play you should be OK

I agree with Kathy's post above. My Flo will Bark at me, growl at me and darn well cheat with her paws in a game of tug o war !!

There have been comments suggesting that letting the dog win every time isn't good either but I don't think that holds much weight either in my experience.

Thanks guys. We don't see it as an issue right now, however, getting him to drop his toy or any other object he's picked up is proving difficult.

He's fantastic with training, and again I'm not too worried that we haven't cracked the 'drop' command yet but I would be very appreciative of some tips on this please?

I teach 'leave it' by using something of higher value that the object the dog's got - usually a high value treat. I will give the dog a toy and have a short tuggy play, then ask 'leave it' while presenting the treat. The dog lets go of the toy and gets the treat. Do this until the dog starts to anticipate you, then you can ask for 'leave it' without showing the treat first but still giving it once he's dropped the toy. I then extend it to anything and everything.

It was very useful indeed when Chaos caught one of the chickens. Albeit reluctantly, he did drop her, intact and alive.

Harry thinks his name is 'Leave It'